The 1979 Jonathan Institute conference branded Palestinians as terrorists with Islam barely mentioned

Evidence

Another avenue of cooperation between the neocons and Likud officials was the development of the notion of the “terrorist threat.” Richard Pipes, Podhoretz, and even the neocon idol Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson attended an important conference in Jerusalem on international terrorism in 1979. In addition to these figures, several Israeli politicians like Likud prime minister Menachem Begin, as well as the elder George Bush and high-level officials from European countries, were also in attendance. The conference, held in Jerusalem, was organized by the Jonathan Institute, then headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. In his opening remarks at the conference, Netanyahu’s father Benzion sought to project Israel’s enemies—Palestinians who had taken up armed struggle for self-determination—as “terrorists” and to rally the rest of the world around the struggle against “terrorism.” The terrorist, Benzion continued, “speaks of ‘humanitarian’ and national causes, he pretends to fight for ‘freedom’ against oppression, he keeps speaking of ‘legitimate rights.’” To counter this, he argued that this terrorist actually has “no moral restraints” and “respects no code of law.” Instead, he belongs in the same camp as the Nazis: “In his genocidal attitude he takes toward the societies he assails, whether it is Ireland, Lebanon, or Israel, he is an offshoot of Nazi philosophy.” This equation of Arabs and later Muslims with the Nazis has a long history in Israel. … One presenter at the conference argued that the PLO had served as an intermediary between Moscow and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in the plot to overthrow the US-backed Shah. At this stage, the emphasis was on the PLO and the conflation of Arabs with terrorism. “Islamic terrorism” was barely referenced, and overall, Islam was marginal to this conference. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 453

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The 1979 Jerusalem conference reframed Palestinian armed resistance as terrorism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 453; Israeli-organized conferences shaped the racialized terrorism narrative; Israeli anti-terrorism conferences framed Palestinian resistance as Nazi-like terrorism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 395 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The 1979 Jerusalem conference reframed Palestinian armed resistance as terrorism #corroborates (1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 453
• Israeli-organized conferences shaped the racialized terrorism narrative #expands (0.92)
• Israeli anti-terrorism conferences framed Palestinian resistance as Nazi-like terrorism #qualifies (0.78) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 395
• Religion stayed marginal in mainstream Palestinian nationalism for four decades #corroborates (0.75) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 2413