The Palestinian terrorist trope preceded and enabled the Muslim terrorist trope.

Evidence

This conference was a response to various resolutions that were passed by the UN General Assembly that legitimated the use of armed struggle in ending colonialism and that validated Palestinian self-determination. Benjamin Netanyahu thus characterized the UN as being “incapable” of dealing with terrorism. For Netanyahu the UN’s “legitimation of terror groups” was an “intolerable spectacle” that necessitated the 1979 conference. 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, 454 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Arab terrorist figure predates and evolves into the Islamic terrorist. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 97; Perfidy toward Muslims was already a shared polemical trope — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2209; The War on Terror fused the concepts of Muslim and terrorist. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 935 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Anti-Arab terrorism framing preceded and prepared anti-Islamic framing #corroborates (0.97) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 454