(The technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counter accusation or raising a different issue)

Speech, words and languages, that’s how we, the human species, communicate with each other. It is fundamental in any functioning progressive society and comes with responsibility and accountability, especially so in the arena of, and amidst a genocide. Words shape our thoughts, beliefs and reality by creating images in our minds, influencing profoundly our mood and even our health. Words shape our relationships, shape our views on a multitude of topics. Words can be tools of persuasion building trust, inspiring change. Words can also be dishonest, misdirection, causing harm not only to oneself but to society too. Most importantly, and sadly so often now, words are being used to fool whole populations to justify horrendous acts in a bid to fool the entire world.

Words are powerful.

Al Shifa Gaza 2024, one of the first hospitals to be bombed. The cowardly indiscriminate attack, the murder of patients, nurses, doctors and other medical staff. The killing of families visiting their already badly injured family members, loved ones, murdered by the Israeli army. Surely, this barbaric act would be too much for the sane world to bear, this will not be tolerated, the oppression of a truly brave people that the world, we, us, have ignored for too long, now, after decades and after the loss of so much innocent life, it will now have to be addressed.

Political Naivety.

The doctors, nurses, women and children, and yes, even the men, fathers, brothers, husbands and uncles, the ones that are never mentioned, all murdered in an act of utter hatred all reported to us, using words such ‘terrorists’, ‘collateral damage’ by the news channels we watch, the radio stations we listen to, the papers and reports we read, they all fall into line, singing from the same hymn sheet.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) assessment in April 2024 described the bombed hospital as ‘an empty shell with human graves. UN experts and humanitarian organisations like the BMA (British Medical Association) condemned the attacks, a violation of international humanitarian law by targeting medical facilities.

Subsequently 34 of the 36 hospitals in Gaza have now been destroyed with the remaining 2 hospitals barely functioning.

‘Palestinian prisoners – Israeli Hostages’

A Palestinian child snatched off the street in the West Bank / Gaza for no reason whatsoever, their crime, they are Palestinian, this is as close to the definition of a hostage one can expect.

Words are being used to dehumanise a people, the first act of ethnic cleansing. The language being used by the Israeli government and passed on to the Western media is designed from the outset to evoke fear, disgust and create a sense of moral superiority over the Palestinian people. Using such language is specific, considered speech, showing that the Palestinian people are viewed as inanimate objects, a collective without feelings. Words such as ‘collateral damage’, ‘death toll’, ‘body count’ all used to hide the reality of their demise, by bullets and bombs. The Palestinian people are denied personal identity, denied names, denied life context. The goal for Israel is to create a psychological and moral distance between themselves and the Palestinians, the people they occupy and oppress.

By creating this type of language in the media in reference to the Israeli occupation it makes it easier to justify the oppression of a people, to justify abuse, violence, torture, to the point where Palestinians are no longer viewed as deserving of empathy and basic human rights. They are simply viewed as ‘Goyim’- (The Hebrew word often used by Jewish people meaning a non-Jew or gentile and carries derogatory tone).

IDF- Israeli Defence Force – Hamas Terror Group

Defence of stolen, occupied land using force (force- coercion or compulsion especially with the use of, or threat of force- Oxford English Dictionary definition). The self-proclaimed world’s most moral army embroiled in an occupation of a people by force and torture for over 67 years.

In contrast, the resistance to an occupying force is labelled terrorism. The United Nations Security Council has not designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Countries like Russia and Turkey maintain diplomatic relations with its leaders.

Palestinian people are being deliberately stripped of every avenue of resistance, physically as well as morally, be it peaceful resistance or other. The BDS (The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement which works to end international support for Israel’s expansive plans and illegal occupation of Palestinian land through purely peaceful means is labelled as ‘antisemitic’. Peaceful protests attended by all parts of society, including Jewish, against an unfolding genocide which is taking place in front of the eyes of the world are reported as ‘hate marches’. International law ridiculed, international courts are branded ‘illegitimate’. UN based human rights organisations are now accused of ‘dishonesty’ and ‘corruption’. We have reached the point of total insanity, where even the so-called ceasefire is mere rhetoric and diversion. Since October 10, 2025, the start of the ceasefire over 600 Palestinians have been killed. ‘You cease, we fire’ is more of an accurate description.

When Israel kills, it is a ‘complex situation’, when Palestinians resist it is ‘Islamic terrorism’. Watch the pattern, it’s a switch of words designed to switch off your empathy towards the Palestinians.

It is vital like never before that awareness around such word play be recognised for what it really is, misdirection, an attempt to garner not only legitimacy for, but a moral duty even to allow a destruction and removal of a people from their land. The normalisation of a genocide and a decades long military occupation, when mass slaughter of children and journalists, bombing of hospitals and universities and starving people is being justified to the world, then there are no norms left to protect. Until we can see the deep issues of a system that allows all this, a system that always has enough money for war, until we can see the connection of how the brutality that they are trying to normalise outside our borders will soon enough come back home to us. A political and media class that aids and supports horrific violence against innocents across the world, will not hesitate to turn it against their own. This is the point at which we are at.

‘Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.’ – George Orwell