20, October
2014 Response to NYT oped RE: use
of the loaded word ‘TERRORISM’
Tomis Kapitan offers a very thoughful analysis of the highly charged
use of the word ‘terrorism’. Most of the indigenous peoples of the word who
resisted oppression and colonial domination were described as terrorists. I was
nearly inducted into the British army in the 1950’s when the Brits were
fighting the Mau Mau – a rebellious group of ‘terrorists’ fighting their
British colonial masters. Fortunately I just escaped the draft but was always
conflicted which side I would have supported.
I recently saw a short documentary film during the UNAFF 2014 Film
Festival which exposed the most brutal treatment of East Africans by the
British. Filmed over three years, the film traces the story of a group of
elderly Kenyans in the legal battle to hold the British
government fully accountable for the horrific torture they had to endure (many
men were castrated and women mutilated). What I found truly amazing was
the willingness of the surviving elders to forgive
their oppressors. The British government maintained a tight lid on its
dark history under the draconian Official Secrets Act. Recently some of the
documents came to light under the Freedom of Information Act, which validated
the litigants’ claims in great detail. The British government used every legal
tactic hoping that the elderly Kenyans would fade away through attrition.
Netanyahu’s tactics demonizing Hamas as a terrorist group is the same tired
approach of foreclosing any meaningful negotiations with the Palestinians.
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