disablement

Disablement refers to the practices of deliberate attacks by Israel in Palestine designed to cause mass bodily harm and injuries, as well as the destruction of health infrastructures such as hospitals, denial of adequate medical relief, and intentional disruption of health care supplies.

Source: L. Obermaier

genocide

The legal definition of genocide, according to the United Nations, means any of the following acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” including killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and/or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Note, however, the colonial limitations of this UN definition, as evidenced by the inability of international law to stop the genocide that has been unfolding in Gaza since Oct. 2023. As Noura Erakat points out, “The final draft of the Genocide Convention removed colonial violence from its scope and represented a Eurocentric humanity. The inability to stem genocide today illuminates that there is no international law but law for Europe and a law for all others.”

Sources: UN; Mondoweiss; Hanin Ibrahim

hasbara

Hasbara, translated from Hebrew as “explaining,” is a communication strategy used by the Israeli state to use information to reinforce state narratives and control discourse, specifically around conflict. Critics of hasbara associate it with “state-sponsored propaganda, agitprop, and information warfare.” Hasbara is a coordinated and deliberate distribution of biased information intended to influence public perceptions through media. Since Oct. 2023, hasbara has been a critical strategy taken up by Israel and its enablers to influence public perception and manufacture consent for the ongoing genocide.

Sources: Jewish Voice for Labour; Electronic Intifada

right of return

The “right of return” is a human right and internationally acknowledged (if not always applied) legal right for people to return to their country of origin, particularly with regard to refugees and their descendants’ displacement from their homelands. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 194 calling for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes from which they were forced out by Israel. Israel continues to dispute this right as it seeks to maintain its genocidal and expansionist settler colonial project. The UN resolution guarantees this right to individuals only; however, for Palestinians, the right of return is collective. The basic fundamentals of Palestinian collective rights are known as Thawabit, “constants,” and include the rights of return, resistance and self-determination.

Sources: UNRWA; IMEU; Electronic Intifada