Talk:Palestinian political violence

This strikes me as a not-very-NPOV article title. --Robert Merkel

There has been a good deal of discussion on wikipedia about the use of the word "terrorism" and why we should avoid it. Specifically, one mans terrorist is anothers freedom fighter. I suggest the info in this article be rolled into another, such as Arab-Israeli conflict. After ALOT of work is done to make this info NPOV. This article is going on my watch list.--maveric149

Blowing up a Sbarro's pizza parlor makes one a freedom fighter? Running into a banquet hall and machine-gunning everyone in sight makes one a freedom fighter? Shooting a wheelchair bound Leon Klinghoffer, and then dumping his body overboard, makes one a freedom fighter? It seems to me that the entire world has agreed that such actions never make one a freedom fighter, and always mark one as a terrorist. Except, of course, if one decides to mass-murder Jews. In that case only, the dictionary is rewritten to make such criminal potential "freedom fighters". Are you prepared to defend this line of thinking for everyone, or just for Arab terrorist groups. If it is genuinelly true that there is no legitimate use of the word terrorism, and that no action can be labeled as "terrorist", then all of Wikipedia's entries on Hitler, the Nazis and World War II are huge violations of NPOV, because they don't give equal time and stature to describing why the Nazis may legitimately be viewed as heroic freedom fighters, and because Wikipedia fails to explain why the Jews may well be evil sub-humans that deserve to be exterminated. (This, by the way, is precisely what the PLO, Hamas and the Neo-Nazis are hoping Americans will do.) Let us not forget that many of the current Palestinian terrorist organizations literally use the same anti-Semitic tracts that the Nazis themselves used to incute violence against Jews. Why was it anti-Semitic incitement for the Nazis to do this, but "freedom fighting" when the precise same thing is attempted by people of Arab descent? RK

maveric, I agree that information on Palestinian terrorism should be rolled into a wider article on the conflict. Listing these things, without the context of what else is going on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is likely to be inherently misleading, IMHO. --Robert Merkel

Hmmm, I wonder what's so NPOV about this, after all the violence committed by various fighters for the "Palestinian cause" is quite unique and distinct. Note that I'm talking here about deliberately killing innocent civilians, which does fall under the definition of terrorism. One could, of course, devise a page about Israeli terrorism, but I don't think it'd be as impressive. --Uriyan

I agree that the terrorism committed by Palestinian groups against Jews and Christians should be put in context. We also have to show how Hamas, Hizbollah, Fatah, Iran, and the PLO are all linked, and all work together. Or are you proposing that we give Fatah an qual opportunity to explain why it is right and just to go into a pizza parlor and mass murder children? Would that satisfy your understanding of NPOV? RK

Well, "Palestinains" fits well enough Fatah, Hamas and PLO. While getting Hizbollah and Iran as well could be nice, but they do a different sort of things (seldom direct attacks on civilians). As far as I'm concerned, I'm all for giving Fatah its opportunity of explaining its profound right to slaughter Israeli civilians - it will look appropriate under this title. --Uriyan