Who is a terrorist?

What does the word terrorist even mean? Since the U.S.'s War of Terror starting from 9/11, it has become a catchall term for the all-evil, nefarious non-human that's out for the blood of the people but no uniform description exists of this person, except of the vague fear they're supposed to create. When a criminal's to be killed there has to be prosecutions and judgements but when there's terrorists to be killed there are executions and neutralization. By labeling a combatant as a terrorist, any humanity conferred to them is stripped and this dehumanized self is open for the brutalities of the savior complex, where bodies are desecrated without guilt.

This is for whole world to witness with what's happening in Gaza/West Bank/Lebanon, where Israeli forces are mowing down people under the guise of them being terrorists without any due process. These executions and calling entire groups of people as terrorists only furthers their dehumanization. There's no denial that there's violent resistance to Israel's violent expansionism but normalizing people being killed by the hundreds without giving them a name or face cheapens human life, not only in territories Israel's invading but also elsewhere on the planet.

We've been trained by the media relentlessly post 9/11 that terrorists are undesirable of our empathy and seeking glee in their extermination but it doesn't change the fact that they're a class of political criminal and are just as human as anyone else. Any form of reducing the value of humanity can and shall be used against masses of us when the time's right and nearly after a quarter of century of maligning the terrorists we need to find a way to humanely deal with the problems of violence, as hate begets more hate and giving room for dehumanization gives a broader leeway to exterminate larger groups of people.

#violence #politics