Nehad Ismail
Writing for Ammon News

There must be a clear distinction between Terrorism, resistance and war crimes.

When one talks about an act of terror perpetrated by Muslim extremists against soft targets in Iraq, Egypt or Europe, we hear lot of noises about Israeli terrorism against Palestinians and American terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. Are we correct in equating the two?

When civilians are blown to pieces in Iraq by Jihadis or insurgents, we hear the same voices defending this as resistance. How can you resist the occupier by killing ordinary people in a shopping mall or a restaurant?

This is a murky and a muddled picture. It is like mixing sugar with salt and adding pepper and what you end up with? A horribly tasting concoction, the sort that witches used to cook in the cauldron in the Middle Ages.

It is therefore vital that we distinguish between terrorism, resistance and military action by the State.

Terrorism
According to the UN definition: terrorism is any action resulting in the killing or maiming of civilians at the hands of individuals, fanatics, extremists and any such groupings for political, religious or ideological reasons. In other words killing innocent people to achieve a political end. Examples of these are witnessed daily in Iraq. Scores of innocent Iraqi civilians are massacred daily, not by Americans, but by Muslim fighters, suicide-bombers and Al-Qaeda operatives. In Algeria tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the last 15 years by Islamists because the government cancelled the results of the elections in the early 1990s. In other words a government takes a decision not acceptable to some people, so what they do? They proceed to kill innocent civilians to punish the government. Idiotic and insane? Yes most definitely.

The killing of Egyptian hotel workers in Sharm El-Sheikh and passengers on a train in Madrid and the blowing up of a wedding party at a hotel in Amman are all acts of terrorism pure and simple. No justification of any sort can be accepted in defence of such acts. Leaving the UN aside, would any of us condone the killing of women and children in the name of Jihad or Islam or even honour? In a British Court some terror suspects claimed that they were opposed to US and British policies in the Middle East. Great, so we go and kill tourists and civilians to punish America? What kind of logic is this?

Resistance
Resistance on the other hand is the targeting of the military machine of the occupying forces. Palestinian resistance against the Israeli army and security apparatus is not terrorism. But according to UN definition the targeting of civilians in cafés or cinemas is terrorism. In Iraq the targeting of the foreign occupying army is resistance. But the killing of school children on a bus, or the blowing up of mourners at funeral procession because they are Shiite or the random blowing up of a market busy with shoppers are all acts of terror and has nothing to do with resistance and must be condemned without reservation. No ifs, no buts. How can a suicide-bomber drive out an occupying army by blowing himself up at a wedding party? I like to know.

War Crimes:
When the Israeli army targets civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, it is committing war crimes against humanity. If a military force acting on behalf of the State kills civilians deliberately to achieve military or political objectives, it is committing war crimes according to International Law and the Geneva conventions. These atrocities must be documented and presented to the International Court of Justice or to the UN.

What is happening in Darfur Sudan are war crimes committed with the knowledge and approval of the State. This is why Omar Al-Bashir the Sudanese dictator is being pursued by the International Court.

We make a big mistake when we justify suicide-bombing in Iraq or in London just because Israel is killing Palestinians or America is killing Iraqis.
We must make a distinction between War Crimes, terror and resistance. Resistance is justified and legitimate but the first two are not and the perpetrators must be punished.

nehad ismail
Broadcaster/writer London