This is a thought experiment. Just imagine that it was Israel in desperate need of humanitarian aid – perhaps in the wake of an earthquake or whatever. Imagine further that a broad, well publicized effort involving citizens of dozens of countries had assembled a flotilla to carry humanitarian aid to the beleaguered nation.
Now try to imagine that Hamas – the elected government of Gaza – had long been blocking humanitarian aid to Israel and was determined to keep the flotilla from reaching Israel. Suppose that Hamas had the military wherewithal – which of course it doesn’t – to hijack that flotilla miles out to sea in international water.
Suppose that armed Hamas commandos, descending from helicopters in the night, swarmed all over the flotilla. And, that as it did so those commandos repeatedly shot a U.S. citizen in the head and murdered eight others.
The International Maritime Bureau (a division of the International Chamber of Commerce) defines piracy as “the act of boarding any vessel with an intent to commit theft or any other crime, and with an intent or capacity to use force in furtherance of that act.”
The U.S. State Department defines terrorism as the use of violence or the threat of violence on civilians for political purposes.
Our imagined – and very far-fetched scenario – fits both those definitions. Yet many commentators seem to go out of their way to avoid describing the recent attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla in international waters as piracy.
Nor do these commentators use the T-word – so readily invoked at every other opportunity. Can it be that we only use terrorism or terrorist to refer to actions by people of color or by those who resist U.S. and Israeli invasions and occupations?
Can it be that this crass double standard makes our minds such mush that we are no longer capable of seeing straight?
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