Over the weekend, at least 82 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Jabaliya refugee camp, including multiple United Nations schools sheltering Palestinians. At least 85 incidents of Israeli bombing have impacted 67 facilities run by the United Nations relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in the last two months. We speak with Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for UNRWA, about the organization sheltering close to a million Palestinians from Israel’s assault, which has killed 104 of her colleagues since the beginning of the war — the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations. Alrifai says her agency is only getting half of the fuel they need to serve people in Gaza, being forced to choose between clean water, food and transport. “If UNRWA ceases to exist tomorrow, then there is a huge layer of stabilizing and stability that UNRWA usually offers in a very, very volatile area that also collapses.”
I just want to point out that amidst all the death and destruction, you’re problem is how people are using a word. What can be more bad faith than ignoring the reality and fighting over the signifier?
Words are not reality; you cannot drive home in the word “car”.
Words explain ideas, improper definitions lead to miscommunications. Words matter and changing definitions has always been a sign of an attempt to smuggle ideas in.
“Genocide” used to mean a concerted attempt to actively exterminate a group of people based on their race. Now it just means “anything that disrupts local culture.” It’s like watering down the word “murder” to mean “physical assault.” It’s not that assaulting people is ok, it’s that it’s not murder.
“Words don’t matter” is some of the most smooth brain bullshit I’ve ever seen, as if our entire conceptualization of ideas isn’t rooted in what words we use to define them.