The dictionary of Palestinian Liberation
More than 26 terms related to Palestine explained.
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It occurred to me recently that if you are just getting around to trying to wrap your head around the genocide in Palestine, you may come across words you can’t make sense of, or terms that feel conflicting or confusing.
I hope to provide a short and clear lexicon of terms on this page. This lexicon was written in an essay-style rather than a purely dictionary style as some context is still needed to understand why we use the words we do in regards to Palestinian liberation and, hopefully, convince you to use them also if that’s not already the case.
I may be updating this dictionary in time according to feedback. I have also provided a simpler glossary of terms at the end of the page.
Palestine is occupied
When it comes to decolonization theory (the body of theory that explains how to achieve decolonization, which is undoing both the damages and the act of prior colonization), there’s not much leeway in how to interpret Palestine. We entirely reject the right to exist of ‘Israel’ and consider it to be entirely occupying Palestine as an oppressive power.
Why do we put the term ‘Israel’ in quotes? Well, that is because we don’t recognize it as a state but simply as a glorified military base
To call it the State of Israel, or simply Israel, would be to legitimize it. To recognize that it is a state implies that it is something more than an occupying power, and that it deserves to exist and be recognized by the international community, having diplomatic ties, commercial ties, etc.
Occupation can mean different things. There is, in international law (law ratified at the United Nations), an Occupation Law. At various times, the UN has voted and reaffirmed that this law now applies to Palestine as the occupied territory, and ‘Israel’ as the occupying power. This is a law derived from the Geneva Conventions.
However, we feel the law does not go far enough. While the UN recognizes that Palestine is occupied under this law, it does not extend to the entirety of historical Palestinian territory, but only to the 1947 borders that the UN also voted for.
We go a step further, and claim that ‘Israel’ is a settler-colonial project (not a state), and as such only recognize Palestine as being a sovereign state.
Thus, we recognize that the whole of Palestine is occupied, and not only the parts ‘Israel’ took from the UN partition plan.
There is this difference between how we proponents of decolonization and the UN use the terms “occupation” in reference to Palestine.
I used the term settler-colonial project just earlier. There is a lot of material that exists on this, so forgive me for keeping it short. You are probably familiar with colonialism already: the policy of exploiting a local populace for the benefit of the colonial power; the ‘British Raj’, for example, was a colony: the local population was abjectly exploited in conjunction with local lords, all for the benefit of bringing the value of their labor (and the resources thus produced) back to Britain. In this model, there might be a slight settler presence, but they usually constitute administrators and colonial guards who ensure that the extraction process goes on unimpeded. You can see it as mainly an economic relationship (if, of course, a forced and violent one).
Settler-colonialism is different in that in this model, settlers move to the colony permanently to take the place of the native or occupying population. Thus, they become the laboring class in the colony, with the pre-existing populace usually being turned into slavery and eventually being completely driven out, either through forced migration or genocide. The United States, for example, is a settler-colonial project: the vast Indigenous nations were forcibly moved and exterminated over the course of centuries to make way for settlers, many of which eventually came from elsewhere than Britain. We see then that the displacing populace is not necessarily coming from the colonial master, and the displaced populace is not necessarily a monolith, and does not even need to be native to the area. It simply needs to be driven out.
The point of settler-colonialism is to seize land, and it is mainly a social relationship.
In that context, you might also see ‘Israelis’ referred to as settlers. The distinction between who is a settler and who is not will depend on who you are talking to; it’s not safe to assume that everyone considers all ‘Israelis’ to be settlers. For example, the UN only considers settlers to be those who settle in the West Bank (and before that, when it was occupied, Gaza) — owing again to the 1947 borders.
We see ‘Israel’ as the latter model, a settler-colonial project. I won’t delve into why that is the case here, but I invite you to read this essay which provides more details into how ‘Israel’ was created.
This is why we don’t want to legitimize the zionist entity in any way by calling it a state, which implies that it is recognized as being a legitimate sovereign and governing body. We might also call it the occupying power.
Zionists, Judaism, ‘Israelis’
It is important to understand how different words, while they might seem like synonyms, actually convey different concepts and ideas.
Judaism is the Abrahamic religion. In decolonization theory, we hold that Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism, is so far removed from it that it might as well be completely alien to it. Hence, we never conflate “Jews”, which would imply all Jews, with Zionists and ‘Israelis’. Anyone who does so can usually safely be considered to be an antisemite.
Zionism is the ideology driving colonization in Palestine. Mind you, for a time, other places (such as East Africa) were considered for settling by zionists, before the opportunity in Palestine was offered to zionists. Theodor Herzl, the father of zionism, was himself an atheist and made no excuses that zionism was a settler-colonial endeavor.
Zionism is a bit wider than specifically ‘Israelis’ and encompasses more people, including those who do not live or have never lived in ‘Israel’. Most zionists are actually Christian! Fundamentalist Christians are very big on zionism as they see it as bringing the second coming of Christ, and could not become citizens in ‘Israel’. Likewise, not all Jews are zionists, and many are vocally anti-zionist.
When we say ‘Israel’, or the occupation power etc, we mean the governing body as well as the geographical borders that usually exclude the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, limiting it to the territories ‘Israel’ currently occupies and governs directly.
The two words (zionists and ‘israelis’) are often conflated though, which can be confusing, but ideally should be used separately with this difference in mind.
We might also use the terms zionist regime, zionist entity (as explained earlier), or zionist-occupied Palestine, which serves two purposes:
It helps not use the same words over and over again when talking about ‘Israel’, without also naming it directly.
It also reinforces that the occupation of Palestine is zionist in nature, and not Judaic or Jewish; it has nothing to do with Jews and all to do with zionists specifically.
With that said, some people deliberately play on the confusion about zionism to peddle antisemitic conspiracy theories. One such term is zionist-occupied government, (ZOG) not to be confused with zionist-occupied Palestine, which claims that the United States government (and not Palestine’s) is “occupied” by “zionists” (Jews).
It is the other way around: ‘Israel’ was set up as a glorified military base for US and European Union interests in the region of West Asia, which is a very strategic and valuable region. Imperialism in West Asia is not new; it was after all the British who broke up the Ottoman Empire and gave us this mess in Palestine. They also worked, in the 1920s, to put the al-Saud family at the head of Saudi Arabia, who has become a very crucial trading partner for the US/EU and cooperates gladly with assisting ‘Israel’.
Decolonization theory leads us to see that Palestine is occupied by a zionist power — ‘Israel’ proudly claims these affiliations to zionism — and that this power misuses Judaism for what is at heart a settler-colonial project. Zionism does not represent Jews whatsoever; to claim the contrary, which is what zionists believe (that all Jews must be zionist regardless of what they might feel about it), would be to claim that Jews are naturally attracted to committing genocide and colonialism, which is deeply antisemitic!
We sometimes talk about occupied Palestine when referring to the historical borders of Palestine. As I said, this can be unclear depending on who speaks as they could be referring to the 1947 partition plan, or the entirety of what is now ‘Israel’ plus Gaza and the West Bank depending on what they believe.
Important note: I specify historical Palestine because the current borders of ‘Israel’ + West Bank + Gaza do not correspond to the historical borders of Palestine, due to the fact that ‘Israel’ is currently occupying the Golan Heights that belong to Syria, as well as parts of the Sinai desert which belong to Egypt.
Likewise, we don’t consider the “IDF” (the ‘Israeli’ Defense Forces, officially) to be doing anything related to defense. It is — and there is an argument that this is in line with Occupation Law — often referred to as the IOF, the ‘Israeli’ Occupation Forces.
Geography and demographics
You might only know the ‘Israeli’ names for the cities of Palestine. However, since October 7, you’ve probably heard of several Arabic names — al-Aqsa, Jenin, etc.
In many cases, these cities have several names: Palestine after all is an important region to all three major religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism). As such, the historical cities in Palestine get many names in many different languages. We will only be translating the occupation name to the Palestinian names.
I will transcribe the map above and provide some additional names, as cities in the West Bank do not appear on this map but have also been renamed by the occupation power in preparation for their settling of it.
We have, on the map (Arabic name followed by occupation name):
Al-Khalisa instead of Kiryat Shmona,
Akka instead of Akko,
Al-Birwa instead of Ahilud,
Umm Khalid instead of Netanya,
Yaffa or Jaffa instead of Tel-Aviv,
Al-Lydd instead of Lod,
al-Quds instead of Jerusalem,
Zakaria instead of Zekharia,
Askalan instead of Ashkelon,
Beer al-Sabe instead of Beer sheva,
Umm al-Rashrash instead of Eilat,
and finally al-Khalil instead of Hebron (which does not appear on the map above).
Many of these cities predate even Christianity, and were founded by the Romans or even older populations such as the Canaanites or (Ancient) Egyptians. As such, using the name Jerusalem for example is not necessarily legitimizing the occupation, as the name, while being Biblical, far predates the zionist entity. Other cities however, such as ‘Tel-Aviv’, were renamed by the occupation and the Palestinian name should be used.
Places and demographics
In terms of places, you might have heard of al-Aqsa mosque. This mosque is located in al-Quds, also known as Jerusalem. It is known as the Temple Mount to the Occupation, referring to the Judaic faith. We don’t aim to explain the distinction and history of this site that is important to all three Abrahamic religions, but suffice to say, you might have come across both names before: they refer to the same place.
Gaza usually refers to the Gaza Strip. There are a few cities in Gaza, including Gaza City, but the latter is usually referred to by this name. When someone says only Gaza, they usually mean the entire Strip.
The scission between Gaza and the West Bank happened like this: after the Nakba in 1948, when ‘Israel’ annexed Palestinian territory, Palestinians were given the choice to either move to Gaza, or “integrate” into ‘Israel’. The cities inside Gaza predate the partition and are historical cities, but the displacement of refugees to the Strip grew the cities.
The West Bank was never fully annexed, and settlers sometimes show up there in some neighborhoods (usually in groups) to seize homes from their Palestinian owners — often ancestral homes — and live them, thereby displacing the rightful owners and making them refugees in their own country.
It is not a process that can happen easily because Palestinians, despite not enjoying legal or even police protection (The IOF often shows up armed at these events to protect the settlers) outnumber ‘Israelis’ by a certain margin.
There is also a predominantly Palestinian area east of Jerusalem, which is technically under authority of the West Bank.
Those that integrated became second-class citizens in ‘Israel’. They are segregated — much like in Jim Crow USA and Apartheid South Africa — from full ‘Israelis’. They are often called “Arab Israelis” by the occupation. This is something zionists do as they deny that Palestinian is an identity or a nation; it is one of the many ways they dehumanize the people they occupy and displace.
Calling them ‘Arab Israelis’ over simply Palestinians (or even Palestinian ‘Israelis’) implies that Palestinian is not an identity, and it is a widely-held belief in ‘Israel’ that Palestinians are simply Egytpian or Jordanian. This gives them a claim to the land, in the way that according to ‘Israelis’, Palestinians could simply move back to their own country and have no more right to claim Palestine than ‘Israelis’.
Segregation happens in various ways depending on the location. In the West Bank, where settlers have cordoned off entire neighborhoods, Palestinians are not allowed to use certain roads — and must sometimes board up their front doors because they exit on such a segregated road. The inhabitants of the home are then forced to exit their home other ways, for example through the back windows.
There is a wall of separation running along the West Bank and the occupied territory that sometimes runs through a road, cutting it in half. One half is for Palestinians, and the other is for settlers.
In Jerusalem/al-Quds and other occupied cities, Palestinians are not allowed to board the same busses as settlers.
Palestinian history terms
There are two terms that come up often, which often get maligned in the media and the collective consciousness: Intifada and Nakba.
Intifada simply means, in Arabic, the uprising, as in shaking off something by rising up. In the Palestinian context, there have been two intifadas which were huge popular uprisings, involving more than the resistance groups and extending to the civilian population over several years.
Nakba means catastrophe in Arabic. It refers mainly to the events that transpired in 1948, leading to the forcible exodus of Palestinians from their homeland (and established the Gaza strip as a refugee camp). We won’t go into a history lesson here, but to explain it briefly, massacres and war crimes were committed by the occupation to forcibly displace and exterminate Palestinians from their land so that it could be annexed and settled. You might see the term being used to describe what is happening today in Gaza. The term Nakba, while it is an everyday word in Arabic, does help describe what transpired in 1948 and give it legitimacy and an order of scale and comparison.
Occupation terms
The occupation also uses terms to try and legitimize themselves.
Modern Hebrew, for example, was revived as a language by the occupation. It is a conlang, or constructed language; Ancient Hebrew existed and was spoken in Ancient times, but there is no direct continuity, no native speakers, between it and Modern Hebrew.
You might see the term hasbara a lot. In Modern Hebrew, it simply means ‘explaining’. Despite its original name, it is used by the occupation government to mean propagandize. Hasbara essentially means “to explain [our version of events]”. ‘Israel’ employs soldiers to do hasbara online, and as such the term specifically applies to coordinated government-level (or sometimes private-level) efforts to spread propaganda for the occupation regime.
Resistance groups in Gaza and the West Bank
There are many Palestinian resistance groups operating today, as well as in the past.
The big one used to be the PLO, or Palestinian Liberation Organization. It was the original resistance organization, but its constituents eventually broke up and the PLO became mostly associated with Fatah.
Fatah is the current ruling party in the West Bank, and is headed by Mahmoud Abbas. We don’t aim to explain Palestinian politics in this dictionary, but need to clarify some context surrounding Gaza and the West Bank.
Because of the split that happened between Gaza and the West Bank, the two don’t see eye to eye. Hamas is the political party currently elected in Gaza, while Fatah was elected in the West Bank. Secondly, the party ruling the West Bank is considered to be the Palestinian Authority, a collaborationist title created to facilitate the occupation. The authority is nominally recognized at the UN but participates as an observer, meaning they have no powers at the UN, but may sit on meetings. Meanwhile, Hamas in Gaza is not recognized as the legitimate governing party of Gaza, which the UN believes is rightfully Fatah due to this ‘Palestinian authority’ status.
Generally, when the UN speaks about Palestinian statehood, they mean statehood under the West Bank rulers, which is currently Fatah.
Gaza had been occupied by ‘Israel’ as well until 2005, when Hamas kicked them out and raised themselves to become the governing body in Gaza through this popular act.
Fatah is largely considered to be, nowadays, a collaborationist organization under Mahmoud Abbas. Fatah’s military arm was the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, but the brigades split from Fatah in 2007 and became independent.
Because of the geographical and administrative disconnect between Gaza and the West Bank, many resistance groups only or mainly operate in one region or the other.
Nonetheless, Palestinians all consider themselves to be one nation despite the divisions they might have currently at the administrative level.
There is also in the West Bank the Lions’ Den, a relatively new resistance group.
Saraya al-Quds is the only resistance group that has presence in both Gaza and the West Bank, with more presence in Gaza. They are the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, abbreviated PIJ.
Additionally in Gaza, we note:
Of course, the Martyr Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, also sometimes known as al-Qassam. They are the military wing of Hamas, the political party that is currently governing Gaza.
The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, which is the military wing of the communist PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).
The Omar al-Qasim Forces, which is the military wing of the DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine), another communist group.
The Al-Nasser Salah-al-Deen Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).
The Mujahideen Brigades, which are the military wing of the Mujahideen movement in Palestine.
The military wings in Gaza also convene in what is called the Joint Operations Room, which is the name given to them as a collective when they carry out operations together.
The disparity in terms of resistance groups in either region should not be surprising; as a collaborating organization, Fatah fully assists the occupation in rooting out resistance cells in the West Bank.
Glossary
In alphabetical order (cities have been omitted):
Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade: Resistance group that split from Fatah, active in the West Bank.
Al-Qassam Brigades: The military wing of Hamas.
Al-Nasser Salah-al-Deen Brigades: The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Gaza.
Ancient Hebrew: A language spoken in ancient times, revived as Modern Hebrew under occupation.
Arab Israelis: Derogatory term for Palestinians living inside the occupation’s borders.
Constructed language (Conlang): A language that was engineered specifically by a person or a group.
Decolonization theory: The body of theory detailing the process of undoing colonization and its effects.
Fatah: Political party ruling the West Bank.
Gaza, Gaza Strip: A coastal region in the southwest of Palestine, independently governed by Hamas.
Gaza City: The largest city in the Gaza Strip.
Glorified military base: Another name for ‘Israel’, highlighting the fact that it was created as an outpost for further expansion into West Asia by the USA and European Union.
Golan Heights: Area in the north-east between ‘Israel’ and Syria that is occupied by ‘Israel’. Rightly belongs to Syria and is not part of the claimed Palestinian borders.
Hasbara: Propaganda spread by the occupation regime.
‘Israeli’ Occupation Forces (IOF) or ‘Israeli’ Defense Forces (IDF): Armed wing of the occupation government in Palestine. Official name is IDF, often called IOF by proponents of decolonization.
Intifada: Arabic term for (popular) uprising.
‘Israel’: The occupying power in Palestine, not recognized as a legitimate state by proponents of decolonization. Also known as the zionist entity, the occupation or the occupying power.
‘Israelis’: The citizens of ‘Israel’.
Jews: Adepts of Judaism. Not to be confused with Zionists.
Judaism: The oldest of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam).
Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades: Military wing of the PFLP.
Modern Hebrew: A constructed language, which has no direct continuity with Ancient Hebrew.
Mujahideen Brigades: Military wing of the Mujahideen movement.
Nakba: Arabic term for catastrophe, referring to the events of 1948 in Palestine and the forced displacement of Palestinians.
Occupation Law: A subset of the Geneva Conventions, adopted by the UN, refering to international law regarding the occupation of territories.
Omar al-Qasim Forces: Military wing of the DFLP.
Palestinian Authority (PA): The recognized governing body over the ‘Palestinian territories’, namely the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ): A resistance group in Palestine, operating mainly in Gaza.
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO): The original resistance organization, now mostly defunct.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP): A resistance group operating in Palestine.
Resistance groups: Organizations in Palestine engaged in resisting the occupation, including through military means.
Saraya al-Quds: The military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, operating in both Gaza and the West Bank.
Settler: Someone who partakes in or benefits from settler-colonialism, which implies that someone else is being settled, hence settler being a social relation.
Settler-colonialism: A form of colonization where settlers permanently occupy a territory and replace the native population.
Sinai desert: Desert between Palestine and Egypt, with an area occupied by ‘Israel’, which is not part of the claimed and historical Palestine borders and rightly belongs to Egypt.
West Asia: The more appropriate term for the Middle East, as the Middle East is a colonial term (there was the Near East, Middle East, and Far East — what we now rightly call East Asia — all denoting proximity to Europe).
West Bank: Region in the east of Palestine, bordering the Jordan river, that is under occupation. Technically governed by the Palestinian Authority.
Zionism: a settler-colonial ideology that promotes a (nominally) Jewish ethnostate.
Zionist-occupied government (ZOG): an antisemitic conspiracy theory that claims Jews control the US Congress. In actuality, it is the other way around.
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