Viva la resistance
The designation “terrorist” is a political act, not a legal classification
Nelson Mandela was designated a terrorist; his party, the ANC, was considered a terrorist organisation for years by my country and many others. He went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The ANC fought against the apartheid state of South Africa for decades.
When a country is attacked and occupied, local resistance is expected. It is also recognised by International Law as the right of citizens to defend themselves.
Politics uses the word terrorist to delegitimise the local communities’ rights to defend against attacks and aggression.
Yet the same politicians sanction carpet bombing, starvation, concentration camps and erasure of whole villages.
No country has the superior right to self-defence while denying another country the same right.
When we are fed the line that ‘x’ is a terrorist organisation, even when ‘x’ is defending their land and people from occupation, we are conflating terrorism with resistance, paving the way for a collapse of moral, ethical and legal rights for the occupied people.
It is a convenient tool. It gives the occupier the blessing to continue doing evil. It gives those in power, including the many states that sanction the description ‘terrorist’, the opportunity to continue to accumulate power at the expense of the oppressed. It stirs the pot of good and bad, producing a common enemy for citizens to hate.
Someone getting onto a plane or train with a bomb to kill innocent civilians is a terrorist.
Defending your home – I am not so sure. If it were my home, I know what I would do. Resist. Fight. Defend. Ideally, through diplomacy.
When whole communities are forcefully displaced from their homes forever, resistance is natural.
Viva la resistance.
*The French resistance in WW11 was those men and women who fought underground as the French Vichy government worked in lock step with Nazi Germany. Resistance is not always state-sanctioned. When the state does not defend its citizens, the citizens must defend themselves.
Published April 29th 2026. Photo taken April 29th 2023
