When Words Stop Meaning What They Mean

By Michael Gencher, Executive Director StandWithUs Australia

In Sydney, Australia, we witnessed something that should concern not only Australians, but anyone who still believes words matter.

A public forum was scheduled at a City of Sydney venue titled: “Why It’s Right to Say: Globalise the Intifada.

Read that again slowly.

Not a discussion about peace. Not coexistence. Not reconciliation. A public event built around defending and promoting the phrase “Globalise the Intifada”.

The event was eventually cancelled after significant public backlash. That was the correct outcome. But the fact it was approved in the first place, defended by activists, and treated by some as legitimate civic discourse should alarm us far beyond Sydney.

For readers outside Australia, it is important to understand the scale of what happened. This was not a fringe argument hidden away in a private room. It became a major public controversy in Australia’s largest city, involving the City of Sydney, elected officials, media coverage, community organisations, police attention and serious public concern. It raised a larger question: how could a council venue in a multicultural democracy be used for a forum defending a slogan so many Australians associate with violence and intimidation?

Because this is no longer simply about one event, one slogan, or one city. It is about the manipulation of language itself.

George Orwell warned about this in Nineteen Eighty-Four. In Orwell’s world, “Newspeak” hollowed out the meaning of words, twisting language until people no longer........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)