CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE THROUGH TERRORISM LAWS: CASE OF UNITED KINGDOM

Narratives of terrorism are often used and misused for political goals. This has never been as blatantly apparent as in the UK and the West in general after the 7 October raid where even genocide is being legitimised as self-defence against terrorism. The hypocrisy of presenting resistance fighters as terrorists while entirely disregarding the state terrorism of the oppressor is nothing new. This article looks back at British narratives surrounding apartheid South Africa and the liberation movement fighting against it to draw parallels with the current hypocritical branding of Palestinian resistance fighters as terrorists while ignoring blatant state terrorism perpetrated by the occupier. The paper further analyses the use and abuse of the UK Terrorism Act in the current context, which reveals a severe assault on freedom of expression with the apparent goal of not merely manufacturing consent for the genocide but also forcefully concealing the lack of such consent and the outright rejection of the terrorism narrative in a large part of the general public. Finally, the paper briefly outlines how the UK terrorism narrative has infiltrated the International Criminal Court (ICC) through the language chosen by its British Prosecutor.