Why this newspaper, and others in the Tribune Publishing chain, will no longer refer to Hamas as “militants” or other descriptors short of “terrorist.”
There should be no debate over the language we use to describe Hamas and its depraved attack on Israel.
Hamas is a terrorist organization, and the acts of its agents on Oct. 7, when they crossed the border into Israel with the express intent of killing and kidnapping civilians, were terrorism.
That makes them terrorists.
While some have suggested Hamas’ political role in Gaza means it is not a terrorist organization, it is clearly targeting civilians for political ends, which is the very definition of terrorism.
The danger in using euphemisms such as “militants” to describe terrorists is that it normalizes heinous acts of terrorism and implies that the deliberate targeting of civilians is a military act and that Hamas at large has some other, less despicable objective.
But let’s be clear: Hamas’ stated goal in its founding charter calls for the obliteration of the state of Israel.
The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada have all formally designated Hamas a terrorist organization.
