QuoteProject
The [Israelis] believed - they were possessed of an absolute certainty and conviction - that 'terrorists' were in Chatila. How could I explain to them that the terrorists had left, that the terrorists had worn Israeli uniforms, that the terrorists had been sent into Chatila by Israeli officers, that the victims of the terrorists were not Israelis but Palestinians and Lebanese?
Robert Fisk
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote highlights the complexity of narratives surrounding conflict, particularly the misconception of identifying terrorists and victims based on preconceived notions.

Robert Fisk's quote delves into the deeply entrenched beliefs and convictions held by the Israelis regarding the presence of terrorists in Chatila. It illustrates the challenges faced when confronting a dominant narrative that simplifies a complex situation into binary categories of good and evil, instead emphasizing that the reality of conflict often includes unrecognized truths about the roles different groups play and the identities of victims and perpetrators.

Themes

ConflictNarrativePerceptionTruthVictimsTerrorism

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a discussion about the media's portrayal of conflicts.

More from Robert Fisk

In just one year in Bosnia, thirty of my colleagues died. There is a little Somme waiting for all innocent journalists.
Robert FiskRead
War is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.
Robert FiskRead
U.S. journalists I don't think are very courageous. They tend to go along with the government's policy domestically and internationally. To question is seen as being unpatriotic, or potentially subversive.
Robert FiskRead
The biggest problem I have in journalism is being quoted or misquoted and then being asked to defend something I haven't said.
Robert FiskRead
There is nothing so satisfying as to be shot at without effect.
Robert FiskRead
After the allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father's war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my entire career — in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad — watching the people within those borders burn.
Robert FiskRead

Similar quotes

Inverted totalitarianism, unlike classical totalitarianism, does not revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader. It finds expression in the anonymity of the Corporate State. It purports to cherish democracy, patriotism, and the Constitution while manipulating internal levers.
Chris HedgesRead
We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.
Thomas B. MacaulayRead
In handing over the Government of India to these so-called political classes, we are handing over to men of straw, of whom, in a few years, no trace will remain.
Winston ChurchillRead
Politics is a matter of day-to-day improvisation, and it often seems as though the major parties are guided only by the desire to stay in office and not by any philosophy that might justify their doing so.
Roger ScrutonRead
In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.
Samuel AdamsRead
The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
Winston ChurchillRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.