On Wednesday, November 15, 2023, the programs of Political Sciences, Critical Security Studies, and Conflict Management and Humanitarian Action in cooperation with the Human Rights Program, organized a lecture entitled: “The American Concept of Terrorism and the Issue of Palestine: A Legal Perspective,” presented by Dr. Wadih Edward Said, Professor of Law at the University of Colorado, USA, and was moderated by Dr. Moataz Al-Fajiri, Assistant Professor and Head of the Human Rights Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI).
Dr. Saeed spoke in general about the American concept of terrorism and its dimensions that are related to the Palestine issue.
He also spoke about the stereotypes on which these concepts were built, pointing out that the Palestinian issue, according to American law, does not exist as an issue of human justice and national liberation, but rather as a source of “international terrorism.”
Through this reality, the principles of solidarity and freedom of expression are not protected, and this is a situation that contradicts the fundamental foundations and principles of the Constitution.
The law professor at the University of Colorado also touched on the prevailing intellectual climate in Western countries and its relationship to addressing the physical violations committed by the occupation forces against the Palestinian people, pointing out that there is pressure and self-censorship in various institutions, including academic institutions, on many intellectuals and academics in the issue of showing their solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Dr. Saeed highlighted the repercussions of combating terrorism on procedural and criminal justice guarantees and constitutional rights in the United States of America and its international implications, pointing out the problem of classifying “organizations” as terrorist organizations, and how this classification expands in a way that leads to confusion between the concept of terrorism on the one hand and the right to resistance on the other hand.
He also stressed the expansion of the application of these concepts and classifications to include people who have no connection to violent or “terrorist” acts, which directly affects the exercise of basic human rights, especially freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.
