If I’m doing it, I have prisoners. If you do it, you have hostages.
People imprisoned by legitimate, lawful governments are prisoners, never hostages, because the government wouldn’t arrest people without legal basis.
Terrorist groups can never take prisoners, only hostages, because they have no legal basis and no legitimacy.
That’s the framing this headline is going for.
Just a reminder that Hamas is the recognized government in Gaza. Israel reminds us of this fact constantly in it’s attempts to justify their collective punishment. But I see now that Hamas have Schrodinger’s legitimacy.
The framing
theirthey’re going for is worthy victims vs. unworthy. It’s a pillar in the project of acceptable mass murder.
Welcome to the BBC!
Hostages are taken from their homes or jobs with the express intent to threaten their lives, and exchange them for a political outcome.
Prisoners are apprehended in association with criminal activity, with intent to persue charges and criminal trial. They are held at designated prisons, which are subject to local and international monitoring.
We don’t even know how many of the hostages are alive or dead.
This attempt at moral equivalence is repugnant.
Prisoners are apprehended in association with criminal activity, with intent to persue charges and criminal trial. They are held at designated prisons, which are subject to local and international monitoring.
So not a word that describes the people Israel kidnapped.
Hostages are taken from their homes or jobs with the express intent to threaten their lives, and exchange them for a political outcome.
While this describes them perfectly.
