The following terms offer an insight into the way definitions utilized often convey more than one point of reference. While this does not provide every possible definition and is not meant to be an authoritative reference, you will find below a sampling of definitions. Definitions taken from: (1) The Oxford Dictionary (2) Babylon.com (3) Wikipedia.com (4) Jewish Virtuallibrary.org and the Jewish State by Theordore Hertzl – 1947 translation (5) UN General Assembly Resolution 194, passed December 11, 1948, (6) en.wikipedia.org/wiki (7) UN General Assembly Resolution 3236 December 22, 1974 (8) The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, The Unabridged Edition, copyright 1971

Anti-Semite: hostility to or prejudice against Jews (1). A person who is prejudiced against Jews, one who discriminates against or persecutes Jews (2).

Apartheid: a historical South African policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race (1) Arab: someone who is of Middle Eastern descent and whose indigenous language is some dialect of Arabic (1).
Checkpoint: a heavily guarded passage between Palestinian and Israeli areas in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank (3). Some are located at gaps in the Wall, others are at various points along main roads, and some are “floating checkpoints” which are temporary and move around from day to day depending on perceived Israeli security needs. Israeli national military are stationed there to work (3).

Diaspora: a group of people living outside their homeland are said to be living “in Diaspora.” Jews in Diaspora live outside Israel, either in the US or in Europe or any other place (1) Likewise, a large group of Palestinians live in Diaspora in refugee camps in the Levant, or have relocated to Central and South America and North American (2).
Fatah: a Palestinian political and military organization founded in 1958 to bring about the establishment of a Palestinian state (1). It has dominated the PLO since the 1960’s despite challenges from more extreme groups (2).

Freedom Fighter: a person who takes part in a violent struggle to achieve a political goal, especially in order to overthrow their government (1). Clarification: This can also be nonviolent and not for a political goal.

Geneva Accords: A non-governmental treaty launched in Geneva on December 1, 2003. It seeks to establish a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, in exchange for Palestinian recognition of the state of Israel as a Jewish state, putting an end to mutual claims over land and thereby establishing an important step on the way to peace. The Palestinians would be guaranteed most of the land inside the 1967 Green Line, and Jewish cities, populations, and settlements would have to be evacuated, though Ma’ale Adumim and Gush Etzion and several other communities near the Green Line would be annexed to Israel. This agreement is non-binding, as it was summarily rejected by political parties in Israel, and only mildly received by the Palestinian authorities, as the issue of the Right of Return for refugees was not made clear, and rights to territory in Jerusalem remains highly controversial (3). Geneva Conventions: Four international agreements, relating to human rights in times of conflict. They were ratified in Geneva in 1949, and today almost all the 200 countries in the world have ratified them (3). Green Line: The term for the borders between Israel and its neighbors, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, (after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War) and Gaza and the West Bank (after the Six Day War in 1967) (1).
Hamas: a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist and political movement that has become a focus for Arab resistance in the Israeli-occupied territories (1). Islamic Resistance Movement, militant Islamic group started in 1987 with the aim of creating an Islamic Palestinian state(2).

Intifada: Is an Arabic word which literally means shaking off, though it is generally translated into English as rebellion or uprising. According to a 2007 article in the Washington Post, "the word "intifada" crystallized in its current Arabic meaning during the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s and early 1990s" (6).
Israeli: a citizen of the state of Israel; may be of Jewish heritage, Arab descent, or other ethnicity (1).

Jew: definitions vary, but a Jew is someone who practices the Jewish faith or is a descendant of Jewish lineage ethnicity) (1).

Palestinian: someone who is indigenous to the historic area called Palestine. Palestinians are a Semitic race of people (like the Jews – they are cousins, ethnologically) but descend from a different lineage than the Jews. They have lived in the area for hundreds or a thousand years or more. Palestinians are either Christian or Muslim (1).
PLO/Palestine Liberation Organization: a political and military organization formed in 1964 to unite various Palestinian Arab groups and ultimately to bring about an independent state of Palestine (1).

Right of Return: 11/12/1948 the U. N. General Assembly adopted Resolution 194 on the question of Palestine, which “resolves that refugees wishing to return to their home and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible” (5). This resolution has been invoked by the Palestinian Authority as a basis for insisting on a right of return for all Palestinian refugees. U.N General Assembly Resolution 3236 (1974)“Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return.”(7)

Rights of Arabs that lived in Palestine before 1948 to return to their homes; rights of the banished and exiled to return to their lands(2).

Security Fence/Separation Barrier/Apartheid Wall: it is called different things by different people. It can be a 10-meter high concrete wall, with security cameras and guard towers in some places. It can also be a fence in some areas, with deep trenches on both sides, several rows of razor wire, pressure sensors in the soil, with or with or without electrical charge (3).

Semite: a member of any of the peoples who speak or spoke a Semitic language, including in particular the Jews and the Arabs (1).

Settlement: a place, typically one that has hitherto been uninhabited, where people establish a community (1). Israeli settlements are communities inhabited by Israeli Jews in territory that came under Israel's control as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank, which is partially under Israeli military administration and partially under the control of the Palestinian National Authority, and in the Golan Heights, which are under Israeli civilian administration(3).

Settler Road/Bypass Road/Bypass Tunnel: New and modern, settler-only roads that were built to connect Israeli settlement neighborhoods but avoid Palestinian towns or areas. Palestinians are not allowed to use them (3).

Terrorist: a person who uses terrorism in the pursuit of political aims (1). One who uses terror to achieve political goals, saboteur (2). An individual who commits an act or acts of violence or threatens violence in pursuit of political, religious, or ideological objectives(2). A person who uses or favors terrorizing methods. 2. (formerly) a member of a political group in Russia aiming at the demoralization of the government by terror. 3. an agent or partisan of the revolutionary tribunal during the Reign of Terror in France. terrorize 1. to fill or overcome with terror. 2. to dominate or coerce by intimidation. (8).

Zionism: a movement for (originally) the reestablishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel (1). A movement that promotes Jews returning to and rebuilding Israel(2). The founder of Modern Zionism, Theodore Herzl, first considered Argentina or Palestine as a homeland for Jews. At the first Zionist Congress, Basel Switzerland, 8/29/1897 delegates adopted the Basle Program of the Zionist movement that declared “Zionism seeks to establish a home in Palestine secured under public law”(4).

Zionist: a person who is a supporter of the nation of Israel and believes that Israel/Palestine was promised to Abraham and his descendents by God, and therefore is the historic homeland of the Jews, to which they have been rightfully restored in the creation of the state of Israel (1). One who practices Zionism, one supporting the movement that promotes Jews returning to and rebuilding Israel (2).

Detroit West District Peace Center, Revised May, 2009