The assassination of awareness

Author's name: Dr. Saeed Ayad Publisher: Tabaq Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2023 Literary classification: Philosophy and Thought Brief about the book: We cannot deny that there is a crisis of media terminology, as a result of all those signs that have penetrated into the Palestinian discourse until it became part of it, and a serious stand was necessary to correct those concepts which, without the attention of Palestinian media professionals, became as if they were ordinary discourse, at a time when most of these terms tend to fix the opposing party’s point of view in the media equation. The book of the late Saeed Ayad was issued by Tabaq Publishing and Distribution, and it spans 340 pages of medium size, with two introductions: one by poet Motawakel Taha, and the other by Majid Ayad. Taha says in his introduction about media: that media and its language are the external form of the political system, they are its uniform, arms, extensions, and its mind with which it responds, and its tool with which it fights, and we are not deceived by democracy or dictatorship in that. He adds in another place: that the producer of the new or changing term seeks to make it a term used by other media and civil and non-governmental institutions through persuasion or intimidation, or as conditions and entitlements in exchange for supporting it. Regarding shaping the audience, Taha says: that shaping the audience means making it similar in actions and reactions, and this is only achieved by imposing the media term through repetition, force, and persuasion. He points out that there is no innocence in media or good intention; everything that appears on the screen or is written or said has a purpose. Regarding the danger of the term, Taha clarifies: because the occupation recognizes the danger of the term and its repetition, it began to give places and geography their names to erase the original history. At the end of his introduction, he says that the powerful is the owner of the narrative, the master of storytelling, and the creator of the image, and thus he redefines the world as he wishes. As for Majid Ayad’s introduction, he clarified that Saeed Ayad did not wish to flatter the act of "assassinating awareness" or to soften it, but rather described it as assassination and not killing, destruction, hollowing out, or falsification. He explains that the main goal of the book is to emphasize the importance of change in methods and tools of discourse because current discourses have the power to create an alternative awareness. The main text of the book, prepared by the late Saeed Ayad before his death, includes eight chapters, each containing a set of media terms, explaining the concept and danger of each term, and proposing alternative terms to be circulated in Palestinian and Arab media. The first chapter deals with terminologies related to Jerusalem, analyzing terms such as: Jerusalem, West Bank, East and West Jerusalem, East Jerusalem, Western Jerusalem, Arab Jerusalem, the difference between it and "Arab Jerusalem," the Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, unified Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Jerusalem as a city with two capitals, Jerusalem as the capital of two states, parts of Jerusalem, the term "O Jerusalem," and the Jerusalem Municipality.