Israeli State Terrorism: The West's "Public Secret"
Introduction
Richard Jackson's 2026 article, "Israeli State Terrorism: Knowledge, Power and the 'Public Secret'," published in Critical Studies on Terrorism, confronts a profound epistemological puzzle: how can a phenomenon as extensively documented as Israeli state terrorism remain simultaneously "known" and "unknown" in Western academic, political, and media discourse? Jackson's central argument is that this condition of simultaneous knowing and unknowing is not accidental but is actively produced and maintained through what he terms a "public secret"—a form of knowledge that is widely available yet cannot be articulated within dominant regimes of truth. This essay provides a close reading of Jackson's article, examining its conceptual framework, its empirical claims, and its analysis of the mechanisms by which knowledge of Israeli state terrorism is subjugated. Ultimately, Jackson demonstrates that the West's failure to act against Israeli state violence, including settler violence against Palestinians, is not a failure of information but a structurally maintained condition of "epistemology of ignorance" that serves powerful material, political, and strategic interests.
The Conceptual Framework: State Terrorism and Settler Colonialism
Jackson begins by establishing a clear conceptualisation of state terrorism, defining it as "violence or its threat intended as a symbolically communicative act in which the direct victims of the action are instrumentalized as a means to creating a psychological effect of intimidation and fear in a target audience for a political objective" (p. 2). This definition, drawn from his earlier work, emphasises the communicative rather than purely strategic nature of terrorism. Crucially, Jackson distinguishes between "limited state terrorism"—one-off attacks such as assassinations or bombings—and "wholesale state terrorism," which involves comprehensive, coordinated programmes of violence aimed at coercing and intimidating entire populations. The latter includes tactics such as torture, enforced disappearance, mass killings, collective punishment, and deliberate starvation.
Having established this framework, Jackson proceeds to document the extensive evidence of Israeli state terrorism. He cites historical examples including the Dir Yassin massacre during the Nakba, the Lavon Affair bombings in Cairo in 1954, and the bombing campaigns in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s. He notes that Israel has employed over 2,700 assassinations in seventy years and has repeatedly used strategic bombing against civilian populations in Gaza, Lebanon, and elsewhere. The article also documents the systematic use of torture, administrative detention, and collective punishment against Palestinians.
However, Jackson's most significant theoretical contribution lies in his argument that Israeli state terrorism is not merely a policy choice but is "intimately tied to the internal logic of its settler colonial project" (p. 1). Drawing on settler colonial studies, particularly the work of Patrick Wolfe, Jackson argues that settler colonialism is organised around a "logic of elimination"—the drive to take over land, eliminate the native inhabitants through genocide and/or displacement, and replace them with a new settler society. This is not an event but a "continuous process" that creates a "permanent structural system" (p. 8). Within this framework, state terrorism becomes a "necessary element of the historical consolidation process in the construction of an exclusively Jewish national settler state" (p. 9). This argument is crucial because it reframes settler violence not as a fringe phenomenon or a policy aberration but as an inherent feature of the Israeli state project itself.
The Puzzle of Unknowing: Subjugated Knowledge and the Public Secret
Having established the empirical reality of Israeli state terrorism, Jackson turns to the central puzzle of his article: why is this well-documented phenomenon almost entirely absent from academic, political, and media discourse? He notes that the field of terrorism studies has largely ignored state terrorism as a concept, and that Israeli state terrorism is "conspicuously absent" even from critical terrorism studies until recently. The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism, a 47-chapter volume, devotes only one chapter to state terrorism and only one page to Israeli state terrorism—and that page does not examine it as a subject itself (p. 10).
To explain this paradox, Jackson employs several interrelated concepts. First, he draws on Foucault's notion of "subjugated knowledge"—"blocks of historical knowledges that were present in the functional and systematic ensembles, but which were masked" (p. 11). Knowledge of Israeli state terrorism, often produced by Palestinians and scholars outside the fields of terrorism and security studies, is disqualified a priori as "terrorism" because it is perpetrated by a state actor, or is deemed "insufficiently elaborated" or "nonconceptual" (p. 11).
Second, Jackson employs the concept of "unknown knowns"—that which is "widely known but which is wilfully ignored, suppressed or silenced" (p. 12). This leads to his central concept: the "public secret," drawn from Michael Taussig, which he defines as something that "is generally known but cannot be articulated" (p. 12). The public secret is maintained through "diverse mechanisms," but it can be revealed by people "knowing what not to know" (p. 12). Jackson argues that terrorism studies scholars "know certain aspects of the reality they work on and in yet do not know, do not want to know, should not know, or actively unknow them by way of oversight, ignorance, discursive conventions, and alternative terminology" (p. 13). This is not passive ignorance but an "active rather than a passive not-knowing that emerges through agentic scholarly activity" (p. 13).
Third, Jackson draws on Mills' concept of the "epistemology of ignorance"—a social process that "functions to protect society and the individuals within it from the discomfort of confronting or acknowledging certain realities" (p. 14). This concept is particularly powerful because it explains why the "public secret" is maintained not merely through suppression but through a collective, often unconscious, investment in not-knowing. Jackson argues that acknowledging Israeli state terrorism would necessitate acknowledging that Western states also have a long history of employing terrorism against indigenous peoples and that Western states continue to materially and politically support an ongoing settler colonial project. This "willed amnesia" about the colonial foundations of the international order is "deeply uncomfortable and epistemologically destabilising" (p. 14).
The Mechanisms of Maintenance: Academia, Media, and Politics
Jackson does not content himself with describing the "public secret" but provides a detailed analysis of the mechanisms by which it is maintained. He identifies several key processes within academia:
First, the field of terrorism studies was founded on what Lisa Stampnitzky calls a "politics of anti-knowledge"—a decision to exclude certain truths and facts in order to construct a bounded research subject. The field was carefully constructed around the study of nonstate terrorism, with state terrorism rendered ontologically invisible. Jackson notes the key role played by the Jonathan Institute, a think-tank founded by Benjamin Netanyahu, in the founding of the field (p. 16).
Second, the field evolved into an "epistemic community"—a network of specialists with a shared view of the nature of terrorism and common political values—which acts as an "invisible college" (p. 16). Terrorism scholars often operate as "embedded experts" or "organic intellectuals" linked institutionally and normatively with state officials and counterterrorism practitioners. This proximity to state power is "part of the explanation for why and how state terrorism—and by extension Israeli state terrorism—is maintained as 'unknowledge'" (p. 16).
Third, Jackson identifies specific mechanisms including "codes of legitimation" for those authorised to speak about terrorism, linguistic conventions that ontologically enclose terrorism as a nonstate phenomenon, modes of inclusion and exclusion in teaching curricula and conferences, research grant funding priorities, gatekeeping practices for journals, and "normative practices, such as the ritual denunciation of nonstate terrorism as a requisite for speaking authoritatively on the subject" (p. 17). He also notes "disciplinary practices aimed at punishing scholars who are viewed as being critical of Israel" (p. 17).
Beyond academia, Jackson notes that the news media "rarely employ the label of terrorism to Israel but will consistently apply it to groups opposing Israel" (p. 10). The term "state terrorism" is "almost entirely missing from Western official political discourse and public media discussion" (p. 10). This is not because the evidence is lacking but because the discursive conventions of these fields render it unspeakable.
Jackson also acknowledges the role of Israel's "well-resourced, widespread and longstanding campaign of public diplomacy and political influence that is specifically designed to exclude certain ideas, concepts and narratives from the public sphere" (p. 17). This campaign has targeted the academic sphere, where scholars critical of Israel "have been subjected to intense forms of coercion and pressure designed to silence and delegitimise them" (p. 17). Jackson notes that the editors of Critical Studies on Terrorism decided against convening a special issue on Israeli state terrorism in 2008 because it was viewed as "a genuine risk to the reputations and employment of the editors and potential contributors" (p. 17). This reveals that the "public secret" is maintained not only through structural factors but through "intimidation and subsequent self-censorship by scholars who are afraid of the consequences of publicly acknowledging Israeli violence" (p. 17).
The Interests Served: Why the Public Secret Matters
Jackson argues that the "public secret" of Israeli state terrorism serves a range of material, political, and academic interests. Most directly, it "functions to maintain Israeli state power and legitimacy, and its peculiar security interests" (p. 15). It sustains the "commonsense" knowledge that Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle East," that it has "the right to defend itself," and that it is a legitimate actor acting in a legitimate war to secure its "right to exist" (p. 15). In other words, the epistemology of ignorance "sustains the normalisation of the Israeli settler project and its existence as a settler colonial society engaged in the ongoing and systematic 'elimination of the Native'" (p. 15).
Beyond Israel, the "public secret" serves broader Western interests. Jackson argues that it facilitates "international counterterrorism cooperation which rests on the ontological foundation that states cannot be terrorists, only counterterrorists" (p. 15). This is a "central justification for foreign military intervention, the maintenance of overseas US military bases, the support for pro-Western regimes, and much more besides" (p. 15). The "public secret" also helps maintain US and Western hegemony and access to oil and trade routes in the strategically important MENA region.
Jackson also notes that the "epistemology of ignorance" is "constitutive of the social order; it functions more broadly as a tool of governance and social control, silencing critique and resistance, exacerbating power differentials, serving the interests of the dominant order" (p. 14). It is, in many ways, "the apotheosis of power" (p. 14). This is a crucial insight: the failure to acknowledge Israeli state terrorism is not a marginal issue but is central to the maintenance of the existing international order.
The Possibility of Resistance: De-subjugation and Epistemic Disobedience
Despite his bleak analysis, Jackson insists that the "public secret" is "always inherently unstable" and "vulnerable to eruptions of 'insurrectionary knowledge'" (p. 19). He argues that there are "permeable boundaries between the known and the unknown, between the 'public secret' and public acknowledgement which provide the space for discursive resistance and struggle" (p. 19). Importantly, he notes that "insurrectionary knowledge and unmasking does not necessitate a moment of rupture or an epistemic crisis to unfold; it can also occur over a long period as groups and individuals engage in a sustained campaign of epistemic resistance and discursive struggle" (p. 19).
Jackson argues that the current historical moment provides a "propitious opening" for the exposure and unmasking of the "public secret" of Israeli state terrorism. This is because Israeli state terrorism is "on full display on social and alternative media" and because "one of the main mechanisms of knowledge suppression—the threat of the antisemitism label by the Israeli lobby—appears to be losing its power as a form of coercive suppression" (p. 19). He notes the "broad and ever-growing group of academics, cultural and religious leaders, artists, filmmakers, politicians, activists and protestors who are now speaking openly about Israeli state violence and publicly exposing its genocide in Gaza" (p. 19).
Jackson concludes with a call to action: "it is incumbent upon all scholars to work hard to de-subjugate, expose and unmask Israeli state terrorism through teaching, research, and public engagement. We have to commit to epistemic disobedience to the disciplinary power of the 'public secret' and promote insurrectionary knowledge about the nature, functions and consequences of Israeli state terrorism" (p. 19). This is framed as a form of "resistance to its dehumanising violence and the ongoing cycles of destruction it continues to engender" (p. 19).
Conclusion: The Architecture of Not-Knowing
Richard Jackson's article provides a powerful and sophisticated analysis of why Western political elites do nothing to stop Israeli state terrorism, including settler violence against Palestinians. The answer is not that they lack information—the evidence is overwhelming and extensively documented. Rather, the answer lies in the architecture of not-knowing that has been actively constructed and maintained through the disciplines of terrorism studies, security studies, and international relations, through the discursive conventions of media and political discourse, and through the strategic interests of Western powers, particularly the United States.
Jackson's concept of the "public secret" captures the paradox of a phenomenon that is simultaneously known and unknown. The "epistemology of ignorance" explains how this ignorance is actively produced and how it serves to protect society from discomforting truths about the violent foundations of the international order. The "subjugated knowledge" of Israeli state terrorism—often produced by Palestinians and scholars outside the mainstream—is disqualified and excluded from the fields that claim expertise on political violence.
The material consequences of this "public secret" are devastating. It has enabled the ongoing genocide in Gaza, undermined international law, and created regional instability. It maintains the "commonsense" knowledge that devalues Palestinian lives and constructs policies rooted in "epistemic violence" (p. 19). The failure to act is thus not a failure of information but a failure of will—a will that has been actively shaped and constrained by the structures of power and knowledge that Jackson so carefully analyses.
Jackson's article is ultimately a call to epistemic disobedience—to refuse the "public secret," to de-subjugate the knowledge of Israeli state terrorism, and to expose the architecture of not-knowing that sustains it. This is not merely an academic exercise but a form of resistance to the dehumanising violence that the "public secret" enables. As Jackson writes, "the current historical moment provides a propitious opening" for this resistance, but it requires "a sustained campaign of epistemic resistance and discursive struggle" (p. 19). The question is whether scholars, journalists, and political actors will have the courage to engage in that struggle.