From: the Media Group of the Middle East Forum, "an ecumenical, church-related organization that works for balanced reporting on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, both in the public media and in religious publications." [cited here in The Link, published by Americans for Middle East Understanding, Inc., Volume 35, Issue 2, April-May 2002. Compiled by J. Martin Bailey. This group's "Style Sheet is based on the format of the Associated Press Style Book. Terrorism: An act causing extreme fear, dread, fright. Can refer to a mode of governing (military action, sometimes called state-sponsored terrorism) or a mode of opposing government (armed resistance, sometimes called a poor man's way of waging war). Military action is often justified on the grounds of national security, while armed resistance is often justified on human rights grounds. The United Nations recognizes the legitimacy of 'armed struggle' as a means towards self-determination, or restoring a lost independence (e.g. General Assembly Resolution 2246). Israel, however, asserts that all acts of resistance by Palestinians are illegitimate acts of terrorism. Journalists should be aware that to use the term 'terrorism' for every act of violence from the Palestinian side is to reveal a pro-Israeli bias in their reporting, since this is not the way Palestinians describe actions taken to force Israel to change its 35-year occupation. A better word to use may be 'resistance,' as in: 'A group of Palestinians believed to be members of Hamas ambushed a bush carrying Jewish settlers in a destructive and deadly continuation of Palestinian resistance designed to force Israel to abandon its occupation policies.' The same is true of Israeli actions; it is better to describe them as military actions, as in: 'The Israeli military bulldozed 12 Palestinian homes today in an effort to break Palestinian resistance.' Judging whether such acts of a state or a resistance group are contrary to international conventions is the task, not of journalists, but of tribunals such as the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the U.N. Human Rights Commission, and countries that signed the Geneva Convention. In December 2001, for example, more than 100 signatories of the Geneva Convention gathered in Switzerland to reprimand Israel for 'indiscriminate and disproportional violence' against Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories, and urged it to abide by international law.