Huh? Surely, by the definition of “oppress”, A can oppress B only if A is in the wrong. Who would ever say things like “the Israelis are oppressing the Palestinians, and they are right to do so”?
Would you object to “The police oppresses rapists and murderers” on the ground that it’s factually incorrect? Or just that it’s a very weird thing of framing things, with misleading connotations?
The connotation is that it’s bad, yes. Reduce it to “The Israelis are seriously restricting the opportunities of the Palestinians” and probably there are many Israel supporters who would agree it’s true but say Israel’s not in the wrong. The use of the word “oppress” is how you would express “seriously restricting opportunities” if you wanted to communicate that it was bad.
Huh? Surely, by the definition of “oppress”, A can oppress B only if A is in the wrong. Who would ever say things like “the Israelis are oppressing the Palestinians, and they are right to do so”?
Would you object to “The police oppresses rapists and murderers” on the ground that it’s factually incorrect? Or just that it’s a very weird thing of framing things, with misleading connotations?
The connotation is that it’s bad, yes. Reduce it to “The Israelis are seriously restricting the opportunities of the Palestinians” and probably there are many Israel supporters who would agree it’s true but say Israel’s not in the wrong. The use of the word “oppress” is how you would express “seriously restricting opportunities” if you wanted to communicate that it was bad.