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Documenting Demonization in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

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Demonization in International Politics

Part of the book series: Middle East Today ((MIET))

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Abstract

Based on a collection of illustrative examples, the chapter documents instances of demonization between Israeli and Palestinian elites using the probing question: “Who demonized whom, when and how?” Normand provides a prima facie sense of the demonizing narratives in the conflict and places them into the context of Israeli and Palestinian ideologies and historical experiences. The chapter also show how each side’s demonizing discourse appears in different contexts of perceived evils: while Palestinian demonization of Israelis must be understood in the context of their own colonial experiences, Israeli demonization of Palestinians must be understood in the context of their own experiences of security concerns and terrorism. The same speech act was therefore used to express different evil experiences of the same conflict.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This question is a variation of political scientist Harold Laswell’s communications model. Writing in 1948 Laswell posed the question, “Who says what in which channel with what effect?”

  2. 2.

    These categories are not mutually exclusive and a few quotes were therefore difficult to categorize given the at times overlapping distinctions: for example Palestinian quote #19 in Appendix A appeared on a TV broadcast (i.e. a nongovernment source), but the channel was sponsored by the PA (i.e. a government source) and it was a religious broadcast (i.e. a religious source). The quote was categorized as a religious source because it best reflected the elite’s official role.

  3. 3.

    See Table 1 (Appendix B).

  4. 4.

    Sivan Hirsch-Hoefler and Eran Halperin, “Through the squalls of hate: Arab-phobic attitudes among extreme right and moderate right in Israel,” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, vol. 12, no. 2, 2005, pp. 53–60.

  5. 5.

    Menachem Begin quoted in The Globe and Mail, Canada (Lexis Nexis), 14 March 1978. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  6. 6.

    Menachem Begin quoted in The Globe and Mail, Canada (Lexis Nexis), 14 March 1978. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  7. 7.

    For more on the summit see Dennis Ross, The missing peace: the inside story of the fight for Middle East peace, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004, p. 248.

  8. 8.

    Shimon Peres quoted in a speech at the Summit of Peacemakers Sharm el-Sheikh, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website (MFA), 13 March 1996. Accessed: 2 August 2011.

  9. 9.

    Menacham Milson quoted in William Claiborne, “Israeli says West Bank election awaits end of PLO influence; Israeli rules out PLO voting role,” The Washington Post (Lexis Nexis), 27 March 1982 Accessed: 2 November 2010.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Benjamin Netanyahu, “Face Up to the P.L.O.’s True Nature,” The New York Times (Lexis Nexis), 16 October 1985. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  12. 12.

    Interview with Ghassan Khatib, Ramallah, 29 March 2010.

  13. 13.

    Press conference with Dep. PM Netanyahu, Washington DC, MFA, 10 December 1991. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  14. 14.

    Compare the Palestinian National Charter: Resolutions of the Palestine National Council July 1–17, 1968, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp with Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement of Palestine, Chapter 1, Article three, 18 August 1988, PASSIA, vol. 4, p. 19.

  15. 15.

    Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement of Palestine, Chapter 1, Article three, 18 August 1988, PASSIA, vol. 4, p. 19. Emphasis added.

  16. 16.

    Hamas quoted in BBC Monitoring Middle East (Lexis Nexis), 10 December 2005. Source: Palestinian Information Centre website in Arabic 10 Dec. 2005. Accessed: 3 November 2010.

  17. 17.

    Ibid.

  18. 18.

    See Chap. 2, pp. 48–49.

  19. 19.

    Cited in Harvey Morris, “Violence has quashed signs of development in Palestinian Territories,” Financial Times (Lexis Nexis), 18 October 2000. Accessed: 4 November 2010.

  20. 20.

    Ibrahim Mudayris quote on Jewish Virtual Library. Source: sermon on Gaza Palestine Satellite TV, 12 March 2004. Accessed: 11 November 2010.

  21. 21.

    Ibrahim Mudayris quote on Jewish Virtual Library. Source: PA TV, 12 September 2004. Accessed: 4 November 2010.

  22. 22.

    Mahmoud Al-Zahar quoted in Palestinian Media Watch. Source: the National Conference for Maintaining Principles on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), 15 March 2005. Accessed: 7 November 2010.

  23. 23.

    Rabbi Ovadia quoted in BBC Monitoring Middle East (Lexis Nexis), 13 August 2000. Accessed: 3 November 2010.

  24. 24.

    See for example text of report by Palestinian radio, “Jerusalem mufti condemns Israeli rabbi’s statements on Arabs,” BBC Worldwide Monitoring (Lexis Nexis), 9 April 2001. Accessed: 29 October 2010. Rabbi Ovadia quoted in Ha’aretz (Lexis Nexis), 20 March 2000. Accessed: 18 November 2010.

  25. 25.

    Rabbi Ovadia quoted in Financial Times (Lexis Nexis), 30 August 2010. Accessed: 22 October 2010.

  26. 26.

    See Ron Hassner, War on sacred grounds, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. For more on the notion of indivisibility of sacred spaces see also Stacie E. Goddard, Indivisible Territory and the Politics of Legitimacy: Jerusalem and Northern Ireland, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

  27. 27.

    Arafat quoted in a letter to King Fahd bin Abdalaziz, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 28 July 1988. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  28. 28.

    See Joel Brinkley, “Arabs Riot in Jerusalem Over Archaeological Dig,” The New York Times (Lexis Nexis), 4 July 1988. Accessed: 10 April 2013.

  29. 29.

    Arafat quoted in a letter to King Fahd bin Abdalaziz, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 28 July 1988. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  30. 30.

    See Table 3 (Appendix B) for the breakdown of the statements into categories.

  31. 31.

    Menachem Begin quoted in The Washington Post (Lexis Nexis), 14 March 1978. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  32. 32.

    “Israeli Defense Force statement on the operation in Lebanon,” MFA, 15 March 1978. Accessed: 1 May 2013.

  33. 33.

    Silvan Shalom, Address at the AIPAC Policy Conference, Washington, D.C., MFA, 30 March 2003. Accessed: 13 August 2011.

  34. 34.

    Caroline Glick wrote the obituary on Arafat unsure whether he was “dead or dying.” Arafat died on 11 November 2004, 2 days after the article was published.

  35. 35.

    Caroline Glick, The Washington Times (Lexis Nexis), 9 November 2004. Accessed: 15 November 2010. Emphasis added.

  36. 36.

    Ariel Sharon quoted in John Moody “Sharon: No peace while Arafat is around,” Fox News, 11 April 2002. Accessed: 19 April 2013.

  37. 37.

    See Table 4 (Appendix B) for the breakdown of the statements into categories.

  38. 38.

    Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Letter to the Arab summit meeting in Tunis, March 2004, PASSIA, vol. 7, p. 206.

  39. 39.

    Article 19 of the original Palestinian National Covenant stated: “The establishment of the State of Israel is null and void, regardless of the passage of time.”

  40. 40.

    One might expect the mutual recognition of the PLO and Israel in 1993 to have had a positive effect on the terminology transformation from “Zionist entity” to “Israel.” Among the statements collected, however, there was not enough evidence to draw such a conclusion. “Israel” was cited both before and after 1993. The translations-variable might also play a role in this.

  41. 41.

    Ramadan Shalah quoted in BBC Monitoring Middle East (Lexis Nexis), 22 October 2006. Source: addresses at Gaza rally via telephone speech. Accessed: 29 October 2010. Emphasis added.

  42. 42.

    Ahmad Hillis quoted in BBC Monitoring Middle East (Lexis Nexis), 6 December 2001.

    Source: Palestine TV, Gaza, in Arabic 0920 GMT 6 Dec. 2001. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  43. 43.

    Transcripts from PLO radio broadcast on BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 13 May 1989. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  44. 44.

    See Peled-Elhanan, Palestine in Israeli School Books, p. 52.

  45. 45.

    Government of Israel, 135th sitting of the First Knesset, 3 May 1950, PASSIA, vol. 2, p. 154.

  46. 46.

    Israeli statement on the advisory opinion of the ICJ on legal consequences of the construction of a wall in the occupied Palestinian territory, 9 July 2004, PASSIA, vol. 7, p. 276. Emphasis added.

  47. 47.

    Hamas quoted in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 20 March 1998. Source: Hamas, website in Arabic 17 March 1998. Accessed: 24 November 2010.

  48. 48.

    Rabbi Waldman quoted in The Herald, Glasgow (Lexis Nexis), 8 November 1993. Accessed: 4 November 2010.

  49. 49.

    Yossi Sarid quoted in The Independent (Lexis Nexis), 7 April 1994.

  50. 50.

    Silvan Shalom, MFA, 31 August 2004. Accessed: 7 November 2010.

  51. 51.

    Yasser Arafat quoted in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 20 July 1981.Source: Excerpts from recorded message on “Voice of Palestine” 1616 GMT 17 July 1981.Accessed: 3 November 2010.

  52. 52.

    Ahmad Jibril quoted in Al-Jazeera (Lexis Nexis), 20 May 2002. Accessed: 2 November 2010.

  53. 53.

    Hamas quoted in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 26 September 2004. Accessed: 2 November 2010.

  54. 54.

    Mahmoud Abbas quoted in BBC Monitoring Middle East (Lexis Nexis), 2 February 2009. Source: Text of report by Palestinian presidency-controlled news agency Wafa website. Accessed: 2 April 2011.

  55. 55.

    For more on casualty figures see B’stelem http://www.btselem.org/statistics/fatalities/during-cast-lead/by-date-of-event. Accessed: 17 May 2013.

  56. 56.

    Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, 15 September 2009,

    http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/09/15/UNFFMGCReport.pdf, p. 537.

  57. 57.

    Yasser Arafat quoted in The New York Times (Lexis Nexis), 7 August 1996. Accessed: 22 October 2010.

  58. 58.

    Robert H. Mnookin and Ehud Eiran, “Discord ‘Behind the Table’: The Internal Conflict Among Israeli Jews Concerning the Future of Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza,” Journal of Dispute Resolution, no. 1, 2005.

  59. 59.

    Jibril Rajoub quoted in Israel’s War against Terror. Source: Yediot Ahronot, 4 March 1994. Accessed: 4 November 2010.

  60. 60.

    See Chapter 2, Figure 2.5.

  61. 61.

    Fuad Abu Hijleh quoted in Al-Hayat Al-Jedida, 3 November 2000. Source: MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 153, 17 November 2000. Accessed: 22 October 2010.

  62. 62.

    For more on the settlement figures see B’stelem http://www.btselem.org/download/200205_land_grab_eng.pdf. Accessed: 13 May 2013.

  63. 63.

    General Amin in Meeting Minutes: US, Israel, and Palestine Generals. Palestine Papers, http://transparency.aljazeera.net/files/69.PDF. Accessed: 22 February 2013.

  64. 64.

    See Tables 7 & 8 (Appendix B) for the breakdown of the statements into categories.

  65. 65.

    PLO radio broadcast, BBC summary of World Broadcast (Lexis Nexis), 13 May 1989. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  66. 66.

    For figures of Palestinian fatalities during the first intifada see B’stelem http://www.btselem.org/statistics/first_intifada_tables. Accessed: 20 May 2013.

  67. 67.

    PA Information Ministry Press release, Israel’s War against Terror. Source: a “PA source” from 29 March 1997. Accessed: 6 November 2010. For more on the “ethnic cleansing” allegations against Israeli, see also Pappé, Ilan, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Oxford: OneWorld Publications, 2006.

  68. 68.

    Ahmed Hanoun quoted in Palestinian Media Watch. Source: PA TV, 17 May 2010. Accessed: 19 December 2011.

  69. 69.

    Ahmad Nasser quoted in Palestinian Media Watch. Source: PA TV, 6 February 2004. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  70. 70.

    Hamas quoted in BBC Monitoring Middle East (Lexis Nexis), 10 December 2005. Source: Palestinian Information Centre website in Arabic 10 Dec. 2005. Accessed: 10 December 2011.

  71. 71.

    From the outbreak of the Second Intifada to the end of 2005, almost 450 Palestinians in the Occupied Territories had been killed and 100 wounded in Israeli target killings. These figures were reported in a Supreme Court Sitting as the High Court of Justice on 11 December 2005. According to the Court report, 300 of these were terrorist organization members and 150 were civilian bystanders, see http://elyon1.court.gov.il/Files_ENG/02/690/007/a34/02007690.a34.pdf. For more on Israeli target assassinations in the territories, see for example, Kristen E. Eichensehr, “On Target? The Israeli Supreme Court and the Expansion of Target Killing,” The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 116, No. 8 (June 2007), pp. 1873–1881, and “Targeted Assassinations: The Airborne Occupation” in Eyal Weismann, Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation, New York: Verso Press, 2007, pp. 237–258.

  72. 72.

    Yaacov Lozowick, The Philidelphia Inquirer (Lexis Nexis), 21 December 2003. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  73. 73.

    Muhammad Ash-Sha’ir quoted in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 14 July 1979. Source: Moscow radio in Arabic 1700 GMT 12 Jul. 1979. Accessed: 3 November 2011. Mechanem Begin quoted in The Washington Post (Lexis Nexis) 14 March 1978. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  74. 74.

    Nabil Ramlawi quoted in a session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Israel’s War against Terror. Source: Jerusalem Post, 17 March 1997. Accessed: 29 November 2010. Ahmad Hillis quoted in BBC Monitoring Middle East (Lexis Nexis), 6 December 2001. Source: Palestine TV, Gaza, in Arabic 0920 GMT 6 Dec. 2001. Accessed: 29 October 2010.

  75. 75.

    Yasser Arafat quoted in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 30 January 1981. Source: Excerpts from Arafat’s speech on “Voice of Palestine” 1137 GMT 28 January 1981.

  76. 76.

    Najat Abu-Bakr quoted in Palestinian Media Watch. Source: PA TV (Fatah), 3 March 2008 (includes video). Accessed: 14 April 2011.

  77. 77.

    Muhammed Ash-Sha’ir quoted in BBC Summary of the World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 14 July 1979. Source: Moscow radio in Arabic 1700 GMT 12 July 1979. Accessed: 3 November 2011.

  78. 78.

    Yussuf Al-Sharafi quoted in Palestinian Media Watch. Source: Al-Rissala (Hamas Weekly), 12 April 2007. Accessed: 12 May 2011.

  79. 79.

    Interview with Ehud Barak in the New York Review of Books (Lexis Nexis), 13 June 2002. Accessed: 4 November 2010.

  80. 80.

    Ibrahim Mudayris quoted in Jewish Virtual Library. Source: sermon on Gaza Palestine Satellite TV, 12 March 2004. Accessed: 3 November 2010.

  81. 81.

    Rabbi Waldman quoted in The Herald, Glasgow (Lexis Nexis), 8 November 1993. Accessed: 4 November 2010.

  82. 82.

    PA TV Religious Broadcast, Israel’s War against Terror, 3 November 1998. Source: “a PA religious broadcast.” Accessed: 30 October 2010.

  83. 83.

    Awni Abd Al-Hadi, Meeting between David Ben-Gurion and President of the Palestinian Istiqlal Party, 18 July 1934, PASSIA, vol. 1, p. 306. Emphasis added.

  84. 84.

    Ben Gurion cited in Philip Mattar, Encyclopedia of the Palestinians, revised edition, Facts On File, Incorporated, 2005, p. 555.

  85. 85.

    Quote taken from Neil Caplan and Laura Zittrain Eisenberg, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, Second Edition, 2010, p. 13.

  86. 86.

    For more on the Palestinian refugee situation in 1948, see Morris, The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited.

  87. 87.

    Muhammad Ash-Sha’ir in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Lexis Nexis), 14 July 1979. Source: Moscow radio in Arabic 1700 GMT 12 Jul. 1979. Accessed: 3 November 2011.

  88. 88.

    Interview with Nabil Sha’ath, Ramallah, 29 March 2010.

  89. 89.

    Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Letter to the Arab Summit Meeting in Tunis, March 2004, PASSIA, vol. 7, p. 206.

  90. 90.

    Ambassador Nasser Al-Qudwa, Permanent Representative of Palestine to the UN, Introductory statement to the International Court of Justice, 23 February 2004, PASSIA, vol. 7, p. 196.

  91. 91.

    Ismail Haniyeh quoted in BBC Monitoring Middle East (Lexis Nexis), 15 April 2006. Source: Text of commentary by Haniyeh entitled “Peace can only be the fruit of justice,” published in English by Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram Weekly website on 13 April 2006. Accessed: 16 November 2010.

  92. 92.

    Yihya Rabah quoted in Palestinian Media Watch. Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), 24 June 2009. Accessed: 29 April 2011.

  93. 93.

    Ibrahim Mudayris quoted in Palestinian Media Watch. Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), 13 May 2005 (includes video) and Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed: 2 November 2010.

  94. 94.

    Ibrahim Mudayris quoted in Jewish Virtual Library. Source: sermon on PA TV, 7 January 2005. Accessed: 3 November 2010.

  95. 95.

    Interview with Shlomo Brom. Tel Aviv, 23 March 2010.

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  1. University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Linn Normand

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Normand, L. (2016). Documenting Demonization in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. In: Demonization in International Politics. Middle East Today. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54581-7_5

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