Discourses of War, Media and Politics in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Foreword by Florian Zollmann; Part I: War Rhetoric & Counternarratives; Chapter 1, Introduction: Discourses of War and Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Innocent Chiluwa, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Jurate Ruzaite; Chapter 2, On Israel's Occupation: Is 'Apartheid' the Right Word? A Review of Literature, Irteza Atique; Chapter 3, The Promised Land and Right of Return Rhetoric by World Leaders, Austin Uzoma Nwagbara, Paulinus Nnorom; Chapter 4, From Alliance Free to NATO Member: Sweden's Political Stance on the Israel-Palestinian Conflict, Irene Elmerot, Staffan Granér; Chapter 5, Antisemitic(?) anti-Zionism and 'Punching Up': Leftist and Alt-left Discourses in the Aftermath of the Hamas-led Attack on Israel, Małgorzata Waśniewska; Chapter 6, The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict through the Lens of the Russia-Ukraine War: Mainstream and Oppositional Reporting in Russia and Ukraine, Olga Baysha, Kamilla Chukasheva; Part II: Media Discourse, Contention and Palestinian Solidarity; Chapter 7, The Geopolitics of the Palestinian Reality: A Multi-Modal Analysis of Strategic Narrative Contestation in Chinese, Israeli, and Palestinian Media, Zhexi Gu, Runping Zhu, Yu Huang, David Nolan; Chapter 8, Media, Power and Narrative: A Discourse Analysis of Deutsche Welle's Coverage of the Gaza War 2023-2025, Mohammedwesam Amer; Chapter 9, First, a Demon: Legitimising Violence through Viewpoint in The New York Times' Coverage of October 7, 2023, Siti Nurnadilla Mohamad Jamil; Chapter 10, What Can be Said: Limits of Counternarratives in News Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War since October 7, 2023, Marda Dunsky; Part III: Politics, Peace & Conflict Transformation; Chapter 11, "People Cannot Just Live from Ceasefire to the Next": Everyday Life in Negotiating Calls for Ceasefires in the Gaza War of 2014, Rahul Sambaraju; Chapter 12, Arguing against Peace in the Israel/Palestine Conflict, Simon Goodman, Giuliana Tiripelli, Ngosa Kambashi; Chapter 13, Decline of Leftism and Ascent of Right-Wing Populism in Israel: Implications for Israeli Palestinian Relations, Tami Amanda Jacoby, Emily Katsman.

Biography

Innocent Chiluwa is Professor in Applied Linguistics and Media/Communication studies. He is a visiting professor at the Department of Languages & Intercultural Studies, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh and also at the Institute for Language Education, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. His research interests include discourse studies, language and intercultural studies, social movement studies, online activism and protest, media and conflict, social media and society, disinformation and hate speech, and media linguistics. He is the editor of Discourse, Media & Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Discourse and Conflict (Palgrave, 2021).

Jūratė Ruzaitė is Professor at the Department of Foreign Language, Literary and Translation Studies at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas. Her research focuses on sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, language and ideology, hate speech, and disinformation. She has coordinated and participated in (inter)national research projects and published extensively on politeness, offensive language, and argumentative strategies. She served as Associate Editor of the Lithuanian Applied Linguistics Journal (2018–2024), and is a board member of the Lithuanian Association of Applied Linguistics, and a scientific expert at the Lithuanian Research Council.

"This edited volume offers a timely and incisive exploration of how war, legitimacy, and justice are constructed through language in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives, it demonstrates with clarity and nuance how media, political rhetoric, and global narratives shape both public understanding and the possibilities for peace. An analytically rich contribution, it will be useful reading for scholars of conflict, discourse, and international politics."

Omar McDoom, Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, London School of Economics, United Kingdom.

"By juxtaposing multiple case studies of media coverage—from China and Russia to Germany and Sweden—the volume offers a valuable, sophisticated, and timely contribution to our understanding of how the Palestine/Israel conflict, and the genocidal war in Gaza in particular, have been represented in international media."

Tamir Sorek, Professor of Middle East History, Pennsylvania State University, USA.