Language and Civilian Deaths: Denying Responsibility for Casualties in the Gaza Conflict 2014

Abstract

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 1,462 civilians were killed in Gaza, and six civilians were killed in Israel during the conflict of 2104. This article uses discursive psychology to examine how Israeli spokespeople described the conflict, and Israel's actions, in ways that denied responsibility for civilian deaths. They did this using a number of discursive strategies. These included: (1) using passive and noun constructions which minimized reference to civilian deaths and erased Israeli involvement in those deaths; (2) repeatedly naming and providing details of Hamas weapons and attacks while avoiding reference to Israeli weapons and violence; (3) presenting Israel as only trying to avoid civilian deaths; and (4) describing Hamas as responsible for all deaths. These types of linguistic constructions allow governments and potential supporters to avoid acknowledging the consequences of their military actions and is one way that the virtuous nature of the ingroup is reinforced in political discourse.