Arab-Israeli Research Articles

Social Media Attention to Geopolitical Conflicts - An Analysis of Weibo Users' Comments on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In the globalized information age, social media has become a primary channel for news and information dissemination, particularly during geopolitical conflicts. This study investigates public sentiment and discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. Utilizing content analysis, the researcher conducted sentiment statistics and word frequency analysis on Weibo comments to understand Chinese public attitudes toward this conflict. The research reveals a significant increase in negative emotions from 33.33% in October 2023 to 100% in April 2024, indicating growing public discontent and concern as the conflict intensified. Concurrently, positive emotions sharply declined from 47.62% to 0%, reflecting diminished hopes for a peaceful resolution. Neutral sentiments also fluctuated, initially at 19.05%, dropping to 0% by April 2024. Additionally, the study identifies a shift in keyword usage from "world peace" and "hope" to specific entities like "Israel" and "Hamas," and terms like "disaster." This highlights a change in public and media focus from peace initiatives to the humanitarian impact of the conflict. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for promoting a more inclusive gaming environment, challenging existing gender stereotypes, and fostering social stability. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of Chinese public opinion on international geopolitical issues and underscores the importance of social media in shaping public discourse.

Protection of Civilian Victims of Armed Conflict Based on International Law (Case Study of the Israeli and Palestinian Conflict)

International armed conflict is defined as a conflict between two or more states or between one state and another party that does not yet have state status. In the world of international law, the Geneva Conventions have been considered the right decision because the results of the convention have been agreed and signed by countries that have been recognized by the United Nations. The essence of the convention is an agreement that protects the safety of military members wounded during the war. In the application of the results of the Geneva Conventions and international human rights law is still not fully applicable. An alliance of countries that gives full support to the Israeli-Palestinian war causes legal defects. The conflict between the two countries has been going on since the early 20th century until now. The Israeli-Palestinian armed conflict is slowly attacking civilians as well. This research is a normative research, which is used to see problems related to armed conflict through legal studies. When viewed from the point of view of the basic state and the principles of the International Law of War, the Israeli-Palestinian war does not follow the existing rules. Several international rules already exist to deal with similar cases, which provide rules and protection. The United Nations here serves to maintain world peace from conflicts between countries.

Framing Analysis of Israel-Palestine Conflict News on Online Media Detik.com and Republika.co.id

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has become a humanitarian tragedy and is in the spotlight of the world's mass media. This research seeks to determine the framing of the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on Zhongdang Pan and Gerald M. Kosicki's analysis model. Two leading online media, detik.com and republika.co.id, were selected as research objects because they have a long history, different audiences, and contrasting approaches to reporting, which reflect their views and handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a qualitative study; data was collected through observation, documentation, and literature study. The analysis results found that detik.com and republika.co.id syntactically present the facts clearly; the script fulfills the 5W + 1H elements with credible source quotes. The thematic structure of detik.com emphasizes the number of victims due to Israeli attacks on Palestine. The rhetorical structure of detik.com contains idioms and displays photos relevant to the news content. The thematic structure of republika.co.id emphasizes the form of Israeli attacks on the Jabalia Refugee Camp. The rhetorical structure contains idioms and photos relevant to the news content. Detik.com frames the news by using the figurative word "bak neraka dunia” (like hell on earth) so that it seems dramatized in its point of view, while republika.co.id is more straightforward in writing sentences and reporting.

The Republic of Türkiye's Diplomatic Stance from the Perspective of Public Diplomacy and its Response to Disinformation: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Today, disinformation has an impact on all aspects of political communication. Public diplomacy is the most important of them. In this context, the Republic of Türkiye has established the Directorate of Communications, Center for Countering Disinformation. It is aimed to develop an effective strategy to combat disinformation both nationally and internationally. This study is centered on the Republic of Türkiye's combat against disinformation in the international arena, within the context of public diplomacy. In this respect, the study aims to reveal the Republic of Türkiye's response and diplomatic stance against disinformation from the perspective of public diplomacy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In line with this objective, a total of 110 pages of disinformation bulletins published in English by the Center for Countering Disinformation on the Israeli-Palestinian war, including its 99th and 102nd issues, were analyzed with content analysis method using the MAXQDA 2022 package program. As a result of the research, it was determined that the Center for Countering Disinformation, through its bulletins, has made a concentrated effort to combat fake news and allegations about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in both traditional and digital media. Moreover, disinformation bulletins addressed manipulated, fabricated, fake, and parody content the most.

Mediator Narration of Memory: US Presidents’ Autobiographies and the Narration of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1993–2012

The main argument of the paper is that we should examine mediator-narrative as an agency in narrative construction of memory during conflict. It demonstrates how despite the differences between the US presidents’ personal world views, their strategic narrations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are strikingly similar. These selective narratives strengthen the image of the US as a peacemaker and benevolent global leader. This narration is achieved by sidelining the detrimental role of the Israeli settlements and security threats, especially the increasing influence of Hamas in the Gaza-Strip. Therefore, this resilient mediator-narrative prevents critical thinking on the conflict and encourages a duplication of such policies.

An Exploration of The Existence and Humanitarian Role of The Icrc in Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in The Gaza Region

An Exploration of The Existence and Humanitarian Role of The Icrc in Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in The Gaza Region

Cultural Differences in Daily Coupling of Subjective Views of Aging and Negative Affect.

The established link between subjective views of aging (VoA) and well-being shows variations across different cultures. Although VoA show daily fluctuations, little is known about cultural differences in such fluctuations and the daily coupling of VoA and well-being. We compared Israeli Arabs to Israeli Jews in the daily coupling of VoA and negative affect (NA). Community-dwelling older adults (N = 76, Mage = 66.71) completed measures of subjective age, subjective accelerated aging, ageist attitudes, and NA over 14 consecutive days. Respondents reported higher daily NA when they felt older, reported to be aging faster, or had more ageist attitudes. The daily coupling between subjective age/subjective accelerated aging and NA was stronger among Israeli Arabs compared to Israeli Jews. There was no such interaction with ageist attitudes. It is important to adopt a cultural perspective when investigating daily fluctuations in VoA and their correlates. In applied contexts, this might help to identify cultural groups that are particularly sensitive to the effects of VoA.

IQOS news media coverage in Israel: a comparison across three subpopulations.

Philip Morris International's (PMI) IQOS, a leading heated tobacco product globally, entered the Israeli market in 2016. IQOS and/or electronic cigarette use is higher in Israel's Arab population (2.8% vs 1.2% of Jews). However, previous research indicated possible targeting of the Ultra-orthodox Jewish population with more IQOS paid ads. This paper examined how IQOS is framed in news media articles directed at three subpopulations in Israel: Arab, Ultra-orthodox Jews and general public. Media articles (January-October 2020) were obtained from Ifat media and were coded using abductive coding. Characteristics of articles (photo and article content) targeting each subpopulation were compared using χ2, Fisher's exact test, one-way analysis of variance and median test, as appropriate. Of the 63 unique articles identified, 16 targeted Arab, 24 Ultra-orthodox Jews and 23 general public. Arab and Ultra-orthodox Jewish media significantly differed from the general public's media in their positive framing of PMI (100% Arab and 75% Ultra-orthodox Jews vs 52% general public, p=0.004), and IQOS (100% Arab and 88% Ultra-orthodox Jews vs 61% general public, p=0.006). Arab media differed from others by highlighting IQOS' retail locations (81% vs 17% Ultra-orthodox Jews and 13% general public), social benefits (88% vs 8% Ultra-orthodox Jews and 17% general public) and reflecting content from PMI's press release (100% vs 46% Ultra-orthodox Jews and 35% general public; ps <0.001). IQOS was framed more positively in media targeting minority populations (Arab and Ultra-orthodox Jews), compared with general public. Arabic media in particular emphasised IQOS' retail accessibility and social benefits. These findings highlight the need for media surveillance and regulation, especially of minority-oriented media.

Edward W. Said: Not so lost reflections On Lost Causes such as the one-state solution

ABSTRACT The article examines the enduring relevance of Edward Said's perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, juxtaposing contemporary challenges with Said's visionary advocacy for a one-state solution. The analysis delves into the complexities of the evolving Middle East dynamics, emphasising the need to reconsider alternative frameworks. Central to our analysis is Said's intellectual ethos, which champions the role of secular intellectuals and profoundly influences his democratic values, his defence of a binational state, and his staunch support for academic freedom. Said's legacy serves as a guiding beacon, stressing the moral imperative to challenge entrenched power structures and advocate for truth. The article explores Said's arguments for a binational state rooted in democratic principles and universal values, arguing that despite scepticism and political marginalisation, his vision offers a compelling pathway toward reconciliation and peace, transcending conventional paradigms and amplifying marginalised voices. This approach highlights how Said's commitment to democracy and intellectual freedom shapes his support for causes other believe to be hopeless and continues to inspire contemporary discourse.

Civilizations at Odds: The Persistent Conflict Between Israel and Palestine

The question whether the issues in the Middle East stem from a clash of values or from Western imperialist intervention has long been a subject of scholarly discourse. This article posits around the discourse of ‘clash of civilizations’, which is an endeavor to uphold Western hegemony in the Middle East. Furthermore, it contends the narrative, that it functions as a self-fulfilling prophecy, exacerbating ongoing conflicts within the region. A complex interplay of factors encompassing ethnic, national, historical, and religious shapes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The degree to which religion influences non-religious players, the identities of conflicting parties, the practical issues at hand, the relevant legislation, and their attitudes are not well acknowledged. This paper explains why West uses a distorted portrayal of conflicting civilizations as a powerful political tool and the risk of this narrative becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy that reshapes modern politics.

Pathways to Thriving in Palestinian Women Citizens of Israel Experiencing IPV: The Contribution of Personal Resources and Recovery Actions

ABSTRACT Personal resources and recovery actions to face trauma are known to impact the wellbeing of survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Although acknowledged as a key component, scant research has been conducted on the recovery trajectories of survivors from Arab societies, especially in Palestinian citizens of Israel. This study examined the contribution of personal resources (empowerment related to safety, dispositional optimism, and potency) to engaging in steps toward recovery and ultimately thriving in 157 Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI) victims of IPV. A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was applied to test a mediation model that estimated the extent to which personal resources (empowerment related to safety, dispositional optimism, and potency) predicted survivors’ thriving directly and indirectly through the mediating variables of engagement in specific recovery actions. The model revealed direct associations between empowerment related to safety, dispositional optimism, potency, and thriving. Women’s empowerment toward safety positively predicted thriving via establishing healing spaces. Contrary to predictions, although women’s empowerment toward safety positively predicted women’s engagement in connecting/sharing, women’s connecting/sharing negatively predicted their thriving. These findings highlight the importance of women’s personal resources by showcasing their strengths and the steps they take to enhance their thriving within the Israeli- Arab context.

Patient racism toward nurses in a divided society: The case of Jews and Arabs in Israel.

This study examines whether racism exists among Jewish and Arab patients in Israel, as reflected in patient preference for receiving treatment from a nurse with the same ethnic background. We examine the relationship between racism and the level of trust in a nurse from a different ethnic group than the patient, as well as the preferred level of social distance, in the context of ongoing conflicts between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Israel. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a unique study questionnaire that asked 534 Jewish and 478 Arab respondents to express their preference for an Arab and a Jewish nurse. Among both the Jews and the Arabs, there is a similar tendency of racism toward nurses of the dissimilar ethnic group. This racism was also prevalent among participants who live in a mixed environment or those who studied or are studying and worked or work in a mixed environment. As the trust in nursing staff members from the other group increases, the level of racism decreases. The greater the social distance the participants felt from the members of the other group, the more racist the attitudes they expressed. Both Jews and Arabs preferred to be treated by nurses of their own ethnic group. In contrast to the contact hypothesis theory, participants who live in a mixed environment did not express fewer racist preferences. We conclude with some useful practical suggestions aimed at decreasing racism in health care. Findings imply that prospective patients prefer to receive nursing care from nurses of their own ethnic group and trust these nurses more than they trust nurses of different ethnic group.

The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in the Memory of the Past the Jewish Nation: From Holocaust to Holocaust

The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in the Memory of the Past the Jewish Nation: From Holocaust to Holocaust

The Power of fiction and a shared framework in confronting contested pasts

ABSTRACT Artistic memorial interventions that raise the question ‘what if?’ – what life in the present would look like had past events unfolded differently – can be understood in light of the concept ‘as if’ in Jeffrey Goldfarb’s Politics of Small Things. ‘As if’ constitutes a shared framework for public debate that enables a more equal voice to participants with different identities and social positions who meet ‘as if’ they were equal. In cases of conflict over the past and present, like Nakba’s memory in Israel–Palestine, the creation of a joint framework in which all sides can participate without erasing asymmetrical violence and power relations is crucial yet difficult. By opening up space for the consideration of counter histories, a new public can be formed, even if temporarily, and potentially expand the horizon of public debate.

Larissa Sansour’s cinema and the One-State solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict

Este artigo busca compreender como a cineasta palestina Larissa Sansour mobiliza a luta anticolonialista palestina contra a ocupação sionista através da análise fílmica de Patrimônio Nacional (2013). Além de refletir a respeito das interações entre as imagens do filme dentro da própria narrativa, relacionamos a obra com as categorias violência, território, temporalidade e vestígios; entrevistas da cineasta sobre seu trabalho e a situação da Palestina; e com os recentes acontecimentos pós 7 de outubro de 2023. Além disso, investigamos como Sansour se apropria do gênero da ficção científica e seus tropos, como elementos constitutivos para criar um filme-manifesto baseado nas teorias decoloniais de autores como Achille Mbembe (2018), Ilan Pappé (2016) e Edward Said (2012), tensionando os conceitos e apontamentos deles junto à narrativa fílmica, principalmente os que se referem aos efeitos prolongados de processos de colonização como o estabelecido por Israel na Palestina desde 1948. Mais do que refletir sobre a colonização, entendemos que Larissa Sansour, através de Patrimonio Nacional, se estabelece como uma força anticolonial, endereçando uma contundente crítica ao sionismo e aos empreendimentos capitalistas que acompanham processos de colonialidade como este.

A Land Acknowledgment in a Different Key: Palestine, Solidarity and the Disruption of the Liberal Script

Rather than the exception to an otherwise progressive intellectual environment in North American, and specifically Canadian universities, the suppression of speech related to Palestine reveals the racial limits of a settler-colonial liberal politics of acknowledgment and reconciliation. The mainstream or institutional conceptualisation of academic freedom does not address the structural racism and settler-colonial realities within which Canadian universities are embedded, rendering them as ‘natural’ allies for Israeli institutions and state practices. A complicated, if revealing, moment of exposure of the limits of the liberal script of reconciliation is the land acknowledgment, which has become, since October 2023, an opportunity grasped by some critical scholars to acknowledge the links between the ongoing genocide in Palestine and settler colonialism across Turtle Island. Tracing the oppositional functions of the land acknowledgment, this article exposes the political limits of a liberal racial order, which is explicitly challenged by expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

Dual Narratives of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict in Court: Shaping the Perception of International Terrorism

This article focuses on trials stemming from attacks on El Al aircraft in Athens (1968) and Zurich (1969) and their role in shaping the narrative surrounding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The defense framed the attacks as part of a Palestinian military campaign against Israel, thus rationalizing the behavior as a legitimate response to its actions in occupied territories. In doing so, the Palestinians sought to portray themselves as political resistance fighters. Conversely, the Israelis depicted the attacks as deplorable acts of terrorism that targeted innocent civilians. Their objective was to counter the political motivations put forward by the Palestinians and emphasize the potential repercussions of such attacks on international air travel. These trials marked the first instances of legal proceedings specifically addressing international terrorism, framing these incidents as acts of terrorism rather than legitimate acts of liberation. The trials, along with their outcomes and the subsequent verdicts issued by the courts, played a significant role in defining these actions as terrorism. Subsequent international conventions on hijacking further reinforced this perspective, solidifying them as illegitimate acts of terror.

Encouraging professional excellence among social workers from disadvantaged minorities: Palestinians in Israel as a case study

This article investigates the way in which disadvantaged minority social workers’ professional excellence is encouraged, drawing data from an analysis of primary documents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 Palestinian welfare bureau managers in Israel. It finds that the Jewish voluntary sector is the sole player encouraging Palestinian minority social workers’ excellence, but its encouragement maintains the status quo regime, politicisation and alienation, and pushes towards neoliberalism. Most of the Palestinian welfare bureaus consciously prefer to avoid encouraging social workers’ excellence to avoid confrontation with the central government in the form of the Israeli Welfare Ministry. A small group of welfare bureaus sufficed with indirect encouragement, enlisting non-governmental organisations for the task because of the paucity of resources. A small number of bureaus that granted excellence certificates and a token gift applied three considerations. Excellence awards constituted a method for coping with the challenges facing Palestinian minority social work.

Observations of ionospheric disturbances associated with the 2020 Beirut explosion by Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and ground-based ionosondes

Abstract. A major explosion that released a significant amount of energy into the atmosphere occurred in Beirut on 4 August 2020. The energy released may have reached the upper atmosphere and generated some traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), which can affect radio wave propagation. In this study, we used data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and ground-based ionosondes in the Mediterranean region to investigate the ionospheric response to this historic explosion event. Our DMSP data analysis revealed a noticeable increase in the ionospheric electron density near the Beirut area following the explosion, accompanied by some wavelike disturbances. Some characteristic TID signatures were also identified in the shape of ionogram traces at several locations in the Mediterranean. This event occurred during a period of relatively quiet geomagnetic conditions, making the observed TIDs likely to have originated from the Beirut explosion, not from other sources such as auroral activities. These observational findings demonstrate that TIDs from the Beirut explosion were able to propagate over longer distances, beyond the immediate areas of Lebanon and Israel–Palestine, reaching the Mediterranean and eastern Europe.

"Yiddishists for Palestine": Diasporism and Solidarity through Twenty-First Century Yiddish Song

ABSTRACT: As many young Jews grow increasingly alienated from Zionist narratives, some have found a space for expressions of diasporism and solidarity with Palestinians in the international Yiddishist music scene. This article examines four twenty-first century Yiddish songs that refer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and express solidarity with Palestinians: "Ver Tantzt" by Black Ox Orkestar, "Dumai" by Daniel Kahn, "A shtik fun harts" by Josh Waletzky and Michael Winograd, and "Qibya" by Koyt far dayn fardakht. These songs were compiled by the authors as part of the group "Yiddishist with Palestine," an online gathering of Yiddishist activists that started during the 2021 Gaza war, discussing strategies for expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Yiddishist communal spaces. Through textual, contextual, and musical analysis, and drawing on theories of diaspora and diasporism, the article explores the various ways these songs express Jewish solidarity with Palestinians.