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

Discourses of War, Media and Politics in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict examines how language, media, and political narratives shape understandings of one of the world’s most contested conflicts.

Moving beyond military and diplomatic analyses, this book explores the Israeli–Palestinian conflict as a struggle over meaning, legitimacy, and historical interpretation. Through interdisciplinary approaches to discourse analysis, the contributors investigate how terms such as “occupation,” “terrorism,” “resistance,” “security,” and “genocide” have been contested, reframed, and politicised across different historical moments. The volume demonstrates how discourse does not simply describe political realities, but actively constructs them by shaping public perceptions, moral evaluations, and the boundaries of political possibility. Bringing together established and emerging scholars from around the world, the book provides critical analyses of the narratives, media representations, and ideological frameworks that continue to influence debates surrounding violence, justice, and human rights in Israel/Palestine.

This book will appeal to scholars and students of media studies, political communication, discourse analysis, Middle East politics, and conflict studies, as well as readers interested in the relationship between language, power, and representation in contemporary global conflicts.

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.