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Media and Peace in the Middle East
Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict

Series editor:
Professor John D. Brewer
Institute for the Study of Conflict, Queen’s University Belfast, UK

Series advisory board:

John Braithwaite, Australian National University, Hastings Donnan, Queen’s
University Belfast, UK, Brandon Hamber, University of Ulster, UK, Ian McAlister,
Australian National University, William Mishler, University of Arizona, USA,
Barbara Misztal, University of Leicester, UK, Orla Muldoon, University of
Limerick, Ireland, Clifford Shearing, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Titles include:
John D. Brewer, David Mitchell, Gerard Leavey
EX-COMBATANTS, RELIGION AND PEACE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
The Role of Religion in Transitional Justice
Denis Dragovic
RELIGION AND POST-CONFLICT STATEBUILDING
Roman Catholic and Sunni Islamic Perspectives
Sandra Milena Rios Oyola
RELIGION, SOCIAL MEMORY AND CONFLICT
The Massacre of Bojayá in Colombia

Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict

Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–137–29935–2 Hardback
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order.
Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with
your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS, England.
Media and Peace in the
Middle East
The Role of Journalism in Israel–Palestine

Giuliana Tiripelli
MEDIA AND PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE ROLE OF JOURNALISM IN ISRAEL–PALESTINE
© Giuliana Tiripelli 2016.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-50400-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication
may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be
reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance
with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under
the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published 2016 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc.,
One New York Plaza, Suite 4500 New York, NY 10004–1562.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

ISBN: 978-1-349-70005-9
E-PDF ISBN: 978–1–137–50401–2
DOI: 10.1057/9781137504012
Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave
Macmillan®, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England,
company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tiripelli, Giuliana, author.
Title: Media and peace in the Middle East : the role of journalism in
Israel-Palestine / Giuliana Tiripelli, University of Glasgow.
Description: New York : Palgrave Macmillan, [2016] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015039324
Subjects: LCSH: Arab-Israeli conflict – Mass media and the conflict. | Arab-Israeli
conflict – Press coverage. | Arab-Israeli conflict – Public opinion. | Mass media
and war. | Mass media and peace.
Classification: LCC DS119.76 .T57 2016 | DDC 956.9405/4—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039324
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Contents

Series Editor’s Preface vii

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction 1
Peace journalism 5
About this book 12
Structure of the book 14

1 Media and Change 19

Introduction 19
The links between journalism and change 20
Shaping change through journalism 36
Conclusions 40

2 Peace after the Intifada 42

Introduction 42
Towards the 1993 Peace Accord 43
Peace during Oslo 51
Peace after the second Intifada 59
Conclusions 62

3 Grassroots Visions of Peace 64

Introduction 64
Before Oslo 65
Remembering the Declaration of Principle 69
Grassroots peace from Oslo to current times 71
Grassroots peace vis-à-vis conservative forces 74
Transformative dialogue and experience 81
Conclusions 85

4 The Media Seen from Below 87

Introduction 87
Foreign peace promoters and the media 87
Israeli and Palestinian peace promoters and the media 93
A new role for the media? 100
Conclusions 104
vi Contents

5 Journalists Covering Palestine: Old and New Perspectives 106

Introduction 106
Remembering peace: the journalists and the peace process 107
Journalists’ perspectives on the conflict 113
Journalists’ evaluations of journalism 120
Conclusions 126

6 Journalists and Their Profession 128

Introduction 128
Professional journalism and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict 128
Constraints on transformative journalism 133
The potential role of journalism in changing the conflict 141
Conclusions 147

Conclusions: A Strategy for Peace Journalism 150

Peace promoters 152
Content 156
Audiences 157
Journalists 159
Final reflections 164

Notes 165

References 177

Index 189
Series Editor’s Preface

‘Compromise’ is a much used but little understood term. There is a sense

in which it describes a set of feelings (the so-called spirit of compromise)
that involve reciprocity, representing the agreement to make mutual
concessions towards each other from now on; that no matter what we
did to each other in the past, we will act towards each other in the future
differently, as set out in the agreement between us. The compromise
settlement can be a spit and a handshake, much beloved in folklore, or
a legally binding statute with hundreds of clauses.
As such, it is clear that compromise enters into conflict transforma-
tion at two distinct phases. The first is during the conflict resolution
process itself, where compromise represents a willingness among parties
to negotiate a peace agreement that represents a second-best preference
in which they give up their first preference (victory) in order to cut a
deal. A great deal of literature has been produced in Peace Studies and
International Relations on the dynamics of the negotiation process and
the institutional and governance structures necessary to consolidate the
agreement afterwards. Just as important, however, is compromise in the
second phase, when compromise is part of post-conflict reconstruction
and reconciliation, in which protagonists come to learn to live together,
despite their former enmity and in face of the atrocities perpetrated
during the conflict itself.
In the first phase, compromise describes reciprocal agreements
between parties to the negotiations in order to make political concessions
sufficient to end violence; in the second phase, compromise involves
victims and perpetrators developing ways of living together in which
inter-personal concessions are made as part of a shared social life. The
first is about compromises between political groups and the state in the
process of state-building (or re-building) after the political upheavals of
communal conflict; the second is about compromises between individ-
uals and communities in the process of social healing after the cultural
trauma provoked by the conflict. Reconciliation in the second phase is
as protracted and difficult as in the first, and usually takes longer.
This book series primarily concerns itself with the second process, the
often messy and difficult job of reconciliation, restoration and repair in
social and cultural relations following communal conflict. Communal

vii
viii Series Editor’s Preface

conflicts and civil wars tend to suffer from the narcissism of minor differ-
ences, to borrow Freud’s phrase, leaving little to be split halfway and
little to compromise on, and thus are usually especially bitter. The series
therefore addresses itself to the meaning, manufacture and management
of compromise in one of its most difficult settings. The books are cross-
national and cross-disciplinary, with attention paid to inter-personal
reconciliation at the level of everyday life, as well as culturally between
social groups, and the many sorts of institutional, inter-personal, psycho-
logical, sociological, anthropological and cultural factors that assist and
inhibit societal healing in the array of post-conflict societies, histori-
cally and in the present. The series focuses on what compromise means
when people have to come to terms with past enmity, memories of the
conflict itself and relate to former protagonists in ways that consolidate
the wider political agreement.
This sort of focus has special resonance and significance, for peace
agreements are usually very fragile. Societies emerging out of conflict
are subject to: ongoing violence from spoiler groups who are reluctant
to give up on first preferences; constant threats from the outbreak of
renewed violence; institutional instability; weakened economies; and a
wealth of problems around transitional justice, memory, truth recovery
and victimhood, amongst others. Not surprisingly therefore, reconcili-
ation and healing in social and cultural relations is difficult to achieve,
not least because inter-personal compromise between erstwhile enemies
is difficult.
Lay discourse picks up on the ambivalent nature of compromise after
conflict. It is talked about as common sense in one of two ways in
which compromise is either a virtue or a vice, taking its place among
the angels or in Hades. One form of lay discourse likens concessions
with former protagonists to the idea of a restoration of broken relation-
ships and societal and cultural reconciliation, in which there is a sense
of becoming (or returning) to wholeness and completeness. The other
form of lay discourse invokes ideas of appeasement, of being compro-
mised by the concessions, which constitute a form of surrender and
reproduce (or disguise) continued brokenness and division. People feel
they continue to be beaten by the sticks which the concessions have
allowed others to keep; with restoration, however, weapons are turned
truly into ploughshares. Lay discourse suggests, therefore, that there
are issues that the Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict series
must begin to problematise, so that the process of societal healing is
better understood and can be assisted and facilitated by public policy
and intervention.
Series Editor’s Preface ix

Peace journalism has a significant contribution to make to the

healing process. Peace journalism can be understood as journalism
which creates opportunities for society to reflect upon and value both
non-violent responses to conflict and a better, non-violent future. The
problem is that it is often unpopular amongst journalists. It is thought
of as more relevant to war zones, where it might encourage media to
help search for, and assist in promoting, peace. It seems less appropriate
to post-conflict societies where the problem is dealing with the legacy
of conflict. Journalists can also see it as an infringement of strongly
held principles of media freedom and autonomy, resulting in the idea
of peace journalism being responded to emotionally rather than calmly.
This emotional reaction resonates with the largely masculine culture of
‘conflict journalism’. One well-known journalist in Northern Ireland,
for example, described peace journalism as ‘leftie, tree hugging shite’.
Conflict makes local news international, and some great figures in
journalism first began building their reputation by reporting from war
zones. The violence honed their journalistic skills. Some became almost
like war correspondents, thriving on the smell of cordite, whilst others
sharpened their investigative powers, sniffing out secret meetings and
back-channel discussions, eager to disclose who was supposed to be
talking to whom and, supposedly, about what. The clandestine nature of
it all merely added to their prowess – and the danger to their reputation.
Peace processes, in contrast, are so much more boring. Journalists can
thus find it difficult to make the transition to the changed circumstances
of peace building. Accordingly, some journalists remain in conflict
mode, always looking backward and prioritising evidence of continued
violence and threat, leading to the neglect of news items that point to
change and which reflect people’s aspirations for a better future.
The idea of peace journalism thus gets to the core of how journalists
see their role. Are they neutral observers almost floating above society,
looking down as the ‘fourth estate’ distant and aloof, truthfully ‘telling
it like it is’? Or are they part of the very society they report upon, at the
same time shaped by it and helping to construct it? And if the latter,
do they have some responsibility to help people in societies emerging
out of conflict to make the necessary adjustments by which society can
learn to live together in peace and tolerance? Two questions therefore
must be asked of journalists. How should they commit to this new form
called peace journalism? And how should they deal with the challenges
that still dog fragile and hesitant peace processes? But there is a deeper
question here that the public needs to ask itself: does society get the
journalism it deserves? In other words, do people in societies that are
x Series Editor’s Preface

emerging out of conflict have some role and responsibility to ensure

they get the kind of journalism that best suits their needs in building a
better future?
This relationship – between media and society in a context of post-
conflict recovery and reconstruction – needs further collaborative
exploration by journalists, academics, politicians and the public. This
volume in the series is thus very timely. The author uses a case study –
journalism in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict – to address very broad
issues about the nature of journalism in promoting non-violence and
peace. It challenges the idea that the media treats facts as sacred, that it
reports them unadulterated and that it is fact driven, for facts are socially
constructed; everywhere, in all countries and in all contexts, exigencies
like ‘taste and decency’ or news agendas or political biases mean some
facts are disclosed, some remain hidden. The author poses key questions
of journalists about the choices that need to be made between ‘good’
and ‘bad’ news, between the focus on past and future, between empha-
sising continuity or change after conflict, and between developing
a sense of crisis and hope. And she asks about the values that should
influence this choice and about the responsibilities journalists have to
help shape a better society when emerging out of conflict. This does not
mean ignoring crisis or bad news; it is about balancing them with hope,
peace and tolerance. It is about questioning the assumption in conflict
journalism that hope, forgiveness and reconciliation are uninteresting
and un-newsworthy. It is about using the power of the media to improve
lives rather than pander to base hatreds, stereotypes, myths and beliefs
because they sell newspapers, raise listening figures or represent the
natural constituency of some newspaper readers. These are key issues
raised by this book and, as Series Editor, I warmly welcome this new
addition to the Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict Series.

John D. Brewer
Acknowledgements

This book is the conclusion of a search marked by encounters with many

people who contributed to its final shape in various ways. The research
presented here took its substantial form during my years at the Glasgow
University Media Group. The support I received from my friends and
colleagues there was invaluable. In particular, my gratitude goes to
Professor Greg Philo, who provided me with precious advice about
how to approach such delicate topic as the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
I am also grateful to him for his advice on how to access the journal-
ists covering it, and his teachings about measuring media power in a
comprehensive way and without losing my critical stance. My gratitude
also goes to members and friends at the School of Social and Political
Sciences at Glasgow, and the university at large. Within the School,
I particularly relied on the warm and patient assistance and advice
of Professors Bridget Fowler and John Eldridge. Dr Sarah Armstrong
supported me practically and continuously with her advice on ethical
matters and the direction of my research. Professor Andrew Hoskins,
also at the University of Glasgow, provided insightful comments to my
work, which have helped in enriching and fully developing the analysis
provided here.
Before Glasgow, I crossed paths with Professor Marta Petricioli of
the University of Florence, and Professor Michelgugliemo Torri of the
University of Turin, who gave me the opportunity to do research about
the Middle East and the Oslo peace process, providing the basis for the
historical knowledge presented in this book. Without that opportunity,
my research would never have developed into its current form. At the
same time, I would have not been able to turn this piece of research into
a book without the encouragement of Professor John Brewer of Queen’s
University Belfast, who saw in my research the potential for a contribu-
tion to peace journalism.
My gratitude also goes to all the journalists, peace promoters, experts
and officials, who shared with me their stories, knowledge and ideas
about peace. In particular, I would like to thank the journalists who
spared their valuable time to provide me with detailed insights into
their profession, and allowed me access to their visions of the world
they cover. Among them, I am particularly grateful to Seth Freedman,

xi
xii Acknowledgements

for accepting a sociologist at his heels while he did his job, and to Denis
Brunetti, for telling me stories that helped me bring to light the hidden
human side of journalism. My gratitude then goes to Professor Raouf
Halaby of Ouachita Baptist University for helping me compare media
representations with his rich personal insights into crucial moments of
history that he witnessed directly. When he passed me materials about
peace activities that he had participated in during the first Intifada, I
felt as if he was passing on his old hopes for change, for me to renew
them in another wave of the search for peace. This sense of duty gave
me a strong motivation for writing this book. I am also thankful for
the reports of peace promoters that Mike Daly, Program Coordinator of
Interfaith Peace-Builders, kindly retrieved, provided and discussed with
me. They constitute just a sample of the wide and effective, but hidden,
representations that exist, and could promote different understandings
and, perhaps, change.
The deepest roots of this study determined its focus on the thoughts
and hopes of individuals involved in this conflict, making of this work
an attempt to understand how irreconcilable visions come to meet. Its
roots lie in my involvement in dialogue activities between Israelis and
Palestinians in Florence in 1993, a few weeks before the signature of
the peace accord. We shared a unique personal experience, one which
remains unforgettable for those who were lucky enough to take part
in it. This book is a token of my gratitude to all the organisers of and
participants in that experience, and in this sense it concludes a long
journey of search.
In the final stages of this book, the Department of Sociological Studies
at the University of Sheffield provided a supportive environment in
which to complete the manuscript. I also received practical help from
Dr Jen Birks of the University of Nottingham, who kindly read some
of my drafts and pointed me to parallel research which could inform
my analysis of the media. The most precious help in writing the book
came from my friend and colleague Dr Lito Tsitsou of the University of
Glasgow, who carefully and flexibly revised my drafts throughout, stage
after stage, and gave me encouragement and strong support all through
the process.
Finally, I thank Dr Gianluca Fantoni, of Nottingham Trent University,
who supported me during this long journey in all ways possible in order
for this book to see the light of the day.
Introduction

In addressing the role of the media in Israeli–Palestinian relations, this

book aims to contribute to the study of conflict transformation through
journalism. It revolves around the idea of social change and the condi-
tions for achieving change both from within, and through the agency of
the profession. The book seeks to critically support a model of journalism
that is deeply rooted in the complexity of the struggle for representa-
tion of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and that can promote change.
Specifically, it explores research findings through the lens of peace
journalism, discussing the effective application of this model to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict in two ways. First, it offers an in-depth and
original analysis of the situation in which this journalism will operate,
investigating in particular the interplay between professional practices,
the peculiarities of the news production processes and discourses on the
conflict. It then examines how these practices and peculiarities affect
ways of understanding and representing the conflict which can trigger
or facilitate social change. Second, this study is framed around the
theory and practices of peace journalism, highlighting areas in which
this model could invest. The originality of the analysis lies in the topics
chosen for investigation, as well as the approach used for this purpose.
Specifically, the book focuses on the practices and beliefs of grassroots
peace promoters and their narratives of change, contrasting these with
the practices and beliefs of journalists involved in the coverage of the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This comparison aims to highlight the
factors determining the distance between discourses about the conflict
created by the media and those of the actors who most prominently
work for conflict transformation in the field. By juxtaposing these two
groups, the book reveals how journalism, just like grassroots action, is
also profoundly tied to its own social and material context, while both

1
2 Media and Peace in the Middle East

entail intense cognitive and emotive involvement and political perspec-

tive. In-depth explorations of these factors offer a map of the subtle
dynamics that can prevent the application of alternative models of jour-
nalism. At the same time, such mapping can highlight spaces where
alternative, change-oriented models can take root and flourish.
The temporal and historical frame for this analysis stretches from
the first Intifada in 1987 to 2015, with a special focus on the Oslo
peace process which began in 1993, in order to contextualise and
explain the origins of current ideas on peace held by peace promoters
and journalists, and the ways in which these perspectives have devel-
oped over time. If successful peace processes can only be explained
by demonstrating “the intersection between individual biographical
experience, history, social structural changes, and developments and
events in the political process” (Brewer 2003: ix), the same applies to
failed ones like the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.
In particular, focusing on a period during which narratives of peace
apparently converged, this work explores how much of that discourse
was the manifestation of a convergence of aims between Israelis and
Palestinians and how much it was rather a response to new political
necessities and power relations which found a common path to diver-
gent ends in those negotiations. In this way, the analysis offers a clearer
view of the system of beliefs that inhibits change, and how alternative
narratives can be met and understood by those actors that should be
part of the transformation.
The role of the media in shaping the ways in which people think
has been widely researched. However, less has been said about how
these effects and the interactions between media and surrounding envi-
ronments shape change and opportunities for transformation in soci-
eties marked by conflicts. In other words, there is very little research
connecting trends in media coverage to findings on media effects,
which also fully locates those connections in their own historical
and social context specifically to discuss peace. Wolfsfeld’s work (e.g.
2004) is almost unique in its comprehensive discussion of the macro-
dynamics that inform media performance during attempts at conflict
transformation in light of the specificity of social and political contexts.
The reason for this research gap lies in the difficulty of approaching the
contextual specificity that audiences and media inhabit, which is where
additional important factors interfere in shaping beliefs. As Schudson
acknowledged, the media are only “the visible tip of the iceberg of
social influences on human behavior” (2011: 11). Studying the media
position within these influences entails approaching a complex set
Introduction 3

of relations and dynamics that make it more difficult to capture and

distinguish their specific role. At the same time, acknowledging the
multiple environments from which media and their narratives emerge
and develop does not necessarily mean overlooking the power of the
media in affecting these contexts. On the contrary, this acknowledge-
ment may allow important empirical explanations of how media exert
similar effects on audiences in different situations, social groups, and
over time, providing further evidence for theoretical models of factors
and influences affecting media production. Approaching and explaining
the complete set of social influences that shape beliefs and behaviours in
relation to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in order to define the media
role in this conflict remains a rather difficult task. However, it is possible
to deal with “the iceberg” by drilling holes in it in order to examine
the different layers produced over time and their constituent elements.
In social sciences, this metaphor translates into a focus on hidden and
micro-level dynamics and narratives of specific groups within their own
political, historical and narrative context. Such an approach has recently
been used with excellent results by Bishara (2013), who in her ethnog-
raphy analyses the work of Palestinian journalists. In a similar way, the
present book looks at transformation from within and approaches the
discussion about change in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through
the media, by looking at the contextual specificity and multiple envi-
ronments in which perspectives on peace take shape. This is done,
unavoidably, at the expense of a comprehensive evaluation of all the
social, political and media forces at play in shaping and constraining
narratives of peace in this conflict. In order to explain what the role of
the media has been, and what it could be, in the context of this conflict,
the book balances this micro-level focus with an analysis of the relation-
ship between media and change linked to the narratives of peace about
Palestine that have been developing at the political and social levels
since the 1990s.
Through this approach, the book aims to uncover the varied and
additional epistemological claims of journalism that operate in shaping
practitioners’ approaches to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. It responds
to the need for “careful, comparative ethnographic research”, which
“promises a deeper appreciation of how text, talk and visuals are profes-
sionally built into the various epistemological claims to ‘truth’ that
inform today’s news” (Cottle 2007: 11). In particular, this approach can
reveal the set of cognitive elements that prevents journalists’ engage-
ment with other, more progressive forms of coverage. It also reveals how
the classic articulations of objectivity, balance, truthfulness and accuracy
4 Media and Peace in the Middle East

that justify journalism are only one aspect of a much more complex set
of beliefs about the profession in this context – beliefs which tend to
shape the media effects in a specific direction.
As Shinar and Bratic acknowledged, the media are not actively involved
in peace-oriented communication (2010: 137). While their remark
concerned Israeli and Palestinian media, a similar comment can be made
about mainstream journalism more generally. The production of peace-
oriented material remains the task of NGOs, activists and alternative
media, rarely reaching a wide audience. At the same time, research has
shown that media play an important role in shaping beliefs about change
according to tendencies that are critically discussed in this book.
Thus, the raison d’être of this approach is to empower an alternative
journalism, one that chooses to rely on those epistemological claims that
can enhance its role in and contribution to conflict transformation. In
pursuing this aim, this approach also highlights potential bridges between
backstage (cognitive) experiences of journalists, and the claims and expe-
riences of peace promoters. As a consequence, it shows the narrow but
potential spaces in which alternative models of professional journalism
can invest. In these ways, the book responds to an invitation to:

contribute to the empowerment of those counter-hegemonic voices

seeking to contest the truth politics of news discourse, not least by
helping to first disrupt and then expand the ideological parameters
of ‘the obvious facts of the matter’. (Allan 2004: 97)

The material used for these purposes consists of interviews with a range
of Israeli, Palestinian and foreign journalists who have worked on the
topic of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in a variety of ways. The study
also includes interviews and material provided by active peace promoters
who have been involved in dialogue and nonviolent transformative
grassroots action at different stages between the first Intifada and 2015.
The material, which was collected over a period of seven years (2008–
2015), constitutes the professional development of an initially personal
involvement in this conflict. About two months before the signature
of the Oslo accord in 1993, which opened the peace process between
Israelis and Palestinians, I participated in a “peace camp” co-organised by
Italian institutions, Palestinian and Israeli organisations. This involved
three weeks of total immersion in activity and dialogue with Israeli and
Palestinian students in Italy. It was followed by a group visit to Palestine
in December of the same year, which provided the occasion to visit
Introduction 5

Israeli and Palestinian friends after the beginning of the peace process,
an unexpected event for all of those involved in the camp during the
previous summer. Unlike most Western citizens who usually develop an
understanding of the vicissitudes of this area through mediated content,
I had the unique opportunity to form my initial understanding of the
conflict on the basis of this personal, practical experience, and through
dialogue with people living in Palestine. However, over the months
following this visit my direct involvement with the area started to wane,
and I had to progressively rely on the media to follow the involution of
the peace process.1 Only in 2008 did I have the opportunity to go back
to Palestine. On this occasion, the purpose of the visit was to conduct
interviews with journalists and activists as part of my research fieldwork.
This experience provided an opportunity to assess the impact of the
Oslo process and its failure on the ground, and to realise how much this
differed from the image projected by the media over time. It especially
showed how earlier beliefs about change had been transformed under
the weight of the political developments during the fifteen years since
the peace camp.
In writing this work, I faced the challenges of my status as peace
promoter and researcher, but I also became an ‘archaeologist’ trying to
capture the ‘reality’ of this period based on current reflections of my
participants. The period since Oslo has been marked by a number of
important, if regressive, events which inevitably influenced the ideas of
the informants of this research, but do not in any way undermine the
validity of their reports. These remain precious sources for this study, the
aim of which is to investigate the ways in which their perspectives on
peace have evolved over time, and unpack the factors which concurred
in this evolution.

Peace journalism

The findings presented in this book can benefit those subjects that seek
to create opportunities through media for the transformation of Israeli–
Palestinian relations. This includes a wide range of actors: mainstream
and alternative journalists looking for opportunities of critical engage-
ment with their own work; activists, NGOs and peace promoters seeking
to improve their strategies for communication and incite change; active
groups within the Israeli and Palestinian communities that aim to
promote dialogue and new beliefs in the Other; and researchers investi-
gating media, peace building and social change. What these actors have
6 Media and Peace in the Middle East

in common is the fact that their work often relies on a critique of the
status quo, driven by normative aims. As Cottle argued, however,

normative critique has to be augmented, if it is to have any political

purchase at all, by studies and analysis of actual media performance
and their complex interactions and dynamics and how these often
impact processes of peace building, conflict resolution and reconcili-
ation. (2006: 103)

This makes peace journalism particularly suitable for this kind of anal-
ysis. Moving from a critique of the dominant dichotomist framing
and simplification in journalism, peace journalism advocates coverage
which reincorporates events and protagonists into the social structure
that shaped them, and that makes this work visible to audiences. This
new frame is crucial to any peaceful solution because, as suggested by
Seaga Shaw (2011: 101), it moves the responsibility for violence away
from perpetrators and the Other towards social factors, and within the
“interaction game” (Galtung and Vincent 1992: 126–127) that takes
place behind the scenes of the conflict coverage. Once widely shared
in society, such visions exert their normative potential. They prevent
forms of punishment that could endanger the harmonious coexistence
of peoples in the long term, and provide explanations on the basis of
which nonviolent opportunities for change can be built. In particular,
these alternative visions allow groups to look for solutions focused
on changing those aspects of social structures and cultures that main-
tain the conflict. It is in this light that it makes sense to say, as Seaga
Shaw argued, that all sides are responsible for the solution of a conflict
(2011: 100).
Shifting the focus from conflict to peace, peace journalism also fills
an important gap in media studies. The focus on what media do and the
structures constraining them risks leaving aside the progressive aspects
of social life that the media do not cover, but which still contribute to
shaping the structure and context in which the media operate. Aspects
of this kind are revealed all too rarely in research. The focus on media
as they are has also led to the direct or indirect reliance of researchers
on categories of analysis borrowed from the media sector.2 Despite their
value in highlighting incoherencies in the profession, these categories
have made new knowledge more “mediatic”, delaying the engagement
of research with alternative models of journalism which challenge
these categories. Peace journalism is an optimistic response to research
that has highlighted the power of the media in shaping how audiences
Introduction 7

think and the structural constraints determining how journalists work.

In this sense, it is of central interest in a study about media and social
change.
Using the widely illustrated idea that the media affect the ways in
which people understand the world and themselves, peace journalism
maintains that they can do so in the opposite direction, by opening
alternative possibilities that challenge the status quo. According to this
model, media agents can disentangle themselves from established profes-
sional conventions, from the conventions embodied in the phenomena
they cover, and from the factors that influence their profession, and
plan intended effects through autonomously chosen messages.
This “media-centric” (Cottle 2006: 103) approach of the model is,
however, one of its main limitations, which the contextualised anal-
ysis provided in this book tries to repair. Indeed, despite being cultural
work, peace journalism remains technically ill equipped to offer an
understanding of the media processes and their effects as profoundly
cultural (Schudson 2011). Its promoters have also recognised that
“peaceful” media alone may not be able to bring about peace unless
other factors change in society (Galtung and Vincent 1992: 141). Lynch
et al., drawing on the definition of peace journalism as “a set of choices”
provided by Lynch and McGoldrick (2005a: 5), weakened further the
link between peace journalism and peace achievement (Lynch et al.
2011: 13). Indeed, it has not been proven that coverage that reveals
more of the “truth” (as peace journalists aim to do) brings about or
facilitates a peaceful solution. This is not only because, as Lynch put
it, coverage operating along peace journalism lines can only facilitate
peaceful solutions if society prefers the opportunities it brings about
to violence (Lynch 2008: 4; Lynch and Galtung 2010: 26, 51); but it
is also due to social factors and the complexity of the media machine
and its links with cultural and power dynamics and group interests in
society. Despite being acknowledged in the literature, these factors have
played, so far, little role in the empirical contribution and the prescrip-
tive model of peace journalism.
In highlighting the social factors and the complexity of the media
machine in context, this book aims to respond to some of these prob-
lems by also calling for a more “qualitative approach for investigating
peace journalism in media coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian and other
conflicts” (Ozohu-Suleiman 2014: 101). The book sets out to support
peace journalism becoming an effective part of the problem-solving
strand of peace studies in the context of this conflict, while at the same
time taking into account structures that tend to nourish such conflict.
8 Media and Peace in the Middle East

The balance between macro and micro levels of analysis presented in the
book aims at achieving these purposes.
The ethnographic focus on individual perspectives enables the
protagonists of change, i.e. peace promoters and journalists, to define
themselves. The metaphorical “drilling” thus reaches the actors in the
field, explaining ways in which the local is “the product of constant
social negotiation between localised and non-localised ideas, norms and
practices” (Mac Ginty and Richmond 2013: 776). Counter-balancing
the media-imposed narratives in this way, the book traces “the connec-
tions between journalists, their sources, the stories they cover and the
consequences of their reporting” (Lynch and McGoldrick 2005a: 5) in
an analysis that matches critique and problem-solving.
Despite its limitations, in other areas peace journalism has gener-
ally been successful in matching critique with practice and problem-
solving, stimulating civic engagement and a different, conflict-sensitive
coverage. These projects highlight aspects of the model that work and
can inform its application to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The work
of the Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center (MNICC –
Mindanews.com; Lynch 2013) provides daily alternative information
about the Mindanao islands in the South Philippines, where violence
has been most intense, counter-balancing the mainstream media focus
on violence and showing other aspects of life there. The new founders of
the peace journalism movement, Jake Lynch and Annabel McGoldrick,
produced a video examining the situation in the Philippines, which
was later used as a news source for mainstream media.3 The Peace and
Conflict Journalism Network (PEJOCON) focuses on strengthening
collaborations among practitioners, filmmakers and teachers from Asia,
Australia, Africa and Europe promoting conflict-sensitive reporting. A
member-based network, it promotes training and support, as well as
critical development and implementation of classic journalistic ethical
frameworks. The Media Association for Peace (MAP) practices peace jour-
nalism in Lebanon, the Middle East and North Africa. It involves media
students, activists and practitioners in advocacy, training and partner-
ship building to support the application of peace journalism in the area.4
The project ‘Consolidating Peace Journalism in Uganda’ by the Uganda
Media Development Foundation started in 2009 and is still active in 2015.
The project addresses media-induced or -exacerbated conflict. It includes
regional training and engagement with radio stations and communities,
aiming to promote an inclusive approach to programming. Mentors
have helped radio stations review their programmes and measure their
application of peace journalism over time.5 This approach stimulated
Introduction 9

the production of detailed and very practical analysis of achievements,

problems and potential strategies for radio stations (Uganda Media
Development Foundation 2011). The Peace Journalism Foundation East
Africa has been active across Uganda and Kenya since 2011 with media
and counter-terrorism projects, mentoring and reporting in different
languages, and engaging local audiences in social change.6 Together
with the Community Peace Journalism and Development Foundation,
they worked to prevent electoral violence in Kenya in 2013, engaging
electoral stakeholders and targeting the community with programmes
and events that appeared on national and local media (Lumbasi 2013;
Laker and Wanzala 2012).
Workshops enabling students to experiment with peace journalism
have been hosted in the Bronx, New York since 2012 by Bronxnet, a
not-for-profit organisation that has been managing TV channels for
the community since 1993.7 Residents have been involved in training
and production8 and have produced video material for Bronxnet
(Aisogun 2013; Knobbe 2013). In Mexico, the digital news medium
Correspondaldepaz (Avila-Zesatti 2013) has been looking at conflicts
around the world since 2009; it provides a platform for stories about
peace and solidarity initiatives arising in these contexts and aims to
empower them.9 There is a range of similar projects at local levels,10 and
a number of active centres specifically for the promotion of peace jour-
nalism. Transcend Media Service hosts resources about peace journalism,
and is “a service to other media and a medium in its own right”.11 It
is part of Transcend, the Peace Development Environment Network
founded in 1993 by Johan Galtung and Fumiko Nishimura, which has
members all over the world and promotes peace through action, educa-
tion, training, dissemination and research. The Centre for Peace and
Conflict Studies at the University of Sidney promotes peace journalism
through research and education. Its Director Jake Lynch, together with
Annabel McGoldrick, has trained practitioners and students, and held
workshops about peace journalism in various countries; their research
and production has contributed to the dissemination of the model
worldwide. The Center for Global Peace Journalism at Park University,
directed by Steven Youngblood, is a third major cluster in this network.
It promotes the model through training, publications and partnerships,
and is at the forefront of peace journalism promotion in different areas
of the world.12
While applications unfold in conflict areas, advances in peace jour-
nalism are particularly fruitful in terms of research and debate (Kempf
2008). Peace journalism is currently developing new approaches
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