Reconfiguration of Roles During Phases of Declining Conflict Intensity: Racial Framing Patterns of Palestinian Woman in the English-language Israeli Digital Media

Abstract

This study examines the role of racial framing patterns in the English-language Israeli digital media during periods of approximate relative stability, in reconfiguring roles of Palestinian women. It hypothesizes that these outlets use ethnic framings to reframe Palestinian women to predefined stereotypical roles based on colonial classificatory logics. Drawing on the framing theory and the qualitative framing analysis tool, the study examines 29 news items selected using purposive probability sampling published in 2016- a year marking declining conflict intensity, and the inductive approach to analyze the social and political effects of frames on the reconfiguration of roles. in four Israeli newspapers and three English-language news websites representing a broad ideological spectrum, ranging from the far right to the far left. The findings indicate that even under periods of approximate relative stability, the Israeli newspapers and news websites use different framing patterns for Palestinian women, reinforcing a subaltern/non-subaltern dichotomy: framing the subalterns who reproduce the Israeli narrative as positive, liberal and modern; and the non-subalterns who are critical and resistant to the occupation as security threats and by-products of cultural aberration or social dysfunction - depicting them as terrorists and Orientals. And thus, marginalizing their political and social roles and confining them to stereotypical roles structured around three key concepts: the social injustice, subservience, and security threat or using them to legitimize and secure recognition for the occupying state, and a benchmark normative model for the “acceptable” Palestinian as constructed by colonial power. This ultimately undermines their agency and reinforces conditional representations structured by relations of power and domination. The study recommends more in-depth research on the linguistic and visual framing of Palestinian women across longer time periods and in diverse Israeli media, and on the extent of their consistency.