ISRAELI MEDIA REPORTING OF THE ISRAEL–PALESTINE CONFLICT: AN ECO-LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

The researchers use Arran Stibbe’s eco-linguistic approach, for analysing the coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian war from 7 October 2023 to 31 March 2025 in two Israeli English-language newspapers: The Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel.The analysis of some 200 news reports and opinion reveal a clear trend: When the Israelis die or when Israelis are threatened, the language is vivid, emotionally charged, and agent-centred; when Palestinians die, they are generally represented in passive, nominalized or generalized constructions.However, the destruction in Gaza and the West Bank including the destruction of farms, contamination of groundwater, destruction of olive trees and estimated 39 million tons of rubble, are largely missing from media coverage.This damage is offered as “collateral” and “inevitable” rather than “ecological damage.”The rhetoric in the newspapers further dehumanise, sanitise the environment and effects of violence, using metaphors such as surgical strikes, precision operations, mowing the lawn.These linguistic selections further exacerbate and influence public perception and validate the ongoing destruction of Palestinian society and its ecological basis.As such, the Israeli media discourse in the occupation, as it appears, has become normal in the context of ecocide, and eco-centric counter-discourses have to be developed in conflict journalism.