Telling Your Side of the Story: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Israel-(non) Normalising Middle East Countries

This study used Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine how Israeli and Palestinian social actors were represented in news coverage during the May 2021 Gaza war, focusing on newspapers from countries with and without diplomatic relations with Israel. van Leeuwen's (2008) Framework directed the examination of role allocation, subjection, assimilation, and identification to analyse discursive practices influencing these representations. Utilising corpus linguistics methods, the study examined 40 news reports totalling 159,282 words drawn from four English-language newspapers, which are Daily Sabah, The Tehran Times, The Khaleej Times, and The Gulf Daily News. Fisher's exact test uncovered significant differences in the representation of social actors between countries with and without diplomatic ties to Israel, with non-diplomatic ties countries often depicting Palestinians as victims and Israelis as aggressors, contrasting with more nuanced or positive portrayals of Israelis in countries that have diplomatic ties with Israel. These different media representations seem to advance different narratives of the conflict that support the sponsoring states’ agenda. This research enhances understanding of how linguistic and sociological factors shape public perceptions of the conflict, providing insights into media strategies in reporting contentious geopolitical events. Keywords: Media Discourse; Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA); Diplomatic Relations; Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; Middle East