Abstract
The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, and the Israeli military response have been widely covered in the Arabic press, reinforcing the popular narrative of a strong and aggressive Israeli state and the victimized Palestinians. The coverage underlines the wide support for Palestinians in the Arabic press. Broadly, one can divide the Arabic press into state-aligned and independent media, with the former’s coverage reflecting the opinions of the respective governments, while the latter showcases the views of non-state actors. A key trend that emerges is the strong anti-Israel sentiments prevailing in the Arab countries and the increased support for Palestinian statehood. Notably, there are serious discussions about the possibility of a two-state solution and the role Arab governments can play in convincing the two warring sides. There are some nuanced and veiled criticisms of Hamas’s actions that triggered the current spate of violence. A closer reading of select international Arabic-language media (print and online) reveals the nuanced shifts in their coverage toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Introduction
On October 7, 2023, Israel woke up to one of the most devastating attacks on its territory as a barrage of over 2,000 rockets was launched by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) from the Gaza Strip. This was accompanied by over 1,500 militants entering southern Israel using explosives and bulldozers, breaching the security wall along the Israel-Gaza border at several locations. Simultaneously, the Hamas and PIJ militants breached the maritime border using motorboats and paragliders (Haaretz, 2024). The surprise attacks were significant as they overwhelmed the Iron Dome defense system and the concrete walls with high-tech radar and surveillance systems. In a way, for Israel, this was yet another reminder of the vulnerability and security threats it faces in a conflict-ridden and unstable neighborhood (Pilichowski, 2024). The attacks caused the lives of nearly 1,200 Israelis, and many more were injured, while about 250 were taken to the Gaza Strip as hostages (France24, 2023). People and families were attacked in their homes while observing the Sabbath, engaged in the annual Simchat Torah festivities or social events like music festivals and beach parties. Unarmed civilians, children, women, and the elderly were not spared, and many of the victims were brutally beheaded and sexually abused (United Nations, 2024a).
In retaliation, Israel declared a state of war, ordered a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, conducted air strikes in the densely populated enclave, and, on October 27, launched a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip (Mackenzie & Lubell, 2023). The Israel-Hamas war that ensued has continued since then, leading to the deaths of over 41,000 Palestinians as of September 2024, and injuries to nearly 100,000 and nearly 1.9 million (out of 2.1 million) population of the enclave has been internally displaced, causing a full-blown humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), n.d.). As of September 2024, all efforts of the international community have failed to arrive at a temporary ceasefire, except for a brief halt in fighting in November 2023, as both Israel and Hamas have disregarded the calls for a humanitarian pause (Lee et al., 2024). The situation in the Gaza Strip is such that the United Nations Secretary-General depicted it as a “graveyard for children” in November 2023 (United Nations, 2023), and many international humanitarian organizations have warned that the entire population of the Gaza Strip has been staring at famine (United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-OHCHR), 2024).
The October 7 attack, the Israeli retaliation, and the ensuing Gaza crisis have been covered widely in the local, regional, and international press. Within the Middle East, the crisis has been covered by the Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish press. The Arabic press denotes the general and overall sentiment in a major part of the region that is Arabic-speaking and deserves a detailed study exploring the nuances and layers of depiction of the crisis. The Arabic press traces its origins to the literary and nationalist awakening in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries under European and colonial influence (Lahlali, 2011). While the Arabic press generally began as an individual or civil society journalistic endeavor motivated by the nationalist quest for freedom from the colonial powers, in the twentieth century, political developments and upheavals meant that the majority of the press came under state control, and the space for independent media shrunk (Josua & Edel, 2021; Saliba, 2023).
As one surveys the Arabic media over the past few decades, broad issues of nationalism, women empowerment, the Islamic way of life, social problems, and regional and international issues find a significant space, especially in the print media (Lahlali, 2011). Among the regional issues, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been widely covered with a clear support for Palestinian rights and their quest for statehood, portraying Palestinians as victims of international and Jewish-Zionist conspiracies (Deprez & Raeymaeckers, 2010). Notably, since World War II, no single issue has occupied the Arab discourse as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Haddad, 2018), and various Arab leaders and elites have used the issue and their pro-Palestine credentials to gain legitimacy and popularity on the Arab streets (Ben Labidi, 2024; Brynen, 1991; Suleiman, 1973). The coverage of the Gaza crisis in Arabic media has followed the same pattern of complete support for the Palestinians and their actions, condemnation of the Israeli response, and calling out the Western “double standards” (Hamzawy, 2023).
This article enquires into the coverage of the Arabic press of the Gaza crisis, placing it within the discourse analysis framework to understand and explain how select Arabic newspapers viewed and portrayed the Hamas attack of October 2023, the Israeli response, and the ensuing Gaza crisis. While the article does not assign any value judgment to the attitude and motives of the Arabic press in their coverage of the unfolding events since October 2023, it does note a sheer lack of objectivity and, at times, suffering from the same double standards that it often accuses the Western media of suffering from when covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The article identifies four different sets of discourse analysis, namely, narrative analysis, critical analysis, Foucauldian analysis, and rhetorical analysis, to examine and study the Arabic media’s coverage of the Gaza crisis.
Framework and Methodology
Discourse analysis has emerged as an important part of media studies. The discourses in print, broadcast, and internet media have great power and potential to influence public opinion. In a world where discourses are carefully carved, even an artistically taken image can potentially change political outcomes (Sharlamanov & Jovanoski, 2014). The iconic picture of the US presidential candidate Donald Trump by Evan Vucci, an American photojournalist, as the former raised his right fist moments following an assassination attempt in July 2024, not only reinforced unity and enthused the Republican supporters but is being compared to the unforgettable image showing embattled Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II (Jennings, 2024). Similarly, the images and live telecasts of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the capture of Saddam Hussein showed the capability and reach of the administration of George W. Bush, while the horrific images of Abu Ghraib detainees released by CBS News in 2004 did considerable damage to the image of the US among the global public (The Guardian, 2004). More recently, the image of thousands of Afghan nationals running to the tarmac at Kabul airport, with several people clinging to a US Air Force plane in a desperate bid to flee Afghanistan as the last American soldiers were being flown out of Kabul on August 16, 2021, harps on the significance of the US as an external player in Afghanistan and the potent and real fear of Taliban rule among the citizens of Afghanistan.
Since images form only a subset of “discourse” that combines other tools, including meanings, metaphors, representations, stories, and statements, discourse is more potent and has further power to impact public opinion negatively and positively. For example, the 38th President of the US, Gerald Ford, engaged the media to forge a positive image of his presidency as he was catapulted to the White House after Richard Nixon was forced to resign over the Watergate scandal (National Geographic, 2023). Similarly, the power of the anti-Western discourses created by the Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS/Daesh) through videos and images showing beheadings and shootings is considered one of the main reasons for attracting many youths to join the terror group from across the globe (Lieberman, 2017). On the other hand, discourses represent the existing or changing norms and values of the society; for example, magazines and other literature reflected the themes of women empowerment and feminist trends in Syria during the pre-independence phase, and nationalist ideas dominated the public discourse during the independence struggle in the early twentieth century (Seale, 1987). Also, the public discourse in Iran before and after the Islamic revolution reflected the ongoing changes in society and politics (Moaddel, 1995).
Over time, scholars have devised different types of discourse analysis to help examine and study various issues. For instance, Mohamad Hamas Elmasry et al. (2013) have studied the depiction of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya through the framing theory, suggesting that the specific ways in which the messages are packaged and delivered could impact the comprehension and evaluation of messages by the recipients. Similarly, Guillaume Blanc (2022) has used narrative analysis to argue that the African wilderness results from colonial conquest, failing to show Indigenous tribes as victims. Others have analyzed the depiction of the Israel-Palestine issue in the UK newspaper The Independent and the US newspaper The Washington Post using Van Dijk’s notion of the “Ideological Square,” categorized by the binary, us versus them. Further, Marjorie Skoss and others (2022) have used the Foucauldian method to analyze risk and older people in the context of COVID-19.
How stories are told and facts are presented shape the readers’ understanding and forms the focus of the narrative analysis (Butina, 2015). With an interdisciplinary origin, it examines texts and content to decipher the motivations, constructions, and deconstructions of meanings and ideas to the target audience (Butina, 2015). Interestingly, narratives are co-constructed and evolve organically through verbal and nonverbal interaction between the narrator and the audience and sometimes can be more potent and real than the carefully crafted narrative itself. For example, misinformation and rumors have a life of their own, fueled by responses and reactions of receivers (Ireton & Posetti, 2018), as was discovered during the Arab Spring uprisings in Syria (Dibo, 2014). Similarly, the Capitol Hill riots in the US in January 2021 (BBC, 2022), riots in France over the death of a teenage driver of North African descent in July 2023 (Associated Press, 2023), and anti-immigrant riots in the UK in August 2024 (Fung, 2024) were reportedly fueled primarily by social media discourses.
Critical analysis focuses on examining the text and content deeper by looking for complex social and political phenomena like power play, alienation, and othering (van Dijk, 2015). Critical discourse analysis started as a new direction in the mid-1980s and became a movement in the 1990s. It delves into the factors that determine a certain discourse, the rules, codes, and ideologies that dictate how a subject engages in discourse, and the actor that creates the view, ultimately shaping the discourse (Williamson et al., 2018). It posits that ideas, facts, and knowledge change according to changes in discourse. Critical discourse analysis integrates studies from different perspectives and methods in discourse studies, including conversation analysis, argumentation analysis, discourse pragmatics, multimodal discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and social semiotics (Mayor & Bietti, 2017).
Foucauldian analysis stresses how discourse constructs and maintains social norms and power relations. Grounded in critical analysis, the method focuses on how discourse constructs social realities that shape individual behaviors and societal structures (Power, 2015). Michel Foucault (1972), the French philosopher, argued that knowledge is an expression of power, and discourse, being a part of knowledge, has the potential to wield power through discursive practices administering knowledge within social settings and influencing facts and norms. At the analytical level, the Foucauldian analysis identifies discursive formations defining the subject of discussion and the agent of voice within certain contexts. It intends to examine how some topics are represented and others are silenced based on the interests and convenience of individuals and institutions (Discourse Analyzer, 2024).
Rhetorical analysis studies the use of language to persuade, inform, and entertain the writer’s purpose, guidance, and strategies. It uses rhetorical questions and devices such as metaphors and similes and analyzes the organizational structures of texts (Ho & Limpaecher, 2023). Choice of words and phrases, frequency of usage, popular connotation and resonation, and visual appeal due to selection of font, color, style, layout, design, and position form part of rhetorical discourse analysis. The rhetorical analysis method studies the use of communication for persuasion and attaining a distinct objective, with a thin line between persuasion and misinformation (Johnstone & Eisenhart, 2008).
While using the abovementioned discourse analysis methods, the article examines contents published in select Arabic newspapers (print and online) on the Gaza crisis. On October 7, 2023, when Hamas began “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” (Toofan al-Aqsa), firing missiles from the Gaza Strip against Israel, it was prominently reported in global, regional, national, and local media, but the intensity and language of reporting varied. The Arabic media is not homogenous in its coverage, and there are more than 20 countries that are members of the Arab League, where Arabic is the official language, with multiple Arabic newspapers in print and online versions, justifying the need for qualitative research. The article analyzes the discourse strands of 16 Arabic newspapers published in different Arab countries, namely Al-Khaleej (The Gulf), Al-Fajr (The Dawn), and Al-Bayan (The Declaration) from the UAE; Al-Ahram (The Pyramids) and Al-Masry Al-Yaum (Egypt Today) from Egypt; Al-Nahar (The Day) and Al-Akhbar (The News) from Lebanon; Okaz (an ancient marketplace and cultural center close to Makkah) and Al-Riyadh (The Riyadh) from Saudi Arabia; Al-Watan (The Homeland) from Oman; Al-Raya (The Banner) from Qatar; Al-Khabar (The Report) from Algeria; Al-Anba (The News) from Kuwait; Al-Dastur (The Constitution) from Jordan; Al-Quds (Jerusalem) from Palestine; and Al-Alam (The Flag) from Morocco. These newspapers were selected based on circulation, popularity, ideological inclination, and representation to media in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the Fertile Crescent and North Africa regions, ensuring to cover media from signatories and non-signatories of the Abraham Accords. The analysis broadly looks at the narrative presented in the text, the promotion of alienation, negation, and othering of Israeli citizens and victims, the selective representation of facts and events, and the pictorial representation of the Gaza crisis through cartoons and caricatures.
It is evident that there is overarching support for the Palestinians in all the newspapers, and the dependent variables include aspects of the war and the depth of coverage. The tone differs as per the independent variables including location of the country, existing and evolving state policies, left- and right-political leanings, and the ownership of the newspaper and its political and ideological inclinations. The controlled variables in this study are the Arabic language, the country, and the date of publication (since October 7, 2023). Newspapers that form the core of the study have been selected from the Gulf countries, the Fertile Crescent, and North Africa regions. Notably, the initial coverage mostly emphasized the breach of Israeli security, breaking of the myth of Israeli invincibility, concern for the Israeli hostages, and admiration for Hamas’s action.
Findings of the Study
While numerous issues have found their way into the coverage and discourse of Arabic newspapers related to the Gaza crisis, some of the most visible aspects include the toeing of the government line, attitude toward the role of Hamas in the October 7 attacks, depiction of the Israeli hostages/victims, portrayal of the Israeli retaliation, humanitarian concerns regarding the death and destruction in the Gaza Strip, and the failures of ceasefire and mediation talks.
Defending the Arab Response
While analyzing the coverage of the Gaza crisis in Arabic newspapers, the first point one notices is the general tendency to follow the government’s position and defend it, which at times, appears as a propaganda tool. Hence, as one looks from the perspective of narrative analysis, it is easy to see the newspapers toeing the state line and defending the government’s stand on the Hamas-Israel war. For example, Al-Khaleej (2023), published from Sharjah, Al-Fajr (2023), published from Abu Dhabi, and Al-Bayan (2023), published from Dubai were carefully following the UAE government’s stand on the issue. All three defended the Emirati position and blamed the continued occupation of Palestine for the actions of Hamas (Al-Bayan, 2023; Al-Fajr, 2023; Al-Khaleej, 2023). The UAE’s official response issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on October 8, 2023, had termed the Hamas attack against Israel “as a serious and grave escalation” and appealed that the “civilians on both sides must always have full protection under international humanitarian law and must never be a target of conflict” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Arab Emirates [MoFA, UAE], 2023). Calling for de-escalation, the statement underscored that the “international community needs to work together” to ensure the instability does not spill over to the wider region (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Arab Emirates [MoFA, UAE], 2023). It further affirmed that the “international community must remain resolute in the face of these violent attempts to derail ongoing regional efforts aimed at dialogue, cooperation, and co-existence,” perhaps referring to the not-so-secret diplomatic discussions underway between Israel and Saudi Arabia before October 2023 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Arab Emirates (MoFA, UAE), 2023).
As the war progressed, the UAE nuanced its position, and at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting held on November 29, 2023, the Emirates condemned Israel’s “collective punishment policy against the Palestinian people,” along with its “attempts to displace the Palestinians” (Al-Marar, 2023). As the crisis unfolded, the UAE has remained committed to normalization with Israel and has not shown any sign of breaking its ties with Israel. On the contrary, Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE ambassador to the United Nations, speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai in February 2024, said that UAE was able to “have a field hospital in Gaza and [we have] a maritime hospital docking in the Al-Arish port” in Egypt and aims to achieve a ceasefire and two-state solution by talking to those who disagree, referring to Israel (France24, 2024).
The Saudi daily Okaz has, over the years, remained free from direct government ownership, and semi-official Al-Riyadh, reportedly aligned with the Salman branch of the Al-Saud family (World Association of Newspapers, 2008), praised the Saudi position and emphasized its diplomatic efforts and aid to Gaza (Al-Riyadh, 2024; Okaz, 2023). Saudi Arabia has been relatively less vocal in its response to the Hamas-Israel war due to its precarious position of dependence on the USA for security, the possible strategic realignment with Israel and the historic support for Palestine as the leader of the Arab-Islamic world (Giannos, 2024). The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement hours after the attacks on October 7, saying that the Kingdom “calls for an immediate halt to the escalation between the two sides, the protection of civilians, and restraint” and for a “credible peace process that leads to the two-state solution” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [MoFA, Saudi Arabia], 2023). Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former intelligence chief and a well-known commentator on strategic affairs of Saudi Arabia, condemned the Hamas attack as well as Israeli retaliation while delivering the keynote address during a conference organized by Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, Houston, on October 17, 2023, specifically mentioning that there were no heroes in the Hamas attack and only victims (Gardner, 2023). He said that Hamas’s actions and activities were against the Islamic injunctions of not harming civilians during conflicts but were not “unprovoked” as all militarily occupied people have a right to resist occupation, accusing Israel of indiscriminate bombings and arrests (Gardner, 2023).
Resistance versus Terrorism
Arabic newspapers covered in this study looked at Hamas’s October 7 attack differently, ranging from calling it an act of terror to underlining the Palestinian right to resistance. This mostly depended on the independent variable, such as the ideological leanings and relationship with the state. For Egyptian newspapers, the issue of security and threats from terrorism reigned supreme. Hence, Al-Ahram, a government-controlled newspaper, identified Hamas’s action as a serious breach of regional security while criticizing the US inaction to contain Israel (Al-Dasuqi, 2023; Said, 2024). Another Egyptian newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm, often identified as an independent newspaper, supported the Palestinian rights to resistance against Israeli occupation, support for Palestinian statehood, and called the Israeli war in Gaza a “genocide” (Murad, 2023). Al-Ahram identified security threats to Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula and called for a ceasefire (Said, 2024).
Notably, Egypt has been concerned by the implications for its border and internal security of the Sinai Peninsula closer to the theater of war, and therefore, it has been engaged in diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas (International Crisis Group [ICG], 2024). Egypt’s deteriorating economy, with public debt reaching more than 90% of its gross GDP, has been seriously affected by the war. The Suez Canal, tourism, and gas exports are the major sources of revenue for Egypt and have been impacted by the war (United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 2024). Tourism revenue has plummeted, shipping companies re-routed their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, and Israel ordered a temporary halting of the gas extraction from Tamar field. Israel exports its gas from the Tamar field to Egypt, where it is turned into LNG and exported to the European markets. In the last quarter of 2023, Egypt’s re-exports of gas fell by more than 50%. In addition, the potential influx of refugees sheltering in the Rafah border crossing is a major concern for Egypt (ICG, 2024; UNDP, 2024).
Saudi newspaper Okaz (2024b) emphasized preventing a wider regional conflict. As the Houthis began targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the threat of the crisis reaching the Gulf neighborhood was a real concern (Okaz, 2024a). The active involvement of Houthis in the crisis is a red signal for Saudi Arabia, which has been involved in the brutal conflict in Yemen and has been trying to extricate itself from the military conflict. Attack from across the border is a serious challenge for the Kingdom, and in March 2024, Houthis threatened to target Saudi oil installations, if the Kingdom allowed the US-led coalition to use its airspace to target the militant group inside Yemen (Farhat, 2024). Furthermore, Saudi Arabia craves regional stability to achieve economic diversification, rendered uncertain by the ongoing Hamas-Israel crisis (Gause III, 2023).
Some Arabic newspapers adopted a celebratory tone in covering the Hamas attack. For example, Al-Nahar (2023a, 2023b), an independent, center-right, liberal newspaper from Lebanon, did daily special coverage of the Hamas attacks and praised it for its daring attitude and smashing the idea of Israeli invincibility. Similarly, Al-Akhbar (2023), a leftist newspaper from Lebanon, glorified the Hamas action while defending Hezbollah’s position. Relations between Hamas and Hezbollah have resumed in recent times after a schism over the civil war in Syria. Since 2017, Hamas leaders returned to Lebanon, and Hamas has even called for recruitment in Lebanon on December 4, 2023 (Salhani, 2023).
Similarly, an independent center-left Algerian daily, Al-Khabar (2024), covered Hamas political head Ismail Haniyeh’s statements on how Gaza erased the shame and embarrassment of defeats. It referred to the Israeli response as Zionist aggression, underlining the allegations of war crimes (Al-Khabar, 2024). Algeria has been an ardent supporter of Palestinians and witnessed marches led by women and young people on October 19, 2023, in support of Hamas and Palestine (Ghilès, 2023). Algeria has been at the forefront of Arab calls for a ceasefire and proposed the May 2024 UNSC resolution 2734 calling for the release of hostages and the end of hostility in three phases (Nichols, 2024).
Support for Hamas was visible in some of the coverage in Gulf countries as well, but this was relatively nuanced and was less critical of Israeli retaliatory actions. For example, Abu Dhabi-based Al-Fajr (2024) underlined the need for defending all civilians as a necessary precursor for peace and a two-state solution, implying the Israeli position of defending its civilian population. Omani daily Al-Watan (2023) did not glorify Hamas against Israel in its early coverage of the October 7 attack. But later, as there were internal protests in Oman, the Sultanate revoked the approval for Israeli planes to use its airspace for transit to East Asia in January 2024, the change in tone in the Omani newspapers became visible (Al-Watan, 2024b). Moroccan Al-Alam, a conservative and monarchist newspaper, was critical of the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip but was muted in its support of Hamas’s actions (Al-Alam, 2024).
The support for Hamas was also visible in many of the cartoons. For example, a cartoon in Al-Masry Al-Youm (Al-Masry Al-Youm, 2024b) shows an Israeli soldier running away from “Gaza” written in Arabic on blood-spilled earth, and the concave curve of the Ghayn alphabet has developed new, big, and sharp teeth owing to the daring Toofan Al-Aqsa operation. To show the diminished stature and fallibility of Israel, Gaza is written in a bigger font, and the Israeli soldier is depicted in a minuscule version.
Support for Ceasefire
The calls for a ceasefire and a two-state solution found prominent space in Arabic newspapers. Several articles in Arabic newspapers called for an immediate ceasefire and finding a two-state solution as the only way forward for peace (Al-Khaleej, 2024; Hejazy, 2023). Similarly, one of the three leading dailies of Qatar, Al-Raya noted the need for finding a way toward a two-state solution. Its editorial on June 20, 2024, advocated pressuring Israel to end hostilities and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders (Al-Raya, 2024). The support for an immediate ceasefire and finding a two-state solution were visible prominently in newspapers such as Saudi Okaz (2024c), Omani Al-Watan (2024a), and Jordanian Al-Dastur (2024a). Most newspapers were forthcoming in their praise of Egyptian and Qatari mediatory efforts, underlining that the Arab countries are working toward peace and stability in the region. They mostly blamed Israel and its ultra-right-wing government for stalling all efforts to end the war (Al-Khaleej, 2024; Al-Raya, 2024; Mahfouz, 2024).
The role of the international actors, including the US and Russia, and domestic politics in Israel became the main subject of the Arabic press in some countries. Al-Ahram was largely critical of the Israeli response and the lack of adequate efforts by the US to end the crisis (Qandil, 2024). Al-Nahar (2024) was extremely critical of the US inaction and inability to reign in Israel, with a dedicated section—Toofan al-Aqsa—on its webpage to cover the developments. The criticism of the US role and its inability to control Israel and end the war resonated among most Arabic dailies. The largest Palestinian daily, Al-Quds (2023, 2024), was extremely critical of the US and the US-Israel relations and Israeli domestic politics, underlining these as the main reasons for the continuation of the war, and this was regularly captured in its caricature section. On the other hand, some newspapers questioned the position of Arab countries that normalized ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords of 2020 and were critical of the Gulf monarchies for not doing enough to support the Palestinian people (Al-Akhbar, 2023). Notably, the signatories Abraham Accords have a softer approach toward Israel as compared to the non-signatories. For instance, Al-Fajr (2023, 2024) published from UAE took a neutral stand on the issue, and Al-Alam (2024) published from Morocco had a softer approach toward the crisis and had largely impartial coverage. Diplomatic and trade ties among the Abraham Accords countries remained steady even after the October 7 attack and the ensuing Gaza crisis. There was $4 billion trade between Israel and the four signatories of the Abraham Accords in 2023 with 16% year-on-year growth. Further, the trust built with Israel helped countries like the UAE to send humanitarian aid to Gaza (Abraham Accords Peace Institute, 2024). Emirati permanent representative to the United Nations, Lana Nusseibah said on October 18, 2023, at the UNSC that Abu Dhabi seeks to bring peace and prosperity to the region through the Accords (The Hindu, 2023). She defended UAE’s ties with Israel saying the Gulf country was able to have a field hospital in Gaza due to the normalization of relations between the two countries.
A cartoon depicting ceasefire efforts being destroyed by the Israeli missiles underlined the widespread perception that the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government is not ready to end the war (Al-Masry Al-Youm, 2024c). In March 2024, several celebrities attending the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles wore pins depicting a red hand with a black heart in the middle to show support for a ceasefire in Gaza, asking US President Joe Biden to demand a ceasefire from Israel and the safe release of the Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip (Al-Jazeera, 2024). The pins were distributed by Artists4Ceasefire, a group of celebrities and entertainment industry members, and symbolized collective support for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. The action resonated widely among Arabic media and was reflected in the cartoon by Khaled Salah showing support for the collective effort toward a ceasefire. At the same time, the onus of the crisis was put on Israel, given its continuing bombardments on the “besieged” enclave depicted through the missile painted black, showing Israel as an aggressor state (Al-Masry Al-Youm, 2024c).
Humanitarian Concerns
The Gaza crisis has led to a considerable deterioration of the humanitarian situation, with over 41,000 Palestinians killed, nearly 100,000 injured, and thousands missing, as reported by the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip on September 14, 2024. According to Israeli sources, over 1,500 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed, and 8,000 have been injured as of mid-September 2024 (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), n.d.). Nearly 1.9 million population in the Gaza Strip have been displaced and face chronic food insecurity. Communicable diseases are rising, and access to water, sanitation, hygiene, and health services has reduced considerably (United Nations, 2024b).
Humanitarian concerns received ample coverage by most of the Arabic newspapers. On several occasions, Oman’s Al-Watan (2024b) and Qatar’s Al-Raya (2024) advocated increased humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip. Algerian newspaper Al-Khabar (2024) and Jordanian Al-Dastur (2024b) underlined the food, medical, and health crisis in the Gaza Strip and stressed the dismal condition of pregnant women and newborn babies due to inadequate maternal and neonatal care facilities. A cartoon published in Al-Masry Al-Youm (2024a) by Khaled Salah underlined the growing concerns about the deaths of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip due to the atrocities by Israel. It showed a visibly tearful white dove with an olive branch in its mouth wrapping its feather around the dead child in a white shroud sprinkled with blood and sitting on an alighted bomb whose flame depicted the Star of David. This was an attempt to put the entire blame for the situation in Gaza on Israel, ignoring that the trigger for the conflict was Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Demonization of Israel and Antisemitism
Many newspapers were involved in demonizing Israel, especially visible in their cartoons and caricatures. For example, one of the cartoons by Khaled Salah in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (2024d), published on June 19, 2024, depicts an Israeli tank being crushed by an oversized black Palestinian hand. The black color has been taken from the Palestinian flag and the raised stature of Palestine after the Hamas attack is depicted by the huge size of the hand. The cartoon symbolizes the hope and probability that once the Israeli army is defeated, the land can be taken over by Palestine. Another cartoon titled Al-Muqawama (resistance) in Al-Masry Al-Youm (n.d.) depicts Palestinians as collectively resisting the Israeli onslaught, depicted as a huge missile with broken logs underlining the undying spirit of resistance against the Israeli occupation. To portray Israel in a bad light, the missile has been colored in gray, and to show that the Palestinian resistance is peaceful, the resistance cross is painted in white.
Israel is also demonized by the Arab press through antisemitic references. The narrative is in line with the rise in antisemitism on social media platforms. CyberWell’s AI technology has monitored and reported a rise in antisemitic content on the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) after the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 (CyberWell, 2024). The antisemitic content deals with the glorification of violence against Jews, denial and mocking of holocaust, denial of October 7 massacre, and an attempt to erase mass sexual violence against Israeli women by asking for proof, negating the credibility of witnesses, giving loose statements like Muslims do not rape, and flipping the narrative saying Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers raped Israeli women (Fouzi, 2023). Antisemitism is not a new phenomenon in the Arab world though; Arabs have frequently emphasized that Muslim countries have not persecuted Jews like the Christian countries and the two communities have lived together in peace. However, better treatment and tolerance with Jews in Arab countries cannot be equated with a lack of discrimination and civil equality (Harkabi, 1987).
Discussion and Conclusion
The analysis of the 16 Arabic newspapers reflects that the overall narrative is biased toward the Palestinians and has the potential to create and foster a sense of identity and affinity among the Arab readers toward the Palestinian people. The hyperboles of support for the actions of Hamas can influence the thought process of the younger generation. The narrative seems like an extension of the biased pedagogical literature for the Palestinian children and is capable of influencing the youth of not only the current generation but also the future generation by becoming part of history. A critical look at coverage of the Gaza crisis by the Arabic press underlines that a sense of alienation and othering of Israel and Jews is deeply ingrained. It is interesting to note that the current coverage results from the past processes of alienation and othering while forming a base for future prejudices and pre-dispositions against Israel (Haddad, 2018; Lahlali, 2011).
Looking through the Foucauldian prism, it is evident that the current coverage abides by the discursive formation of portraying Palestine as an eternal victim and Israel as a perpetrator and aggressor state. Foucault’s (1972) second chapter of The Archeology of Knowledge deals with a dilemma as to whether to perceive the history of medical science as dim efforts or as a pure dataset and concludes that discursive formation is the middle way and constitutes a series of rules for the proliferation of ideas in a given discourse and period. The discursive formation, in this case, has an unsaid rule of supporting the Palestinian cause and calling Hamas activities resistance instead of terrorism. Another rule is selective representation and coverage of facts. For instance, in the beginning, the Arabic press coverage reluctantly mentioned the Israeli casualties without condemning the activities of Hamas.
Feminist analysis of the coverage indicates the selective representation of facts. For example, none of the newspapers covered sexual abuse and rape of Israeli women by Hamas militants, even when a March 2024 UN report states that there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence, including gang rape, occurred at multiple places in Israel during the attacks on October 7. The report was prepared after confidential interviews with survivors and witnesses, visits to attack sites, and a review of over 5,000 images and video footage (United Nations, 2024a). The UN team found there were reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence may be ongoing with the captives. Lastly, the rhetorical analysis of the coverage points toward the use of techniques like lines, curves, color, tone, and texture to demonize Israel and the lack of response on the part of the international actors. In a nutshell, the coverage of the Gaza crisis by the Arabic press represents the existing psyche of the Arab populace and their inherent support for Palestine, despite Israel’s acceptance by some of the regional countries.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflict of Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
