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Threat, Victimhood, and Peace: Debating the 2011 P alestinian UN State Membership Bid
Author(s) -
Jaspal Rusi,
Coyle Adrian
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
digest of middle east studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.225
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1949-3606
pISSN - 1060-4367
DOI - 10.1111/dome.12041
Subject(s) - politics , salient , state (computer science) , political science , social psychology , order (exchange) , group conflict , criminology , political economy , psychology , sociology , law , economics , finance , algorithm , computer science
The I sraeli– P alestinian conflict has been described as one of the most intractable in the world. This article first provides an overview of the sociopolitical events that led up to the P alestinian UN state membership bid in S eptember 2011, and second, as a case study, it examines how the I sraeli– P alestinian conflict was constructed in speeches delivered by P alestinian P resident M ahmoud A bbas and I sraeli P rime M inister B enjamin N etanyahu regarding the state membership bid to the UN G eneral A ssembly in S eptember 2011. Despite their opposing agendas, there are some significant discursive similarities in the two speeches. The most salient shared discourses concern that of in‐group victimhood on the one hand, and that of out‐group threat on the other. It is argued that the speeches dispel support for intergroup reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians by aggravating grievances on both sides and accentuating intergroup suspicion. This article highlights the importance of examining political speeches in order to better understand the I sraeli– P alestinian conflict.