Threat, Victimhood, and Peace: Debating the 2011 P alestinian UN State Membership Bid
Rusi Jaspal, Adrian Coyle · Digest of Middle East Studies · 2014
Abstract TheIsraeli–Palestinian 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 thePalestinianUNstate membership bid inSeptember 2011, and second, as a case study, it examines how theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict was constructed in speeches delivered byPalestinianPresidentMahmoudAbbas andIsraeliPrimeMinisterBenjaminNetanyahu regarding the state membership bid to theUN GeneralAssembly inSeptember 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 theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict.