Liberalism, Criminality, and State Violence: Media Coverage of Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Hospitals

• In Event: Exploring the Social Construction of Crime and Justice by the News Media

Abstract

Since October 7, 2023, Palestinian healthcare facilities have been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces, despite the ways such attacks violate international law. This paper examines American media coverage of these attacks to understand how they were justified in the mainstream media. Specifically, we conducted an inductive content analysis of articles from five of the most widely read media outlets in the United States covering Israeli assaults on seven of the most frequently attacked hospitals. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), we examined themes such as the quoting of Israeli officials compared to Palestinian officials, differences in the framing of Israeli versus Palestinian violence, and how the attacks were described in terms of outcomes, legality, and blame. We found that these news sources disproportionately quoted Israeli officials as opposed to Palestinian officials or witnesses, that Israeli attacks were often described in the passive voice, and that Israeli officials’ portrayals of hospitals as sites of military operations were rarely questioned. Our conclusions thus shed light on the ways that Western media continues to justify Israeli attacks through criminological paradigms that demonize Palestinian resistance and normalize Israeli state violence.

Author

• Emily Schneider, Northern Arizona University