Israeli press and the war against terrorism: The construction of the ‘liquidation policy’

Since November 9, 2000, about a month after the break out of the Palestinian uprising, the Israeli government had launched a military strategy of assassinating Palestinian activists it deems to be security threats in the West Bank and Gaza. This study examines how the daily press covered this policy and how the assassinations were constructed in the news media. The analysis focuses on the handling of the killings carried out in November and December 2000, because of the importance of the initial frameworks of meaning and interpretation. It is shown that the reporting regarding the extreme measures taken by Israel, took place without any sense of criticism. The newspapers gave a wide coverage to the IDF version of the events, quoted largely senior security officers and adopted official definitions, including the assumption that IDF only kills people directly involved in terrorist attacks. IDF killings were depicted as a reaction to Palestinian terrorism, and presented in vague, distancing and laconic terms. Palestinian violence was identified, detailed and received prominence in many ways. It is argued that the structured relations between the press and its military sources granted a wide range of legitimacy to the assassinations and enabled the Israeli government to pursue its policy and even extend it. The fact that these assassinations brought an escalation in the conflict and contributed to the continuation of terrorist attacks was never an issue.