WAS ISRAELI SECURITY CONSTRUCTED THROUGH GENOCIDE PROPAGANDA FOLLOWING THE OCTOBER 7TH ATTACKS?
Abstract
The October 7th attacks on Israel represented several challenges for Israeli security. Maintaining order and leadership within the country and mobilizing a response to recover its reputation as ‘invincible’ military presence are a few of Israel’s concerns. Securing gains in its expansionist colonial ambitions and protecting the land already colonized required navigation of indigenous resistance, greater military threats from neighbour states, and fending off global criticism for Israeli apartheid and war crimes. This critical discourse analysis of public communications in the immediate aftermath of the attacks examines how Israel achieved its military goals and led its nation to a brutal war through a series of genocidal speech acts. The analysis found that, besides identifying Jews as a valued object of security ‘threatened’ by all Palestinians and Arabs, Israeli discourse consistently weaponized islamophobia and the fear of being labelled with antisemitism to gain support for its policies. Further themes include emphasizing Israel’s existence as a nation-state, and its claim to moral war practice despite evidence to the contrary. The findings also revealed a dichotomy of contradictory narratives centred on international law and moral rhetoric communicated to the international community contrasted with more overtly genocidal rhetoric directed domestically in Israel.
Keywords: Israel, Palestine, Securitization, Propaganda, Genocide.
