Peace discourse in the

Israeli-Palestinian conflict Israelis (; ) are the citizens and nationals of the State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Jews and Arabs, who respectively account for 75 percent and 20 percent of the national figure, followed by other ethnic and ...

is the study of Israeli and Palestinian desires for "peace" and the underlying intentions of the

Israeli–Palestinian peace process Intermittent discussions are held by various parties and proposals put forward in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through a peace process. Since the 1970s, there has been a parallel effort made to find terms upon which ...

. The peace narrative serves core strategic and ideological functions, including legitimacy, blame, and justification. Scholars have shown that references to peace often conceal or rationalize ongoing violence, shifting responsibility onto one party while reinforcing positive self-representations for the other. Both sides frequently claim to have done everything they can to achieve peace, remaining dependant on the other side to match their commitment.

Meaning of peace

Positive and negative peace theory

The term peace is used in different ways by supporters of Israel and supporters of Palestine. Israeli scholar writes that right-leaning Israelis primarily advocate for a negative peace or oppressive peace, where peace means security for Israelis with continuing control over, oppression of, or subjugation of Palestinians. Supporters of Palestinians primarily advocate for a "just and lasting peace"; some pro-Palestinian actors have employed this language while avoiding substantive concessions, framing peace as achievable only through full Israeli withdrawal or restitution, placing the majority of the burden of change on Israel. Security-focused oppressive peace has not proven sustainable so far. This use of different definitions of the word peace by the two sides results in negotiators

talking past each other "Talking past each other" is an English phrase describing the situation where two or more people talk about different subjects, while believing that they are talking about the same thing. David Horton writes that when characters in fiction talk pa ...

Peace as justification for war

“Peace” language does not always reflect intent for reconciliation, but may serve to justify violence or deflect responsibility. For instance, during the

2014 Gaza War The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge (, ), and Battle of the Withered Grain (), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since ...

, Israeli officials reframed ceasefires as less desirable than continuing to fight in order to achieve “sustainable peace,” allowing ongoing military operations while claiming a peace-oriented stance. The use of peace rhetoric often supports what Dalia Gavriely-Nuri calls “Peace in the Service of War” (PSW), where peace becomes an integral part of Israeli just war rhetoric at the start of Israeli invasions, not specific to any particular leader or period of time. This strategy legitimizes such military actions as necessary for peace and national survival. On the Palestinian side, peace rhetoric can be used to frame resistance, or even acts of terrorism, as necessary steps toward liberation and eventual peace, and as justified responses to occupation couched in the language of justice-based peace. Use of the term peace in this way constructs a moral identity for the speaker, helping build a “positive self-image as a peace-seeker together with delegitimation of rivals”.

History

Since the

1948 Palestine war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the Stat ...

, political language around peace has been shaped by ongoing violence, territorial disputes, and the failed

. Israeli narratives have consistently framed peace as conditional on security, while Palestinians have framed peace as conditional on justice. This framing persisted throughout the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. In more recent decades, peace has become a discursive tool used in justifying preemptive or retaliatory warfare. Israeli Professor Dalia Gavriely-Nuri notes that Israeli leaders have used the word “peace” extensively in speeches preceding wars, for example,

Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'', ; (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of both Herut and Likud and the prime minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Isra ...

referred to ‘peace’ 15 times but to ‘war’ only 2 times” in a 1982 speech preceding the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization ...

. Palestinian peace discourse has also shifted over time, with the framing of peace as contingent on the realization of historical rights, emphasizing different elements over time, such as the right of return and recognition of statehood.

Media analyses

Media discourses reinforce these rhetorical frameworks. Mahmood and Alvi found that U.S. newspaper editorials often supported military action as a pathway to peace (see

Just war theory The just war theory () is a doctrine, also referred to as a tradition, of military ethics that aims to ensure that a war is morally justifiable through a series of #Criteria, criteria, all of which must be met for a war to be considered just. I ...

), while Arab media like Al Jazeera depicted Israeli peace rhetoric as deceptive and colonial. Both media groups typically excluded acknowledgment of the other side’s positive actions. Peace discourse in US media often advocates "oppressive peace" or "negative peace". In a January 2020 study of

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, Associate Professor Simon Goodman found that supporters of one side will reject peace by making the

circular argument Circular reasoning (, "circle in proving"; also known as circular logic) is a logical fallacy in which the reasoner begins with what they are trying to end with. Circular reasoning is not a formal logical fallacy, but a pragmatic defect in an ar ...

that the other side inherently does not want peace themselves. This argument is primarily made by supporters of Israel against Palestinians, casting peace as an offer previously extended by Israel and rejected by Palestinians in order to justify Israel continuing the conflict. While this circular logic is more frequently observed among pro-Israel users, pro-Palestinian voices have similarly dismissed Israeli peace initiatives as disingenuous or strategically manipulative, overlooking transgressions on their side.

Bibliography

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References

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