Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 15:2 (2016) ► pp.193–214

Recognition gaps in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The people-state and self-other axes

 | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
This study identifies gaps in official discourse between recognition of the other as a nation and recognition of the other’s right to statehood within identity conflicts. Using as a case study the discourse of Israeli political leaders during three distinct periods from 1967 until the present, the study proposes analytical tools based on recognition theory to examine how the relationship between recognition of the other and constitution of the self impact recognition gaps. The study illustrates that partial recognition of the other — either affirmation of peoplehood coupled with denial of statehood or conversely affirmation of statehood coupled with denial of peoplehood — can result from an untenable view of self based on ontological dissonance. Recognition of the other is shown to be an essential aspect of self-constitution within the context of a transformation of self-identity towards an identity that frees itself of mastery over the other.
Keywords: recognition, identity, Conflict resolution, political discourse, nationalism, other, Hegel, ontological security, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, speeches
Published online: 9 June 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.15.2.04fri
References (60)
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London, UK: Verso.Google Scholar
Arab League Summit. 1967. The Khartoum Resolution. Khartoum, Sudan.Google Scholar
Atzili, Boaz. 2007. “When Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors — Fixed Borders, State Weakness, and International Conflict.” International Security 31(3): 139–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Austin, John L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Claredon Press.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael, 1999. “Culture, Strategy, and Foreign Policy Change: Israel’s Road to Oslo.” European Journal of International Relations 51: 5–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bar-Tal, Daniel. 2004. “Nature, Rationale, and Effectiveness of Education for Co-existence.” Journal of Social Issues 60(2): 253–271. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2001. “The Great War of Recognition.” Theory, Culture and Society 18(2–3): 137–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana. 2000. “Hegemonic, Polysemic or Subversive Discourse? News and History.” In The Rafael Nir Book: Studies in Communication, Linguistics and Language Teaching, ed. by Ora Swarzwald, Shoshana Blum-Kulka, and Elite Olshtain, 199–220. Jerusalem: Carmel.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1997. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Caplan, Neil. 2010. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories. West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Charter of the United Nations. 1945. “Chapter 1: Purposes and Principles.” New York. Available at: [URL] (accessed 20 January 2014).
De Cillia, Rudolf, Martin Reisigl, and Ruth Wodak. 1999. “The Discursive Construction of National Identities.” Discourse & Society 10(2): 149–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1989. Language and Power. London: Longman Group UK Limited.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy. 2000. “Rethinking Recognition.” New Left Review 31: 107–120.Google Scholar
Friedman, Elie, and Zohar Kampf. 2014. “Politically Speaking at Home and Abroad: A Typology of Message Gap Strategies.” Discourse & Society 25(6): 1–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Greenhill, Brian. 2008. “Recognition and Collective Identity Formation in International Politics.” European Journal of International Relations 14(2): 343–368. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hegel, Georg W. F. 1977. Phenomenology of Spirit. Trans: A.V. Miller Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hermann, Tamar and David Newman. 2000. A Path with Thorns: Along the Difficult Road of Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking. In The Management of Peace Processes, ed. by John Darby and Roger Ginty, 107–151. New York: Palgrave. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric. 1991. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Honneth, Axel. 1995. The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
. 2012. The I in We: Studies in the Theory of Recognition. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
. 2015. “Political Discourse Analysis.” International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, ed. Karen Tracy. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kelman, Herbert C. 2001. “The Role of National Identity in Conflict Resolution: Experiences from Israeli-Palestinian Problem-Solving Workshops.” In Social Identity, Intergroup Conflict, and Conflict Reduction, ed. by Richard D. Ashmore, Lee Jussim, and David Wilder. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2004. “Transforming the Relationship between Former Enemies: A Social Political Analysis.” In After the Peace: Resistance and Reconciliation, ed. by Robert L. Rothstein, 193–205. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Livnat, Zohar. 2009. “The Autonomy of Consensual Vagueness: A Linguistic-Rhetoric View of ‘the Disengagement Speech’ [Hebrew] (Automomia shel Amimuth Mamlachti: Mabat Leshoni-Retori al ‘Ne’um HaHitnatkuth).” In The Word in the Rock: Rhetoric Now (Milah Ba-Selah: Rhetorica Akhshav), ed. by Yeoshua Gati, 65–87. Emek Yizrael: Emek Yizrael College Publications.Google Scholar
Lupovici, Amir. 2012. “Ontological Dissonance, Clashing Identities, and Israel’s Unilateral Steps towards the Palestinians.” Review of International Studies 381(4): 809–833. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Markell, Patchen. 2003. Bound by Recognition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mitzen, Jennifer. 2006. “Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma.” European Journal of International Relations 121(3): 341–370. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nagar, Rotem and Jacob Shamir. 2013. “Symbolic and Concrete Aspects in Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Peace and Conflict Studies 20(2): 211–223.Google Scholar
Parliament of Canada. 2006. House of Commons Debates. 39th Parliament of Canada. Number 87. Available at: [URL] (accessed 30 January 2014).
Putnam, Robert. 1988. “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games.” International Organization 42(3): 427–460. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rabinovitch, Danny. 1993. “Eastern Nostalgia: How the Palestinians were turned into “Arab-Israelis”. [Hebrew] (Nostalgia Mizrachit: Eich Hafchu Hapalestinaim Le’“Arviyey-Yisrael”.) Theory and Criticism. (Teoriah V’Bikoret) 4: Autumn: 41–51.Google Scholar
Reich, Bernard. 2008. A Brief History of Israel. New York: Facts on File.Google Scholar
Rouhana, Nadim N. 2004. “Group Identity and Power Asymmetry in Reconciliation Processes: The Israeli-Palestinian Case.” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 101(1): 33–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, Anthony D. 1998. Nationalism and Modernism: A Critical Survey of Recent Theories of Nations and Nationalism. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Searle, John. 1969. Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1992. Multiculturalism and “the Politics of Recognition”. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
United Nations. 2008. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
Van den Berghe, Pierre. 1979. The Ethnic Phenomenon. New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Van Dijk, Teun. 2001. “Critical Discourse Analysis.” In Handbook of Discourse Analysis, ed. by D. Tannen, D. Schiffrin, and H. Hamilton, 352–371. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, Theo. 1996. “The Representation of Social Actors.” In Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard and Malcolm Coulthard, 32–70. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Waxman, Dov. 2006. The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defining/Defending the Nation. New York: Palgrave. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wendt, Alexander. 2003. “Why a World State is Inevitable: Teleology and the Logic of Anarchy.” European Journal of International Relations 9(4): 539–590. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Ruth. 2001. “The Discourse-Historical Approach.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer, 63–94. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
. 2009. The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Meir, Golda. 1970a, February. “Interview on ITV (British Independent Television).” London, UK.Google Scholar
. 1970b, May. “Remarks of Prime Minister Golda Meir in the Knesset.” Presented at the Knesset, Jerusalem, Israel.
Netanyahu, Benjamin. 2009a, June. “Address by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Begin-Sadat Center at Bar-Ilan University.” Presented at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
. 2009b, September. “Address by Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly.” Presented at the United Nations, New York, NY.
. 2011, May. “Speech by Prime Minister Netanyahu to a Joint Meeting of the U.S. Congress.” Presented at the U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C.
. 2014a, January. “PM Netanyahu’s Remarks to the Foreign Press. Presented at the Government Press Office, Jerusalem, Israel.
. 2014b, January. PM Netanyahu’s Remarks at the Knesset Marking the Visit of PM of Canada, Stephen Harper, in Israel. Presented at the Knesset, Jerusalem, Israel.
. 2014c, January. PM Netanyahu’s Remarks at the INSS Annual Conference. Presented at the Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Peres, Shimon. 1994a, May. Response of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres at the Knesset to No-Confidence Motions on the Gaza-Jericho Agreement. Presented at the Knesset, Jerusalem, Israel.
. 1994b, October. Response of Shimon Peres to Two No-Confidence Motions. Presented at the Knesset, Jerusalem, Israel.
. 1995, October. Remarks by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres at the Opening of the Winter Session. Presented at the Knesset, Jerusalem, Israel.
Rabin, Yitzchak. 1993, December. Remarks of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin before the European Parliament in Brussels. Presented at the European Union Parliament, Brussels, Belgium.
Ravid, Barak. 2011. “Lieberman deplores Netanyahu for leaning towards apology to Turkey.” Haaretz Daily Newspaper, 21 July.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Rubin, Daniel Ian
2018. The Muddy Waters of Multicultural Acceptance: A Qualitative Case Study on Antisemitism and the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies 5:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.