New Book: Rodgers, Headlines from the Holy Land

Rodgers, James. Headlines from the Holy Land: Reporting the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

 

 

Tied by history, politics, and faith to all corners of the globe, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fascinates and infuriates people across the world. Based on new archive research and original interviews with leading correspondents and diplomats, Headlines from the Holy Land explains why this fiercely contested region exerts such a pull over reporters: those who bring the story to the world. Despite decades of diplomacy, a just and lasting end to the conflict remains as difficult as ever to achieve. Inspired by the author’s own experience as the BBC’s correspondent in Gaza from 2002-2004, and subsequent research, this book draws on the insight of those who have spent years observing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Starting from a historical perspective, it identifies the challenges the conflict presents for contemporary journalism and diplomacy, and suggests new ways of approaching them.

 

Table of Contents

• Foreword by Rosemary Hollis
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Reporting from the Ruins: The End of the British Mandate and the Creation of the State of Israel
• 2 Six Days and Seventy-Three
• 3 Any Journalist Worth Their Salt
• 4 The Roadmap, Reporting, and Religion
• 5 Going Back Two Thousand Years All the Time
• 6 The Ambassador’s Eyes and Ears
• 7 Social Media: A Real Battleground
• 8 Holy Land
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

 

 

Cite: Rodgers, The Roadmap Ripped Up

Rodgers, James. “The Roadmap Ripped Up: Lessons from Gaza in the Second Intifada.” Mediterranean Quarterly 24.3 (2013): 20-34.

 

URL: http://mq.dukejournals.org/content/24/3/20.short

 

Abstract

Drawing on the author’s time as the BBC’s correspondent in Gaza from 2002 to 2004, this essay offers a way of understanding more fully the situation in Gaza in 2013, after the recent elections in the United States and Israel and following the Arab uprisings. The core argument is that any future analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must give greater weight to issues of faith and to the idea that land is not simply a commodity but something to which there is a strong, historical, almost spiritual connection. The essay makes the case that recent events in the Middle East make these issues increasingly important.

Cite: Archibald and Miller, Israeli Attempts to Control Media Images of Gaza Flotilla

Archibald, David and Mitchell Miller. “Full-Spectacle Dominance? An Analysis of the Israeli State’s Attempts to Control Media Images of the 2010 Gaza Flotilla." Journal of War & Culture Studies 5.2 (2012): 189-201.

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URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jwcs/2012/00000005/00000002/art00005

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Abstract

This article analyses the Israeli state’s attempts to control the images employed during the reporting of the Israeli navy’s interception of a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Palestine on 31 May 2010. In the ensuing 48 hours, widespread use of footage released by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) ensured that the Israeli state’s narrative dominated western reporting of the event. The authors coin the term `full-spectacle dominance’ to describe the Israeli state’s strategy in media-managing this event. Drawing on the work of Tagg, Cottle and de Certeau, the article reviews the efficacy of Israel’s attempts to prevent the circulation of images that challenge their narrative of events, and the promotion of images which substantiate these narratives. The article argues that mainstream media programmes, such as BBC Panorama’s Death in the Med, embedded these images within a biased,pro-Israeli interpretative framework, in contrast to an interpretative framework more sympathetic to the flotilla’s participants evident in Al-Jazeera’s A Voyage of Life and Death. The article also notes the use of social media platforms by pro-Palestinian bloggers and activists. Their use of this technology allowed images and eyewitness testimony to emerge, which challenged the initial pro-Israeli reporting. Thus, although the Israeli state was largely successful in dominating the reporting of the event, the spectacle of the conflict remained contested.