FRAMING ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS IN THE WEST BANK AS A TOOL OF DEMOGRAPHIC ENGINEERING A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON ISRAELI, PALESTINIAN AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS’ REPORTS AFTER THE SECOND INTIFADA

This study analyzes the discursive framing of Israeli, Palestinian, and international civil society organizations on the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank in terms of demographic engineering after the Second Intifada (September 2000). The Second Intifada, marked by intensified violence and increasing demographic engineering methods in response, serves as a significant period for analyzing the civil society organizations’ framing of settlement policies in the West Bank. The study aims to show differing narratives of these organizations on identifying the settlement issue as a demographic engineering method with the purpose of creating a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of the complex and multilayered Israeli – Palestinian conflict by including diverse narratives. Given the role of civil society organizations that can either promote dialogue between communities or fuel the conflict more through a nationalist narrative, civil society organizations were chosen as the focal actor that is to be studied. Discourse analysis was applied to the written sources published by civil society organizations with this aim. The findings of the study provide cross-organization and cross-time analysis to find parallels and variances among organizations and historical periods with the aim of finding common points for a just peace. The results reveal that while pro-Israeli narratives are more tend to securitize the issue, the counter-narrative is more focused on unearthing political imbalances and underlying power dynamics between communities. It is also revealed that some narratives have changed depending on the priorities brought by the current events. With an emphasis on suffering for citizens of both Israel and Palestine, some common grounds between these communities are identified as a result of this comparative research with the purpose of providing shared solutions for a more peaceful and prosperous future for all parties involved.