Publications

The following Current Debate section brings together three testimonies by scholars working on or with connections to Myanmar, Afghanistan and Palestine, framed by an introductory reflection on the concepts of scholasticide and epistemicide. Drawing on personal experiences as researchers and academics affected by war, authoritarianism, occupation and forced displacement, the contributors examine the systematic destruction of educational institutions, the suppression of academic freedom, and the erasure of diverse knowledge systems. Their accounts highlight the interconnected nature of these processes while situating them within broader debates on epistemic justice, human rights and decolonial scholarship. Beyond documenting violence against higher education, the section also discusses strategies of resistance and knowledge preservation, focusing on transnational solidarity, exile initiatives and institutional support for scholars at risk. By connecting lived experiences across different regional contexts, the debate underscores the global significance of protecting academic freedom and preserving knowledge production in the face of ongoing epistemic and scholastic violence.

This study examines Israel’s violations against Palestinian journalists during the Gaza War 2023–2025 within the framework of international humanitarian law (IHL). Adopting a Critical Legal Studies perspective, the study recognizes that IHL operates within unequal power structures and does not assume neutrality. The Gaza War, precipitated by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, occurs against the broader context of the Israeli siege since 2006 and the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine. The study analyses the legal protections afforded to journalists in armed conflicts, documents Israeli violations, and proposes measures to strengthen accountability and safeguard media workers. Employing a descriptive-analytical approach, it reviews IHL frameworks—including Geneva Conventions and UN resolutions—and evaluates media and human rights reports. Findings reveal violations by Israeli forces, including targeted killings, movement restrictions, communication blackout, and attacks on media infrastructure, all of which contravene IHL principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution. The study highlights the persistent enforcement gap in protecting the Palestinian journalists as civilians and advocates for enhanced IHL protections, independent investigations and the use of international courts to ensure journalist safety and uphold press freedom.

This study analyzes the strategic use of military media by Hamas during the Gaza War (2023–2025), focusing on the discursive construction of resistance and mobilization. Amid large-scale destruction and civilian casualties, media emerged as a central arena for ideological contestation. Drawing on speeches and statements by Abū ʿUbayda, spokesperson for the ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Qassām Brigades, this research examines how Hamas crafted narratives to justify military actions, legitimize its political position, and mobilize support across local and transnational contexts. Using Teun A. van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of Critical Discourse Analysis, the study investigates the interplay between discourse, ideology, and collective memory. Through purposive and stratified sampling of textual and audiovisual materials from official Telegram channels, the analysis identifies key discursive strategies—lexical framing, religious symbolism, and emotional appeals—that represent the conflict as a divinely sanctioned struggle against occupation. At the macro level, themes of martyrdom, heroism, and ideological polarization dominate, while micro-level elements such as evaluative language and binary referential strategies reinforce in-group/out-group distinctions. Visual media further embed ideological content through symbolic imagery and narrative sequencing. The findings demonstrate how Hamas’s military media functioned as an ideological apparatus, shaping collective identity, sustaining morale, and mobilizing resistance within a hybrid media system.

This study explores the future of the Arab media industry from 2024 to 2034 in light of the increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. It identifies key media sectors likely to be affected by AI—such as content creation, news production, editing, and audience engagement—and proposes strategies for effective implementation. The study employs a descriptive survey methodology grounded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Data were collected via an electronic questionnaire from a purposive sample of 264 respondents across 18 Arab countries, including academic elites and media professionals working with Arab media institutions. Findings reveal that 70.5% of respondents believe AI will automate routine tasks like news writing and video editing, enhancing efficiency. However, 41.6% cite high implementation costs as a significant barrier. Despite these challenges, 45.5% anticipate a strong future impact of AI on the media landscape, though current usage remains limited (31.1%). No statistically significant differences were found across demographic variables. This study contributes scientifically by offering foresight into the evolving role of AI in Arab media, identifying implementation gaps, and providing actionable insights for policymakers and media leaders to foster ethical, effective, and inclusive AI adoption in journalism.

This study investigates the contrasting responses of the United States and the European Union to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants against Israeli officials Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. It critically analyzes how legal, political, and strategic considerations shape the discourse of each actor, particularly in relation to international justice mechanisms. Employing a hybrid discourse analysis framework, the research integrates Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and Teun van Dijk’s Sociocognitive Approach. This interdisciplinary methodology facilitates a nuanced examination of the ideological, historical, and power-laden dimensions of political discourse. The data, drawn from official U.S. and EU statements and media reports (primarily Reuters and YouTube sources), is analyzed to uncover referential strategies, argumentation, perspectivation, framing, mitigation, ideology and power, discourse construction and historical contextualization. Findings indicate a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy: from upholding the language of law to prioritizing the language of power, rooted in national and strategic interests. This is exemplified by the U.S.’s rejection of the ICC’s warrants, despite grave allegations of genocide in Gaza. In contrast, the EU maintains a consistent commitment to international law and multilateralism, reinforcing its role as a normative power within the global order. The study argues that these divergent responses signal a deeper geopolitical rupture within the Western alliance. This divide reflects the erosion of the post-WWII international system and suggests a transition toward a multipolar world where regional powers such as the EU, China, and Russia increasingly assert influence over global governance. Drawing on Gramsci’s insights on transitional epochs, the research concludes that the growing tensions between power and law may define the contours of a new and uncertain era for international justice.

This paper examines digital discourses of and on the Palestinian movement, Hamas on Twitter. The data corpus contains tweets and retweets by Shehab News Agency (Hamas’s online news agency), and all tweets associated with the hashtag #hamas and produced by any user on the twitter. The data resources were extracted in January 2022 by utilizing NVivo NCapture. The paper uses Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) as a theoretical framework to analyze texts and images, integrating elements of Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine the socio-political contexts. The results of the analysis show that Shehab News Agency deploys a range of discursive and visual strategies to construct a positive self-image and a negative other-image. Hamas is represented as a legitimate resistance movement defending Palestinian rights, while Israel and its allies are portrayed as aggressors and violators of international law. The hashtag #hamas is also used by supporters to mobilize solidarity and by critics to frame the movement negatively. The paper argues that Hamas’ digital communication is multimodal and strategically constructed to shape public perceptions and mobilize support in the digital sphere.

This study examines the digital practices and online discourses of Hamas on Twitter, with a specific focus on the Palinfoen account linked to the Palestinian Information Centre (PIC). The study examines 3,500 tweets related to events in Palestine, which were either tweeted or retweeted by the Palinfoen account. To explore these practices, the researcher employs digital ethnography and a discourse-historical approach to analyze the collected tweets and retweets. The findings of the analysis show that the tweets revolve around key figures such as journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and Israel. Abu Akleh is portrayed as a courageous and esteemed senior journalist who became a victim of Israeli brutality. Israel, on the other hand, is depicted as a criminal entity, held responsible for the cold-blooded killing of Abu Akleh and the desecration of her coffin. The killing is presented as an inhumane and irrational act committed by Israel against a respected journalist. Additionally, the tweets from Palinfoen focus on the events at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israeli figures are described using terms like "genocidal Jews," "Israeli occupation forces," "enemy occupier gangs," and an "illegitimate regime," while Palestinian figures are referred to as "worshippers," "families," and "Muslims." The discourses promoted by Hamas on Twitter place agency and accountability on the Israeli side. In conclusion, this analysis unsurprisingly highlights how the Palinfoen Twitter account portrays Palestinian resistance as a legitimate reaction.

The study aimed to analyze the discourse of official digital Palestinian diplomacy by analyzing the linguistic features and practices of the official digital Palestinian diplomatic discourse, in addition to researching the forms of publications, determining themes, and strategies employed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in its digital discourse. The study used discourse analysis approach that is interested in interpretation of language, so as to understand the text formulations and its different dimensions. The study was conducted on the content of the posts of the Facebook page of the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from March 1 to May 31, 2022. The study found that there is a variety of forms of posts of MFA on Facebook that used emotional language through negative expressions and terms to express the others (the Israeli occupation), whereas the posts relied on rhetorical strategies that mostly put the responsibility on Israel: condemning Israeli crimes, calling on the international community to protect the Palestinian people, and warning of the consequences of Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian people, whether they are Muslims or Christians, or they live in Palestinian cities or villages. The study recommended that there is a necessity and need to develop the Palestinian digital discourse, so it is not limited to the condemnation or the demands only, but rather the necessity of rehabilitation of a Palestinian diplomatic team be able to state a discourse in several languages to reinforce the Palestinian narrative and activate its ability to confront the Israeli media machine.

Islamophobia is a hot issue in the world nowadays. This study aimed to analyse the discourses which were produced against Muslims and Islam during the novel coronavirus outbreak in India, where the Muslim minority group Tablighi Jamaat was targeted and held responsible for spreading the virus. The study employed Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse selected tweets from Indian politicians, government dignitaries, and common Indian users to find out Islamophobic themes and ideological structures in their discourses. The researcher hypothesizes that Islamophobia is an integral feature of Indian political communication which is also obvious in their discursive and rhetorical devices. The researcher purposively selected 50 of the most controversial tweets by Indian politicians, government officials, and common Indian Twitter users against Muslims and Islam and carried out a critical discourse analysis through political discourse strategies by Wodak’s (2014). The findings of the study reveal that Indians use discriminatory language against Muslims and Islam to create a difference of “us versus them” and by using anti-Islamic strategies and Islamophobic remarks against the Muslims of India and propagating a common belief in Indians that Muslims and Islam are the main culprit of the COVID-19 outbreak in India.

This paper critically examines the social media discursive content and practices of the Islamic State (IS) and its supporters. Drawing on a critical discourse studies approach, it analyses a corpus of tweets from IS-affiliated accounts to explore how IS constructs its identity, legitimises violence, and mobilises support. The findings reveal how IS employs multimodal strategies, religious framing, and dehumanising rhetoric to promote its ideological project and recruit followers. The paper argues that understanding IS's social media discourse is crucial for developing effective counter-narratives and policy responses.

This paper employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyse the representation of political social actors in media coverage of the Gaza war of 2008–2009. The paper examines texts of systematically chosen news stories from four international newspapers: ‘The Guardian, The Times London, The New York Times and The Washington Post’. The findings show substantial similarities in representation patterns across the four newspapers. Palestinian political actors were overwhelmingly represented in a negative way and with dehumanising and marginalising language. Israeli political actors, on the other hand, were legitimised, humanised and given greater visibility and voice. The paper argues that the press covered the war in ways that largely reflected dominant political perspectives and contributed to reproducing asymmetrical representations of the conflict.