Arab-Israel Normalisation: A content Analysis of Palestinian online news coverage on UAE and Morocco recognition of Israel

Abstract

This quantitative content analysis examined the local Palestinian outlets coverage of the normalization issue between UAE and Morocco with Israel. The study samples have two periods, the first is regarding UAE’s normalization, the samples collected from August 13, 2020, until September 15, 2020. The second period is Morocco’s normalization, the samples collected from December 10, 2020, until December 22, 2020.

The object of the study was aimed to compare the three Palestinian outlets’ coverage, framing, tone of voice, and sources to define which government, party, and independent sectors’ editorial positions either converge with or diverge from one       another of the UAE and Morocco normalization.

Findings affirmed that the UAE normalization issue has received extensive media coverage by the three local Palestinian online news outlets. On the contrary, the coverage of Morocco normalization by the three outlets was limited, thus the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) Hamas party news outlet and Wafa government-controlled news outlet had the most attention in coverage of the UAE normalization issue, but their coverage was limited with the Morocco normalization. The data analysis uncovered that in the first and second period, the conflict frame was commonly used by the three outlets.

In addition, the UAE’s and Morocco gained the positive coverage from Donia Alwatan, an independent outlet, but the UAE’s and Israel received a negative coverage from the Wafa and (PIC) outlets. In the first period, the three news outlets relied on the party operatives' source, but the politician’s source was the dominated in the second period.