BDS) Movement Discourse
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Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons English Theses & Dissertations English Spring 2020 A Rhetorical Frame Analysis of Palestinian-Led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement Discourse Jennifer Megan Hitchcock Old Dominion University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds Part of the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Hitchcock, Jennifer M.. "A Rhetorical Frame Analysis of Palestinian-Led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement Discourse" (2020). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dissertation, English, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/gq1b-4m33 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds/102 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A RHETORICAL FRAME ANALYSIS OF PALESTINIAN-LED BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS (BDS) MOVEMENT DISCOURSE by Jennifer Megan Hitchcock B.A. May 1999, Virginia Tech M.A. May 2007, Virginia Tech A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ENGLISH OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY May 2020 Approved by: Kevin DePew (Director) David Metzger (Member) Louise Wetherbee Phelps (Member) Paula Mathieu (Member) ABSTRACT A RHETORICAL FRAME ANALYSIS OF PALESTINIAN-LED BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS (BDS) MOVEMENT DISCOURSE Jennifer Megan Hitchcock Old Dominion University, 2020 Director: Dr. Kevin DePew This rhetorical frame analysis uses a combination of rhetorical theory and frame analysis to examine the rhetorical framing strategies of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. This project investigates how both official and vernacular BDS activist-rhetors frame the movement and their goals, how they frame their responses to evolving rhetorical situations and challenges, how they tailor these frames for different audiences, and how resonant these frames are likely to be for targeted audiences. The results of this study suggest that BDS activist-rhetors typically frame the BDS movement as a nonviolent movement to achieve Palestinian rights and hold Israel accountable for an ongoing system of oppression, discrimination, and settler colonialism against Palestinians. This framing relies on the values of justice, freedom, equality, joint struggle, and individual and collective agency—values that strongly overlap with social and racial justice activist discourses that focus on intersectionality and justice for marginalized and oppressed peoples. Thus, these framing strategies likely resonate most strongly with audiences comprised of networks of social and racial justice activists, especially black American activists and other activists of color in the US, and to a significant degree with younger liberal and leftist Americans, including many young Jewish American racial justice activists. In response to the shifting rhetorical situations and challenges they face, including sensitivity to antisemitism, BDS activists regularly denounce antisemitism, emphasize Jewish support for the BDS movement, and draw comparisons to other familiar struggles for justice and liberation. BDS activists emphasize certain frames for particular audiences while maintaining a strong consistency in overall framing strategies between Palestinian official BDS discourse and the more vernacular student-generated discourse of US college activists. To address common critiques of the movement and expand support for BDS, BDS activist-rhetors could express more empathy with Jewish fears of antisemitism and clarify some BDS goals and demands, both of which could help wider audiences transcend the affective rhetorical obstacles and predictable uptakes to promote more productive discussions about Palestinian rights and help achieve a more just and sustainable resolution to this intractable conflict. iv Copyright, 2020, by Jennifer Megan Hitchcock, All Rights Reserved. v This dissertation is dedicated to my husband and children who supported me throughout my years-long work on this project. I also want to dedicate this project to all of the Palestinian, Israeli, American, and transnational activists who continue to struggle for justice and peace in Palestine/Israel and around the world. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to express my appreciation to the many people who supported and assisted my research throughout the duration of this project, especially my dissertation committee members, Paula Mathieu, Louise Wetherbee Phelps, and David Metzger, whose feedback and suggestions have been invaluable. I am particularly indebted to my dissertation chair, Kevin DePew, who spent countless hours reading, rereading, and commenting on the many drafts of my dissertation chapters and who helped make this project much more coherent than it would have been without his help. His support and advocacy for my work has been indispensable. I also want to thank the other current and former ODU faculty members who helped me during preceding stages of my research on this topic and earlier iterations of some of my chapters, including D. E. Wittkower, Delores Phillips, Kevin Moberly, Joyce Neff, and many others. I also greatly appreciate the many fellow ODU students who have supported and advised me at various stages of my research, offering both moral support and practical suggestions. I also wish to thank some of my earlier mentors who helped me throughout my long journey and inspired me to believe that I could and should pursue further scholarly research at the graduate level, including Diana George, Paul Heilker, Tony Colaianne, Matt McAllister, and the late Marshall Fishwick. vii NOMENCLATURE The following acronyms for various terms and activist organizations are used repeatedly throughout this dissertation: ACLU = American Civil Liberties Union AIPAC = American Israel Public Affairs Committee AMP = American Muslims for Palestine ATL = All That’s Left: Anti-Occupation Collective BDS = Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions BNC = Palestinian BDS National Committee CJNV = Center for Jewish Nonviolence IAW = Israeli Apartheid Week IDF = Israeli Defense Forces IHRA = International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance INN = IfNotNow ISM = International Solidarity Movement JFREJ = Jews for Racial & Economic Justice JVP = Jewish Voice for Peace PACBI = Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel PSC = Palestinian Solidarity Campaign UK SJP = Students for Justice in Palestine SAIA = Students Against Israeli Apartheid (at George Mason University) viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 SITUATING MYSELF ...........................................................................................2 BRIEF HISTORY OF PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE AND ISRAELI RESPONSES ...........................................................................................................5 THE 2005 BDS CALL.............................................................................................7 RISKS OF SUPPORTING BDS AND PALESTINIAN RIGHTS .......................10 RESEARCH STATEMENT: LOOKING AT BDS DISCOURSE THROUGH A RHETORICAL LENS .......................................................................................13 FRAMING PALESTINE/ISRAEL .......................................................................16 CHAPTER DESCRIPTIONS ...............................................................................24 II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR UNDERSTANDING PALESTINE/ISRAEL DISCOURSE AND THE BDS MOVEMENT ............................27 RHETORICAL SCHOLARSHIP ON PALESTINE/ISRAEL AND THE BDS MOVEMENT ................................................................................................30 POSTCOLONIAL THEORY AND PALESTINE/ISRAEL .................................35 INTERDISCIPLINARY SCHOLARSHIP ON THE BDS MOVEMENT AND PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE ...................................................................43 SOCIAL MOVEMENT STUDIES AND MOVEMENT RHETORICS...............53 RESEARCH ON PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE, SOLIDARITY, AND BDS MOVEMENT DISCOURSE ........................................................................57 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................63 III. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................65 WHY FRAME ANALYSIS? .................................................................................66 SELECTING CORPORA OF TEXTS: BOTH OFFICIAL AND VERNACULAR ....................................................................................................72 DEVELOPING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY HEURISTIC FOR CODING ........77 RHETORICAL SITUATION AND ECOLOGY ..................................................79 IDENTIFYING FRAMES .....................................................................................85 MASTER FRAMES VS. PRIMARY, ISSUE, AND COLLECTIVE ACTION FRAMES ...............................................................................................................87 ETHOS AND CREDIBILITY OF FRAMES ........................................................90 HOW FRAMES REVEAL BELIEFS, VALUES,