Abstract
Among the many modes of representation of peace and conflict, images are perhaps the most pervasive and persuasive. In this chapter I deploy a broad, complex notion of imagery in order to explore Israeli images of peace. On 10 June 2004 the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that some 40 Israeli and Palestinian media and public relations professionals would be meeting in Jordan ‘to try and find a way to promote the brand name of peace’, and ‘to create a “local and international campaign to promote the image of peace” ’ (Ha’aretz, 2004). The campaign was initiated by the director of the Peres Center for Peace, Ron Pundak, who was one of the negotiators of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He acknowledged that the ‘image of the peace brand . . . has been worn down over the past few years’, but hoped that the public relations experts could achieve what the diplomats had been unable to do, namely, ‘to define certain concepts, such as coexistence, in a way that will be acceptable to both sides’ (ibid.). While the campaign was directed at public opinion on both sides, my chapter refers only to the Israeli side.
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© 2012 Jon Simons
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Simons, J. (2012). Peace Now or Never? Images of Peace in Israel. In: Gibson, S., Mollan, S. (eds) Representations of Peace and Conflict. Rethinking Political Violence series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137292254_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137292254_2
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