Bot narratives: Israel - Gaza

The words associated with the node of Israel overlap with Palestine but show a distinctly different narrative, which is to be expected given the polarization this issue has created politically in the US:

• Much of the rhetoric reinforces Israeli propaganda messages dehumanizing Palestinians such as savages, and criminals. The word hostages also serves to point blame at the Palestinians, implying justification for Israeli actions.

• There are also narratives criticizing Israel for its military conduct, words such as terror, dirty, and persecuted imply disapproval and reflect the accusations of war crimes and human rights violations perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians.

• Another main rhetoric associates Israel with its global influence, particularly in reference to Western countries, such as lobby, funded, and bought. It also positions Israel as a global power with powerful alliances, mainly the US and Jewish lobbying power in the US domestically.

• Another critical narrative of Israel shows perceived hypocrisy of Israel which avoids accountability while using the hostages to justify the collective punishment of Palestinians. Words such as hypocrites, slandered, scammish, blaming, accused, and successfully suggest that Israel is effective in avoiding accountability for its own war crimes while focusing on Hamas’ war crimes.

• The plight for Palestinian rights is also reflected in words of movement, activists, realise, wants, innocent, and defending, implying Palestinians’ right to self-determination against a settler colonial state.