The Communication Rights of Palestinian Israelis Understood Through the Capabilities Approach

Abstract

The consistent underrepresentation and misrepresentation of Palestinian Israelis in Israeli media have been assumed to hinder Palestinian Israelis’ ability to realize their communication capabilities. We set out to understand how Palestinian Israeli individuals see their representation in the media as an issue of capabilities’ realization and its effect on their right to communicate. Through semi-structured individual in-depth interviews with 20 Palestinian Israelis, we examined which capabilities they wished to realize by using Israeli media as well as what were the enablers and constraints that influenced their ability to realize these capabilities and exercise their communication rights. Findings suggest that Palestinian Israelis are aware of the way they are portrayed by the Israeli media, are bothered by it, fear its implications outside the screen and off the microphone, and although they wish to integrate in society and participate in its activities through the media, they feel rejected, thus consuming less mainstream Hebrew media. This hinders their ability to realize their capabilities through the media.