Israel in the Iranian Media: Demonizing the "Zionist Regime"

Abstract

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) has espoused an official policy of anti-Zionism, which is frequently punctuated with blatant anti-Semitism. This paper examines the discursive manifestation of anti-Zionism in the English-language Iranian Press in order to elucidate how this ideology is ‘exported’ to an international readership. The paper presents the results of an empirical study of two leading English-language Iranian newspapers: The Tehran Times and Press TV. The study uses critical discourse analysis and draws upon Intergroup Threat Theory and Social Representations Theory. The following themes are outlined: (i) Constructing Israel as a hybridized threat; (ii) Denying Israel’s right to exist; and (iii) Israel’s demise in the Islamic Awakening. The paper examines how these news outlets normalize the fervent anti-Zionist position of the Islamic Republic of Iran.