The language of peace in conflict transformation: a critical analysis of the New York Times’ coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and its role in the discursive context of the Oslo negotiations

This chapter examines the relation between language and conflict resolution, by focusing on the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process which started in 1993 as it was represented by the New York Times. It analyses the front-page articles dedicated to this process, and it discusses the results in the context of the diplomatic negotiations and the political and social discourses of peace available at the time. The chapter shows how the diplomatic discourse concealed opposite views of the peace process, and it maps the transfer of dominant discourses of peace from the political and social levels to the media and diplomatic ones. Finally, it discusses the implications of such dynamics for peace achievement.