Hollywood terrorism narratives frame Israel as rational and Palestinians as violent radicals

Evidence

As neoliberal history via Hollywood, the show draws on Orientalist fear and stock characters such as the ”evil Arab” (Semmerling 2006; Shaheen 2001, 2008); thus, its narrative of Islamic terrorism inevitably falls into a dyad in which the Israeli state is portrayed as an innocent entity associated with democracy, secularism, and rationality, while Palestinians are portrayed as reactionary, emotional, and violent and conflated with Islamic radicals and terrorism. The apparent symbolism of Palestine recasts conflict, struggle, and autonomy as the perils and threats of immorality, violence, and terrorism. Palestine is an embedded symbol of terror in the complex associations that figure Islam and Muslims into a racial formation. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 385

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to analyses of cinematic Orientalism (Said, Shaheen’s Reel Bad Arabs) and how media frames shape racial formation.