ABSTRACT
Having argued that Israeli press and television, during the period of the intifada, presented the Arab-Israeli conflict as “us and them,” making it difficult for viewers, even for first-hand witnesses, to defend an oppositional view, I will now go a step further to examine the problem inherent in the conscious attempt to produce alternative images of the conflict. This chapter examines the selfconscious attempts of certain Israeli film-makers, during the time of the intifada, to position the Palestinian as a hero in Israeli films, and thus to challenge television’s image of the Palestinian as “other.” In doing so, we will demonstrate that the presentation of the Palestinian as one of us creates its own problems. The next chapter examines the attempt of Israeli television itself, once again in the service of hegemony, to transform the image of the enemy, by looking at the live broadcast of the reconciliation ceremonies generated by the Oslo agreement.
