Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?: UNRWA’s representations in the digital public sphere

The relief of Palestinian refugees has been handled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) since the 1950s to our days. Over seven decades of existence, the agency has been under various criticisms for its unconditional commitment to Palestinian refugees on the one hand, and for its failures to address the refugees’ issue on the other. As a result, the agency is often represented as an obstacle to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by some and as an essential part of the solution by others. The aim of the present study is therefore to investigate the discourses employed by influential stakeholders to participate in the construction of a public discourse on UNRWA’s activities. Moreover, building on the public sphere conceptualized by Habermas, many have argued that the emergence of new technologies and globalized communications revolutionized the public debate, making it transnational. In this sense, social networking platforms...Show moreThe relief of Palestinian refugees has been handled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) since the 1950s to our days. Over seven decades of existence, the agency has been under various criticisms for its unconditional commitment to Palestinian refugees on the one hand, and for its failures to address the refugees’ issue on the other. As a result, the agency is often represented as an obstacle to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by some and as an essential part of the solution by others. The aim of the present study is therefore to investigate the discourses employed by influential stakeholders to participate in the construction of a public discourse on UNRWA’s activities. Moreover, building on the public sphere conceptualized by Habermas, many have argued that the emergence of new technologies and globalized communications revolutionized the public debate, making it transnational. In this sense, social networking platforms like Twitter constitute actual parts of the digital public sphere where “social-influencers” compete to impose their interpretation of the public debate and to strengthen existing narratives. Using qualitative discourse analysis, this paper describes the diversity of strategies employed by certified users to participate in reputation narratives as well as the type discourse associated with their position in the public sphere.Show less

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Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem? UNRWA’s representations in the digital public sphere