Warshel. Y. Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Children, Peace Communication and Socialization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2021 Hardback, 2022 Paperback)
Over the last eighty years there has been a global rise in “peace communication” practice, the use of interpersonal and mass communication interventions to mediate between peoples engaged in political conflict. In this study, Yael Warshel assesses Israeli and Palestinian versions of Sesame Street, which targeted negative inter-group attitudes and stereotypes. Merging communication, peace and conflict studies, social psychology, anthropology, political science, education, Middle Eastern and childhood studies, this book provides a template to think about how audiences receive, interpret, use and are influenced by peace communication. By picking apart the text and subtext of the kind of media these specific audiences of children consume, Warshel examines how they interpret peace communication interventions, are socialized into Palestinians, Jewish Israelis and Arab/Palestinian Israelis, the political opinions they express and the violence they reproduce. She questions whether peace communication practices have any relevant structural impact on their audiences, critiques such interventions and offers recommendations for improving future communication interventions into political conflict worldwide.
Awards
2024 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Current Events
2024 International Studies Association Book Award runner-up in International Communication
2023 National Communication Association Book of the Year Award in Ethics
2023 International Communication Association Activism, Communication and Social Justice Outstanding Book Award Honorable
Mention
2022 National Communication Association Sue DeWine Distinguished Scholarly Book Award for advances to applied
communication theory and research
2021 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication pedagogy Award in International Communication (in conjunction with a module Warshel created using the book to foster comparative cross-national categorical and empathetic based understandings about “groupings” party to armed conflict as means to make sense of conflicts worldwide and comparatively employ communication as means for their resolve.)
Critically Acclaimed Book Reviews
Wilkins, K. (2021). “Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Children, peace communication and socialization (book review),” Critical Studies in Media and Communication,38(4), 370-374. DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2021.1947684
Simons, J. (2021). “Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Children, peace communication and socialization (book review),” Communication Review, 24(2) 196-198. DOI:10.1080/10714421.2021.1951095
Ellis, D. (2021). “Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Children, Peace Communication and Socialization (book review),” International Journal of Communication, 15. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/18039/3533
Lazarus, N. (2021). “Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Children, Peace Communication and Socialization (book review),” Israel Studies Review, 36(2). DOI: 10.3167.isr.2021.360210
Hassencahl, F. (2021). “Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Children, peace communication and socialization (book review),” Review of Middle East Studies, 55(1)194-196. DOI: 10.1017/rms.2021.45
Kaufman, E. (2023). “Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Children, peace communication and socialization (book review),” Palestine-Israel Journal, 28(3&4)
Interviews and Podcasts
Yael Warshel Talks with Dylan Baun and Tory Bykalski at the Association for Middle East Children and Youth Studies’ Digital Author Series, Jadaliyya, Palestine-Israel (Dec. 1, 2021). www.jadaliyya.com/Details/43579
Acclaim From the Critics
Anonymous
"One of the more impressive books I’ve read in my field – ever."
Anonymous
"A tour de force"
Anonymous
"The book is quite simply outstanding, and very likely to become a must-cite resource for scholars in multiple disciplines"
Donald Ellis, International Journal of Communication
"Superb and timely work”
Ned Lazarus, Israel Studies Review
"A resounding success"