Context is rare in news coverage and analysis is limited, apart from rare occasions when keywords are hidden at the end of an article. Settlements are not described as “illegal” and the West Bank is not described as the “occupied territories.” The 1967 borders are not referenced, nor are Palestinian “refugees.” AP News describes the recommended four-year freeze in Israeli settlement expansion as a “concession,” and fails to mention that the West Bank is occupied or refer to the growth of the Israeli settlements or their impact on the proposed “Palestinian entity” called the “state.” EvenThe Washington Post refers to the occupied territories as having been “captured” in 1967, rather than “occupied.”

The Washington Post invoked the Palestinian perspective in their headline, “In the West Bank, Trump’s plan has validated settlers’ dreams — and crushed the hopes of Palestinians,” which ran two days after Trump and Netanyahu’s announcement. Even this story’s lead, however, is dedicated to an Israeli settler in the Occupied West Bank, with the full biblical context of her claims. The Palestinian perspective comes second if not third in the story. Occupation is mentioned only once in a long story that is full of archeological and biblical details of the settlers’ connection to the West Bank. In doing so, the newspaper legitimated the settlers’ claims in the occupied West Bank, marginalized international law, and depicted the rights of Palestinians as secondary to those of the settlers.

News media enabled Trump, Netanyahu, and Kushner to delegitimize the Palestinians as an emotional group with no strategic vision and to silence them by using imperial discourse that presents them as an irrational group of people who need both guidance and anger management. The New York Times stated that the Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley and Israel’s illegal settlements are “sure to further inflame the Palestinians.” The Associated Press similarly reported that “Trump peace plan delights Israelis, enrages Palestinians.” The Washington Post used similar language.