Strategic Assessment

This article addresses the amorphous phenomenon of “Israel’s delegitimization in the international arena” with a qualitative and quantitative analysis of media coverage relating to Israel in a defined region and time period. The choice for this methodology is based on literature showing that foreign news reporting affects public opinion, and in turn, the shaping and implementation of policy directives. Against this backdrop, this article considers the scope of articles relating to Israel and how Israel was framed in the local Dutch media in advance of the March 2017 general elections in the Netherlands. The study is based on a content analysis of over 350 newspaper articles in six Dutch newspapers during a 14-month period. Findings show that despite only minimal coverage of the BDS campaign that is spearheading delegitimization efforts, Israel is under a Dutch magnifying glass. An abundance of reports on other charged issues nurture negative perceptions of the state, which is primarily viewed through the prism of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.