Framing Social Conflict: A Case Study of Yitzhak Rabin’s Murder

This research examines social conflicts framing in Israel, by using the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Rabin in 1995 as a case study. We examined the prevalent discourse frames in Israeli newspapers articles at different periods: immediately following the assassination, and then one, eight and twenty-two years later. The frames that we identified were: political, religious, and democratic. Each frame described and promotes different motives that led to the murder. The articles were analyzed by using the Gamson & Lasch model (1983). The findings show that different groups repeatedly used metaphors, catchphrases, exemplars etc., to create interpretations that they tried to promote or to rebut others. This comparative research found that within all three frames, the dialogue between the different social groups in Israel has become more extreme through the years. Moreover, the use of the transformative mediation method (Bush & Folger, 1994) was proposed to develop a constructive dialogue between the groups.