Writing, Media, Religion and Spirituality in the 21st Century: June 2013

Contrasting Religious Realities: Media Representations of Religious Issues in Jerusalem

WRIT2011 MAJOR ESSAY

By Chloe Yates

In twenty-first century society, the media play a key role in framing religious topics in order to manipulate audience perceptions of religious groups to align with a political, social or ideological agenda. The way in which audiences perceive the actions, attitudes and beliefs of a religious group are directly determined by the information presented to them by the media. This essay seeks to analyse the role the role that specific television media productions have represented Jews and Muslims in the city of Jerusalem in recent years, the accuracy of this representation, and the implications and influence this representation has had on public perception of the two religious groups. Using a case study of two BBC documentary productions, Louis Theroux’s The Ultra Zionists and Yotam Ottolenghi’s Food of Jerusalem the motivations behind conflicting and divergent religious groups will be analysed within the framework of the way western viewers are mobilised to perceive Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem.

The influence of the media in shaping public attitudes towards religion is a debated and contested scholarly topic. As Savigny and Marsden suggest, there are two major schools of thought on the topic. The Frankfurt school suggests that the media inject ideas into unsuspecting audiences (Marsden and Savigny 2009). On the other hand, scholars such as Klapper suggest that audiences interpret media information within the context of their lived experiences (Marsden and Savigny 2009). Both schools agree that the media plays some role in shaping public attitudes. Elizabeth Poole and John Richardson assert that the dawn of globalisation has led to a homogenised journalistic ideology that largely portrays the west as inherently good, and Islamic nations as ‘other’ (Poole and Richardson 2006). These homogenised accounts of journalism and media framing of religion are influenced to a degree by local contexts such as immigrant presence and neighbouring populations, but mostly represent a dichotomised view of religions within the modern world, suggesting that Judeo-Christian traditions are incompatible with Muslim beliefs and culture(Stout and Buddenbaum 2009).

It is important to note that the content of media productions is strongly affected by the availability of, and access to picture and text resources (Poole and Richardson 2006). Without entertaining photos or video, media outlets are unable to create a story or production that will appeal to audiences, and will thus present only the most readily available and entertaining material. This, as Greg Philo (2006) writes, can lead to gaps in information about key current affairs issues, and perspectives of one group over another being more prominent in media presentations. Philo states that in the case of the Israel-Palestine conflict this is a key issue surrounding public opinion on Jews and Muslims in the West Bank, with western media foregrounding Israeli perspectives and Muslims seeing as agitating the volatile situation towards violence and discord (Philo 2006).

Another key issue surrounding religion in the media, and specifically the Israeli-Palestine conflict is the advent of “Islamophobia” in the media since September 11 (Ishak and Solihin 2012). Padgett and Allen suggest that in times of crisis, the western media scrambles to find an alien ‘other’ to personify a threat to safety and national integrity (Padgett and Allen 2003). Thus, following the September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York, Muslims became demonised as the enemy of the west (Padgett and Allen 2003). 2001 also marked a re-ignition of territorial conflict in Jerusalem, and In many cases the phenomenon of “Islamophobia” has characterised news and other media representations of the Israeli-Palestine conflict since then (Jung 2004; Ishak and Solihin 2012). However, in Theroux and Ottolenghi’s documentary representations, a dichotomised and divergent Islam is not as evident.

Louis Theroux’s The Ultra Zionists is a documentary series that examines the lives of extremist Jews and Zionists living in Jerusalem, and how this affects the ongoing conflict between Jews and Arab Musilms in Jerusalem (Theroux 2011). Theroux represents Ultra Zionists as driven by their religious claims to an unwavering claim and loyalty to the land of Jerusalem. Implicit throughout Theroux’s work is the allusion to the unnecessary and unreasonable nature of the claims and desires of these extremist Jewish groups (Smith 2011). Largely, viewers could easily interpret Theroux’s criticisms of these groups as suggestion that without the insistence of these groups that they remain in the West Bank, Jerusalem would be a peaceful city. However, this suggestion is overly simplistic and misleads audiences about the nature of conflict and religious identity in Jerusalem.

Theroux reports the extremist Jewish and Zionist groups as finding their motivation directly derived from the bible, and frames their violent and aggressive behaviour and attitudes towards neighbouring Arab Muslim communities. Thus commenting on the religious nature of Judaism and representing religion as a negative influence over social conflict and an inhibitor to peace (Theroux 2011). While Theroux is accurate in his assertion that these fringe groups exist, he over emphasises the role they play in the conflict and their prevalence in Jerusalem. Jews living in Jerusalem characterise themselves as twice as religious as Jews living in other regions of Israel, however ultra-orthodox and Zionist Jews make up less than one quarter of the Jewish population of Jerusalem (Choshen and Korach 2011). This means that fringe groups such as those Theroux interviews make up less than 15% of the population of Jerusalem and less than 4% of the total population of the West Bank (Choshen and Korach 2011).

Furthermore, while the number of orthodox Jews in Jerusalem is increasing by 1% each year, Arab Muslim populations are increasing by 3% per year, with a rising trend of more secular Jews emigrating from Jerusalem (Myre 2007). Thus, based on statistics alone, it can be seen that Therouz over stretches the volatile and fragile nature of the presence of these fringe groups in Jerusalem.

The lived experience for people living in Jerusalem in the twenty-first century, according to Theroux, is a volatile cauldron, bubbling just under tipping point, in which ultra-orthodox Jews have the potential to explode into violent uprisings instantaneously. This representation is over simplified and places too much impetus on the role and religiosity of these fringe groups. Theroux’s representation of the religious conflict in Jerusalem is contrasted by Ottolenghi’s production.

Yotam Ottolenghi’s Food of Jerusalem is a travel documentary that showcases the cultural and culinary experiences on offer in Jerusalem (Ottolenghi and Tamimi 2013). Returning to his childhood home towin, Ottolenghi endeavours to show viewers that the lived religious reality for residents of Jerusalem is not the frighteningly antagonistic and volatile situation it is often portrayed as by Western media. Ottolenghi is careful not to side with either religious group and shares experiences with both. Implicitly, Ottolenghi suggests that what is more important than the conflict between Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem, is the rich cultural and religious life both groups preserve and celebrate. Ottolenghi emphasises that the conflict situation is not present every day for people of Jerusalem, but an underlying current that sometimes ebbs to the surface; “there’s a lot in the Jerusalem experience that is shared and common to everybody”(Qureshi 2012). Ottolenghi foregrounds an acceptance of life in Jerusalem as “normal” and enjoyed by many.

History is important to Ottolenghi, in a sense that although informed by historical struggle and conflict, the Jerusalem of today has great potential for peace and many residents hope for this. Ottolenghi’s representation of religion in Jerusalem moves away from the classic western interpretation of a city divided along religious lines (Carroll 2011). The contested terrain of holy sites between Jews, Christians and Muslims are not evident in Ottolenghi’s production as is the case for a majority of western works on Jerusalem. What Ottolenghi emphasises explicitly is the importance of lived experience and tradition in religious groups, and he effectively showcases this through a culinary journey. Another key to Ottolenghi’s representation of Jerusalem as moving forward to peace is his revelation of groups, organisations and establishments that combine Muslims and Jews, and their traditions, to better represent Jerusalem and its unique identity.

The media plays an important role in framing viewers perceptions of religious identity, religious groups and issues and conflicts surrounding religion. Through selective choice of content and pictures, the media are able to address an agenda and stimulate a manipulated public opinion towards an issue. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, Islamophobia has dominated much western journalism. However, Therouz and Ottolenghi both move away from this homogenised representation of religious issues and characterise the religious conflict in Jerusalem under divergent frameworks. For Theroux, extremist Jewish fringe groups pose a threat to peace and exacerbate centuries of conflict motivated by sacred biblical texts. For Ottolenghi, the lived experience and reality of religion for people of Jerusalem is important to represent to western audiences. Both Theroux and Ottolenghi provide examples of the way in which the media influence representations of religious groups and inform viewer perceptions and opinions towards religious issues.