This study examines political cartoons depicting Trump's proposal to own Gaza and displace its people, while identifying the predominant themes within these cartoons. The dataset comprises ten political cartoons, purposively selected from an initial corpus of 50, sourced from various Arabic online newspapers. Multimodal discourse analysis, an approach that integrates language analysis with the analysis of other semiotic elements such as images, gestures, and symbols to interpret meaning (O’Halloran et al., 2011), is employed for the analysis. Kress and Van Leeuwen's Visual Social Semiotics framework, drawing on Halliday's functional socio-semiotic theory of language, is adopted to analyse the cartoons’ visual elements through its three metafunctions – representational, interactive, and compositional. The findings revealed ten predominant themes: (i) the hidden agenda of Trump's plan: ethnic cleansing of Palestinians; (ii) the Palestinian rejection of forced displacement; (iii) regional opposition and outrage against Trump's displacement plan; (iv) standing together: Arab unity against displacement; (v) fuelling occupation: power and materialism driving displacement; (vi) displacement and oppression are universal struggles; (vii) the unyielding steadfastness of Palestinians in the face of adversity; (viii) the land resists: defying displacement and occupation; (ix) the inevitable failure of the displacement plan; and (x) the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The author concludes that the significance of studying political cartoons cannot be overlooked.
Abou-HodeibT (2024) Gaza and the chronology of perpetual return. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication17(3): 215–220.
2.
AlasmariAAlmohammadiA (2023) A multimodal analysis of the representation of Saudi women in selected caricature images from cartoon movement: a global platform for editorial cartoons. Cogent Arts & Humanities10(2): 1–19.
AmerM (2020) The iconography of a nation: national identity construction in Palestinian visual representations. IUG Journal of Humanities Research28(1): 1–24.
10.
Boqa’iN (2005) Patterns of internal displacement, social adjustment and the challenge of return. In: MasalhaN (eds) Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine-Israel and the Internal Refugee-Essays in Memory of Edward W. Said. London: Zed Books, 73–112.
11.
BorjabadFOlmoF (2020) Arab political cartoons and Facebook: Nadia Khiari, Ali Ferzat and Mohammed Sabaaneh. Journal of Communication Inquiry45(3): 244–266.
12.
CalogeroRMullenB (2007) About face: facial prominence of George W. Bush in political cartoons as a function of war. The Leadership Quarterly19: 107–116.
13.
DanjouxI (2018) Political cartoons and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
14.
El RefaieE (2009) Multiliteracies: how readers interpret political cartoons. Visual Communication8(2): 181–205.
15.
GiarelliETulmanL (2003) Methodological issues in the use of published cartoons as data. Qualitative Health Research13(7): 945–956.
16.
GreenPSmithA (2016) Evicting Palestine. State Crime Journal5(1): 81–108.
17.
GreenbergJ (2002) Framing and temporality in political cartoons: a critical analysis of visual news discourse. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology39: 181–198.
18.
GregoryD (2004) The Colonial Present. Oxford: Blackwell.
GutaHEissaE (2025) Echoes of Gaza: semiotic analysis of Palestinian and Israeli political cartoons during the 2023/24 war on Gaza. Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research18(1): 101–132.
HaidarMTAAlqaryoutiMAlruzziK, et al. (2024). The impact of the Balfour declaration and the British mandate on the loss of Palestine (1917–1948). In: Al-SartawiAMAAydinerASKananM. (eds) Business Analytical Capabilities and Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Analytics: Applications and Challenges in the Digital Era. Studies in Computational Intelligence. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 377–387.
23.
HallidayMAK (1978) Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Arnold.
24.
HallidayMAK (1994) Language and the theory of codes. In: SadovnikA (eds) Knowledge and Pedagogy: The Sociology of Basil Bernstein. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 124–142.
25.
HallidayMAK (2004) On grammar as the driving force from primary to higher-order consciousness. In: WilliamsGLukinA (eds) The Development of Language: Functional Perspectives on Species and Individuals. London: Continuum, 15–44.
HusseinI (2019) Analyzing political cartoons in Arabic-language media after Trump’s Jerusalem move: a multimodal discourse perspective. International Journal of Cognitive and Language Sciences13(4): 451–465.
28.
JewittCOyamaR (2001) Visual meaning: A social semiotic approach. In: Van LeeuwenTJewittC (eds) Handbook of Visual Analysis. London, Thousand Oaks, and New Delhi: Sage Publications, 134–156.
29.
KhatibL (2012) Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle. London: IB Tauris.
KilbyLLennonH (2018) Charlie Hebdo and the Prophet Muhammad: a multimodal critical discourse analysis of peace and violence in a satirical cartoon. In: GibsonS (ed) Discourse, Peace, and Conflict. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 303–321.
LeVineM (2005) Overthrowing geGgraphy: Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880–1948. Berkeley: University of California Press.
35.
LeVineM (2015) When art is the weapon: culture and resistance confronting violence in the post-uprisings Arab world. Religions6(4): 1277–1313.
36.
LondonLWattersonAMerglerD, et al. (2024) A call from 40 public health scientists for an end to the continuing humanitarian and environ mental catastrophe in Gaza.Environmental Health23(1): 1–6.
37.
LuluRAHabeebLSHadji Abdul RacmanSM (2021) Discourse of socio-political crisis and the pandemic: a linguistic analysis of Jordanian Arabic cartoons on COVID-19. Linguistics and Literature Review7(2): 1–22.
38.
LuluRAHadji Abdul RacmanSMHabeebLS (2022) A multimodal analysis of political cartoons and the discourse of Palestinians’ displacement: Sheikh Jarrah case. Reflections/Sigma Theta Tau29(3): 700–717.
39.
MaharaniNA (2024) Social media as a primary source of information: exploring its role in disseminating the current situation in Palestine. Gema Wiralodra15(1): 275–281. https://gemawiralodra.unwir.ac.id/index.php
40.
MasalhaN (2008) Remembering the Palestinian Nakba: commemoration, oral history and narratives of memory. Holy Land Studies7(2): 123–156.
41.
MateusS (2016) Political cartoons as communicative weapons – the hypothesis of the “double standard thesis” in three Portuguese cartoons. Estudosem Comunicação23: 195–221.
42.
MazidB (2008) Cowboy and misanthrope: a critical (discourse) analysis of Bush and bin Laden cartoons. Discourse & Communication2(4): 433–457.
43.
MoloneyGHoltzPWagnerW (2013) Editorial political cartoons in Australia: social representations and the visual depiction of essentialism. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science47(2): 284–298.
44.
MowafyMM (2021) US foreign policy during the presidency of Trump: a multimodal discourse analysis of selected political cartoons in Al-Ahram weekly. BSU International Journal of Humanities and Social Science4(1): 172–203.
45.
MüllerMÖzcanESeizovO (2009) Dangerous depictions: a visual case study of contemporary cartoon controversies. Popular Communication7(1): 28–39.
46.
NajjarO (2007) Cartoons as a site for the construction of Palestinian refugee identity. Journal of Communication Inquiry31(3): 255–285.
47.
NurfaedahNMustikasariMSehabudinD (2025) The role of social media in strengthening the boycott movement of Israeli products during the Israel-Palestine war 2023-2024. Jurnal Ilmiah Manajemen6(1): 42–49.
48.
O’HalloranKLTanS, et al. (2011) Multimodal studies. In: O’HalloranKLSmithBA (eds) Multimodal Studies: Exploring Issues and Domains. London and New York: Routledge, 68–77
49.
PappéI (2006) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
50.
PearlsteinEGriswoldGFranconeS (2025) Approaches to the conservation of two American Indian warbonnet headdresses in the USA and Italy. Studies in Conservation70(2): 120–138.
51.
PeruginiNGordonN (2024) Medical lawfare: the Nakba and Israel’s attacks on Palestinian healthcare. Journal of Palestine Studies53(1): 68–91.
52.
QabahaAHamamraB (2021) The Nakba continues: the Palestinian crisis from the past to the present. Janus Unbound: Journal of Critical Studies1(1): 30–42.
SalimSIsmailH (2025) Decoding innocence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: semiotics of Palestinian children's cartoons on Twitter. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics16(1): 19–37.
55.
SamuelA (2017) Satirizing the Nigerian climate: multimodal discourse analysis of selected political cartoons from TELL newsmagazine. Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences3(4): 1–10.
56.
ShaikhNZTariqRSaqlainN (2016) Cartoon war…A political dilemma! A semiotic analysis of political cartoons. Journal of Media Studies31(1): 74–92.
57.
StocklH (2004) In between modes: Language and image in printed media. In: VentolaECharlesCKaltenbacherM (eds) Perspectives of Multimodality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 9–30.
58.
SualmanIDarwisYSahuddinN (2024) Unveiling counter-narratives: the impact of citizen journalism via social media on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Information Management and Business Review16(3): 661–669.
59.
SufianS (2008) Anatomy of the 1936–39 revolt: images of the body in political cartoons of mandatory Palestine. Journal of Palestine Studies37(2): 23–42.
60.
SwanickS (2018) Yasak/banned: political cartoons from late Ottoman and republican Turkey and Duke University's Ottoman and Turkish collections: an overview. Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association5(13): 13–24. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/735595
61.
TehseemTBokhariZ (2015) Spoiling or the saving in Pakistani newspapers: a multimodal discourse perspective on analyzing political cartoons. Asian Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities4(2): 1–14.
62.
TinsleyHWeissD (2000) Interrater reliability and agreement. In: TinsleyHBrownS (eds) Handbook of Applied Multivariate Statistics and Mathematical Modelling. San Diego: Academic Press, 95–124.
63.
WalkerR (2003) Political cartoons: now you see them!. Canadian Parliamentary Review26(1): 16–21.
64.
YasminSKayaniAAnwarB (2024) Interplay of linguistic and semiotic choices in shaping meaning: a critical analysis of political cartoon in Pakistani English newspaper. The Regional Tribune3(1): 225–235.
