Media coverage and Israel’s ‘Four Mothers’ antiwar protest: agendas,tactics and political context in movement success

Abstract

This article investigates conditions under which media coverage can enable antiwar protest to influence national security policy. Through a study of ‘Four Mothers — Leaving Lebanon in Peace’, an Israeli group that in the late 1990s protested against that country’s war in southern Lebanon, it demonstrates that: media attention was an essential factor in the group’s formation and development into a national movement; together with features of the political environment, media attention enabled the movement to mobilize public opposition to the war; important elements of the media opposed government policy and were therefore motivated to cover the movement; yet the movement’s ability to attract coverage also derived from its protest strategies and intensive media outreach. The article examines these efforts by movement leaders to increase coverage and the dilemmas that their media strategies posed for activists. The conclusions consider the case’s implications concerning the political efficacy of antiwar movements generally, and particularly those with gendered identities.