Ethnic and Racial Studies

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Racializing human rights: political orientation,

racial beliefs, and media use as predictors of
support for human rights violations – a case study
of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Yossi David & Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

To cite this article: Yossi David & Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (2023) Racializing human rights:
political orientation, racial beliefs, and media use as predictors of support for human rights
violations – a case study of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 46:10,
1947-1971, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2023.2166792

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2166792

Published online: 12 Jan 2023.

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ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES
2023, VOL. 46, NO. 10, 1947–1971
https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2166792

Racializing human rights: political orientation, racial

beliefs, and media use as predictors of support for
human rights violations – a case study of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict
a,b
Yossi David and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkianc,d
a
Department of Communication Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba,
Israel; bDepartment of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz,
Germany; cInstitute of Criminology – Faculty of Law, School of Social Work and Social
Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; dSchool of Law, Queen Mary
University of London, London, UK

ABSTRACT
To what extent do political orientation, racial beliefs, and media use contribute
to explaining support for human rights violations? To address these question,
we draw on Adorno’s “authoritarian personality” theory by proposing the
concept of “racial syndrome,” resulting in affinity for expressions of support
for right-wing ideologies. Using a public opinion survey conducted among
Jewish-Israeli adults (N = 1,001), we show that political orientation and racial
beliefs contribute to explaining support for human rights violations and that
racial beliefs mediate the association between political orientation and
support for human rights violations, measured as support for child arrest in
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Moreover, the use of mainstream media
moderates the association of political orientation with both racial beliefs and
support for human rights violations, but the use of digital media does not.
This study calls upon journalists, activists, and policymakers to engage
responsibly in reducing racialized beliefs and promoting justice and human
rights.

ARTICLE HISTORY Received 14 April 2022; Accepted 28 November 2022

KEYWORDS Racism; political orientation; human rights violations; public opinion; Israeli-Palestinian
conflict; childhood studies

Introduction
In recent years, there has been an increase in support for right-wing political
parties, attitudes, and policies in many Western and non-Western countries.
In the past few decades, this phenomenon has also been apparent in Israel,
where increasing numbers of Jewish-Israelis have begun to self-identify as
right-wingers (Shamir and Shikaki 2010), while political parties identifying

CONTACT Yossi David davidyos@bgu.ac.il

© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
1948 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

as left-wing have almost disappeared (Israeli Democratic Institute 2020). The

rise of authoritarian parties and movements has profoundly unsettled liberal
democratic thought across the globe. The fact that authoritarian populist
voices are not relegated to the political margin, but have instead become
the centre of political life and world politics, constitutes a serious challenge
to democratic politics and systems (Inglehart and Norris 2017; Rogenhofer
and Panievsky 2020; Waisbord 2020). In spite of this, there exists only scant
empirical research exploring Israeli right-wing populism (Filc 2009; Levi and
Agmon 2021; Panievsky 2022; Pinson 2022). One of the essential analytical
questions for conflict studies scholars pertain to examining the underlying
mechanisms of support for violating the human rights of otherized groups
(David et al. 2016; Hafner-Burton 2012).
Media plays a central role in framing political conflicts and their solutions
(Robinson 2011) and, as such, influences public opinion and social behaviour
(Lakoff 1992; Soroka et al. 2016). Previous studies have shown that media dis-
courses and technologies might also indirectly affect public opinion (Chen
2018; David 2022). In the last two decades, we have witnessed a change in
the media sphere, with a drastic increase in media outlets that exist on
digital platforms – platforms which enable new opportunities for the rep-
resentation of diverse opinions in the public sphere. However, by comparison
to mainstream media, these platforms offer fertile ground for the broad and
rapid distribution of racist opinions and ideas. This study aims to explore the
role of media use in understanding support for human rights violations, with
a focus on children’s rights.
Drawing on and engaging with Adorno’s and colleagues’ (1950) analyses
of authoritarian policies, we will examine our data and offer an analytical
model to explore features that mobilize and actualize racialized tendencies.
Racialization “signifies the extension of racial meaning to a previously racially
unclassified relationship, social practice, or group” (Winant 1994, 59). By
pointing to racialized dialectics of objectification and exclusion, and enga-
ging with Adorno’s analyses, we propose the concept of “racial syndrome”,
suggesting an affinity for expressions of support for right-wing tendencies.
Adorno and colleagues (1950) offer the notion of “authoritarian syndrome”
as an explanation for the tendency of certain individuals toward biased
and prejudiced thinking and behaviour, suggesting there are strong
affinities between this syndrome and aggression, behavioural expressions,
and articulations and discriminatory attitudes toward marginalized and
otherized groups. He also explains how the shared qualities of an ideal
type, added to internal networks, constitute an “authoritarian personality”
that exhibits a rigid, unchanging structure (Landmann 2011). Adorno
indeed used the concepts of “anti-democratic syndrome” and “prejudiced
personality.” The psycho-social framework that Adorno points to is a struc-
tural one that advances hatred and prejudicial thinking, or – as we argue –
 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES 1949

racism. Invoking Adorno’s analyses can help us understand how support for
right-wing parties can mobilize and encourage the breaking of human right
norms and, in turn, advance the violation of children’s rights, something that
Shalhoub-Kevorkian (2019) defines as “unchilding.” Unchilding exposes the
political work of violence designed to create, direct, govern, transform, and
construct colonized children as dangerous, racialized others, enabling their
eviction from the realm of childhood itself. Racism and authoritarianism, as
apparent in the dialectic of objectification, fetishization, social domination,
and exclusion, present a psycho-political tendency to mobilize and situate
some groups at the limits of justice (Perera and Razack 2014; Shalhoub-Kevor-
kian 2016). In this study, we examine the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through
the lens of both Adorno et al.’s (1950) “authoritarian syndrome,” critical litera-
ture on the racialization of Palestinians (Perera and Razack 2014; Shalhoub-
Kevorkian 2009, 2016, 2019), and contemporary research on the interactions
between authoritarianism and populism (Levi and Agmon 2021; Panievsky
2022; Rogenhofer and Panievsky 2020; Waisbord 2020).
Scholars studying racism have suggested that child arrest is a site through
which we can understand racist and racial configurations (Shalhoub-Kevor-
kian 2015; Dhillon 2015; Pickett and Chircos 2012). Critical studies insist on
understanding childhood, children, and their rights politically and racially
(Brocklehurst 2006; Razack 2015; Hansen 1999; Nunn 2002; Ward 2015). Pol-
itical powers and public opinion tend to agree that children have the right to
be secure and safe from violence, as well as the rights to due process, fair trial,
and child-sensitive interventions. Yet, in recent years, studies in various
countries, including Australia, Canada, the United States, and Israel/Palestine,
have found racialized interventions by formal and informal social control
agents (David 2022; Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2015; Jacobs 2005; Coulthard
2007; Dhillon 2017). Scholars studying racism in Western countries have
documented practices and policies that permit discrimination toward and
unequal treatment of otherized groups (Bloch and Schuster 2005; Crawley
2017), transforming the maritime borders of Europe into deathscapes
(Jansen, Celikates, and De Bloois 2015). De Genova (2018) have defined the
widespread refusal to confront questions of “race” as an unresolved racial
crisis that requires rigorous scrutiny. This paper argues that the preservation
of human rights, in the context of children’s rights, are framed and affected by
racialized power politics (Brocklehurst 2006, 2020; Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2019).
Critical studies assert that racialized formations reconstruct members of these
groups as unwanted, disposable others.
This study has been designed to explore the underlying mechanisms of
support for human rights violations against otherized groups among a
sample of Jewish-Israelis. It builds on previous research (David et al. 2016)
by exploring the role of political orientation, racial beliefs, and media use
in predicting support for human rights violations. We introduce an analytical
1950 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

model to explore the ways in which political orientation (right versus left)
might predict racial beliefs and support for violating the human rights of
Palestinian children living in East Jerusalem (EJ). Using a unique public
opinion poll conducted among Jewish-Israelis, our study also tests racial
beliefs as a mediator and media use as a moderator of (increased) support
for violating human rights among Jewish-Israelis.

Political orientation, hawkishness, and human rights

Adorno’s theorizing of authoritarianism, and specifically his understanding of
authoritarian syndrome, suggests that there is a strong affinity between this
syndrome on the one hand and, on the other, the expressions, actions, and
aggressions articulated by populist crowds, voters, and supporters
(Rensmann 2018). Landmann (2011) explains how the uncompromising
traits of the authoritarian personality expose a “relatively rigid, unchanging
structure that appears time and again and is everywhere the same;”
Adorno goes on to describe such traits as “antidemocratic-syndrome,” main-
taining that there exists an “externalized” superego structure common to all
prejudiced individuals (Adorno et al. 1950, 762). The psychological defects of
the racist agitator are embedded in their own psychological defects, and thus
the issue, as Adorno insists, is the method, the how (Adorno 2000), and the
standardized answers to social discontent. This is the personification that is
paired with the dehumanization of the alleged “enemies of the people,” be
it the refugee, the foreigner, the Palestinian, or the Jew. The exclusion and
discrimination of otherized groups point not only to narcissistic traits; they
also offer a sense of belonging, or what Adorno et al. (1950) refer to as a
“delusion-like-security” (619; as mentioned in Rensmann 2018, 36). The cre-
ation of a political climate that promotes racism against and anxiety
toward otherized groups suspends rational and moral codes, opening the
door to a greater acceptance of anti-humanitarian and delegitimizing trans-
gressions. The adaptation of such a political climate produces a system of
delusions that becomes the norm (Horkheimer and Adorno 1969).
Critical theory analyses, as reflected in Adorno’s work on authoritarian poli-
tics, offer another powerful lens for understanding the important role racism
plays in the formation of public opinion and political behaviour. Anxiety in
politics and the political mobilization of fear (Neumann 1957; Shalhoub-
Kevorkian 2015; Wodak 2015) facilitate destructive tendencies, producing a
racialized political-cultural climate. Unpacking such a political climate may
play a key role in disrupting the social and political acceptance of racism,
exclusion, and hatred.
Political orientation is an important and significant factor affecting political
attitudes and behaviours. Adorno et al. (1950) argue that political orientation
influences authoritarian perceptions and attitudes; previous empirical studies
 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES 1951

have also found that political orientation had a strong and significant effect
on attitudes and emotions related to human rights, as well as support for
human rights in relation to minority and otherized groups. Right-wing (as
opposed to left-wing) political orientations have also been found to lead to
greater opposition to compromise (Bar-Tal 1994; Shamir and Shamir 2000;
Shamir and Shikaki 2002, 2010), increased negative and decreased positive
emotions (Halperin and Bar-Tal 2011), and increased support for human
rights violations (David et al. 2016; Raijman 2010). Therefore, we hypothesize
that right-wing (vs. left-wing) political orientation will increase support for
human rights violations.

Increases in right-wing populist parties and ideologies

In recent years, the world has witnessed increased support for right-wing pol-
itical parties, attitudes, and policies in both Western and non-Western
countries (Inglehart and Norris 2017; Öniş and Kutlay 2020). The global rise
in support for such right-wing attitudes, perceptions, and policies has been
reflected in the election of right-wing and populist parties and leaders,
from Trump in the United States to Orbán in Hungary (Krekó and Enyedi
2018), Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (Chacko 2018), and Bolsonaro in
Brazil (Araújo and Prior 2021), among others. These tendencies are also
evident in the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote and the election of Boris
Johnson as prime minister, as well as in the rise of right-wing political
parties in other countries, such as the AfD in Germany, the DLF and LF in
France, FPÖ in Australia, and Vox in Spain (Jungar 2018) and in changing atti-
tudes toward groups of others in Europe (Bruneau, Kteily, and Laustsen 2018;
Faragó et al. 2022; Schemer and Meltzer 2020; Wirz et al. 2018).
Empirical studies have found an increase in populist sentiment among
Jewish-Israelis (Levi and Agmon 2021; Panievsky 2022; Rogenhofer and
Panievsky 2020), a finding which interacts with increasingly hawkish political
orientations toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, decreased willingness for
compromise, and higher intolerance toward Palestinians (Bar-Tal 2001;
Shamir and Shamir 2000; Shamir and Shikaki 2010). In addition, political
orientation has been found to be a strong predictor of support for human
rights violations among the Jewish population in Israel (Ariely 2021; David
et al. 2016). Prejudice toward otherized groups, including racial beliefs,
have been found to play an important role in changing attitudes toward
groups of others in Europe, e.g. refugees and immigrants (Faragó et al.
2022; Schemer and Meltzer 2020; Wirz et al. 2018) and to Palestinians in
Israel (Bekerman, Habib, and Shhadi 2011; Feinstein and Bonikowski 2021).
These previous findings suggest that prejudice and racial beliefs regarding
marginalized and otherized groups increase negative attitudes toward
foreigners and, as such, lead to increased support for human rights violations.
1952 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

Therefore, we hypothesize that right-wing (vs. left-wing) political orientations

will increase racial beliefs toward Palestinians.
Said (1978) explained that the racialized object is a projection of wishful
and fearful thinking (for more details, see Massad 2005). Common prejudicial
opinions and racist beliefs include various prejudices and perceptions of
groups of “others” as unwanted, contaminated, or behaving immorally.
These racial perceptions usually focus on money and crime rates, with
people arguing that otherized groups take money from a country’s “original”
citizens and raise crime rates (Wike, Stokes, and Simmons 2016). Perceptions
like these construct such otherized groups as culturally, socially, and behav-
iourally alien. Negative racial perceptions are maintained by drawing on the
perceptions that otherized groups take jobs from citizens of the state, do not
pay enough taxes compared to the benefits they receive, and increase the
crime rates by committing crimes. Therefore, we hypothesize that a high
level of racial beliefs will increase support for human rights violations.
Although political orientation and racial beliefs interact, both factors have
a unique association with support for violating human rights. In order to
explore the social and psychological processes underlying the association
of right-wing political orientation with (increased) support for human rights
violations, we draw on the argument by Adorno et al. (1950), which states
that political orientation influences authoritarian perceptions and attitudes.
In addition, there is a large body of empirical evidence that shows how
right-wing political orientation increases prejudice toward marginalized
groups (Faragó et al. 2022; Wirz et al. 2018) and support for nationalistic pol-
icies (Bar-Tal 1994; Shamir and Shamir 2000; Shamir and Shikaki 2002, 2010).
In addition, political orientation has been found to directly increase racial
beliefs (Nail, Harton, and Decker 2003; Unnever, Benson, and Cullen 2008)
and support for human rights violations (David et al. 2016; Raijman 2010).
Times of conflict and crisis can be characterized by the notion of “rallying
‘round the flag” (Mueller 1970), a process which promotes ethnocentrism and
perceptions of the relations with otherized groups as a zero-sum game (David
2022). These perceptions may lead to people preferencing the interests of
their own groups and supporting human rights violations against otherized
groups (David et al. 2016; Hafner-Burton 2012). Moreover, racist beliefs and
dehumanization of otherized groups may lead to support for violating their
human rights (Singer 1996; Ward 2015). Given this existing research, we
propose that political orientation may be a motivating factor in creating
racial beliefs, which in turn increase an individual’s support for human
rights violations. This would make racial beliefs a powerful mediator. Thus,
we expect that (increased) racial beliefs toward Palestinians will mediate the
association of political orientation with (decreased) support for human rights
violations.
 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES 1953

Support for child arrest

Understanding racism – including a state’s direct and “slow violence” (Ward
2015), wherein the victimization of otherized groups is hidden – is a compli-
cated endeavour. Public concerns about juvenile delinquency have in some
cases led to “getting tough” on crime (Singer 1996); in other instances,
these concerns have encouraged “child-saving” efforts. However, as some
scholars would argue, both approaches are embedded in racially exclusive
conceptions of childhood and adolescence (Nunn 2002) and racialized
beliefs that delinquents are generally Black and victims tend to be White
(Jackson and Pabon 2000). This study explores the racism of unchilding,
and the way in which children’s rights are not invoked or even consulted
when discussing otherized children (Kovner and Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2016;
Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2020). Under both Israeli civilian law and Israeli military
law, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 12 years old, however,
Palestinian children are treated differently (Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Odeh
2018; Viterbo 2012). To examine criminalization from a critical race perspec-
tive, we must measure and interpret various framings for behaviours associ-
ated with the politicization of childhood and its racialized nature. One of the
analytical sites that engages conflict and critical childhood studies is deten-
tion. We argue that violating children’s rights, particularly through the use
of detention, is a key factor in exploring the politics of racialization and
otherization.
Detentions of Palestinian children by Israel in general and EJ in particular
have increased in the last few years (Kovner and Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2016;
Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Odeh 2018).1 The increased number of Palestinian
minors in detention leads us to examine the important role of public
opinion in support for such hyper-criminalization, to use Rios’s theorization
(Rios 2006) in his study on Black and Latino male youth in the United
States. In this study, we look closely at child arrest, in order to promote a
better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of political orientation
and racism in predicting support for violating human rights, focusing on
support for child arrest (among children aged 9–12) in EJ.

Racism and the violence of unchilding

To understand racism and the violence of unchilding, it is important to
remember that racism towards a child tells us more about the racist than
about the racialized. In order to explore the ways in which racism is apparent
in people’s political beliefs, we draw on Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s (2019) analyses
of racial violence, embedded in what she refers to as unchilding. Unchilding
maneuvers through global politics by operating within neoliberal world poli-
tics. It is marked by social exclusion and extinction and is aligned with and
operates alongside the twisted logic of necropolitics, whereby the present
1954 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

and historical realities of who has died in the past, who gets to live, and who is
left to die now violate the purity of historical contexts across time and space
and become inscribed instead on children’s living, maimed (Puar 2017), and
dead bodies, and on children who are already illegitimate non-subjects.
Unchilding sheds light on the effects of racial violence and colonialism on
the intimate lives of children. Unchilding penetrates children’s everyday inti-
mate spaces and, simultaneously, their bodies and lives, working to enable a
complex machinery of violence against children (Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2019).

Support for child arrest scale

In order to assess support for human rights violations in this study, we
measure support for the detention of Palestinian children living in EJ using
the support for child arrest (SCA) scale. The SCA scale is based on the identifi-
cation of several justifications for the detention of Palestinian children in EJ.
The six items included in the scale are based on previous explanatory work in
EJ (Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2015, 2019; Kovner and Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2016;
Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Odeh 2018) and refer to the following justifications
for the detention of Palestinian children in EJ: participation in demonstrations;
participation in riots; objection to body searches; suspicion of throwing stones;
suspicion of possessing a knife; and suspicion of throwing other objects (e.g.
Molotov cocktail). Respondents were asked to rate the extent to which they
agreed or disagreed with the arrest of Palestinian children aged between 9
and 12 in EJ (see the Materials and Methods section for further details).

The moderated role of media use

Media plays an important role in framing political conflicts and setting a
public agenda surrounding such conflicts (Lakoff 1992; Robinson 2011;
Soroka et al. 2016). Over the past decade, we have witnessed an increase
in populist and racial discourses in mainstream and digital media platforms
(David 2022; Jackson 2013; Jackson and Banaszczyk 2016; Molina-Guzman
2013, 2016). The implicit and explicit appearance of sexism, chauvinism,
and hatred in media discourses has played a role in intensifying and strength-
ening support for human rights violations during political conflicts (Jackson
and Banaszczyk 2016; Molina-Guzman 2013; Razack 2015; Shalhoub-Kevor-
kian 2019). Such discriminatory and biased media frames create a racializing
climate that legitimizes sexist, chauvinist, and racist attitudes toward margin-
alized groups (Abu Lughod 2002; Grewal 2005; Puar 2017).
Media frames and the extensive media coverage of political conflicts in the
local media have a strong effect on public perceptions of said conflicts and, as
such, on attitudes toward decision-making (Baden and Stalpouskaya 2020;
Pasitselska and Baden 2020; Lakoff 1992). Previous studies have found that
media frames might shape public opinion and social behaviour in times of
 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES 1955

conflict (Baden and Stalpouskaya 2020; Pasitselska and Baden 2020; Soroka
et al. 2016; Wilkes 2016). Data from two experiments conducted in Canada,
for example, reveal the role that mass media played in generating support
for military involvement in Afghanistan and Syria and that this effect is mod-
erated by attentiveness to the issue (Soroka et al. 2016). Other studies have
found that media use reduces prejudice and racist beliefs toward racialized
others (Goldman and Mutz 2014) and moderates attitudes and behaviour
(Chen 2018; David 2022). Further research is required in order to examine
the indirect effect of media use on racial beliefs and support for human
rights violations in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. This
review of the existing literature leads us to the moderated-mediation hypoth-
esis that media use will moderate the association of political orientation with
racial beliefs and support for human rights violations.

The current study

In this study, we aim to investigate whether racial beliefs, political orientation,
and media use are associated with the level of support for human rights vio-
lations during political conflict. We also examine whether the level of racial
beliefs toward Palestinians mediates the association of political orientation
with support for human rights violations. Such an empirical examination
can promote a better understanding of the influence that right-wing political
orientations have on increased racialization and support for violating human
rights. It may also contribute to reducing hatred and support for violating
human rights by addressing three central factors: racial beliefs, political orien-
tation, and media use. We examined our projections in the context of the pol-
itical conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Hypotheses
H1: Racial beliefs toward Palestinians and right-wing (vs. left-wing) political
orientations will be associated with support for violating Palestinians’
human rights. Respondents who hold a high level of racial beliefs and
those who identify as having a right-wing political orientation will have
(increased) support for human rights violations.
H2: Racial beliefs toward Palestinians will mediate the association between
political orientation and (increased) support for human rights violations.
H3: Media use will moderate the association of political orientation with
racial beliefs and support for human rights violations; simultaneously, racial
beliefs will be mediated by the association between political orientation
and support for human rights violations.
To examine these questions and hypotheses, we introduce a new analyti-
cal model (see Figure 1). Our model examines the role of political orientation
1956 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

Figure 1. Analytical model.

in predicting racial beliefs and support for human rights violations, as well as
the role of racial beliefs in predicting support for human rights violations. In
addition, the study examines the role of racial beliefs as an underlying mech-
anism mediating the association between political orientation and support
for human rights violations.

Materials and methods

Survey design and participants
The results of our study are based on an online survey of 1,001 Jewish-Israeli
adults (aged 18 and older)2 conducted by a professional polling agency in
Israel during summer 2018. The survey was conducted in Hebrew and the
items have been translated into English.

Measures
The following subsections provide brief descriptions of the variables used in
our study (see Table 1 for further details).

Dependent variable
Support for child arrest (SCA) scale: this scale (for more details on the construc-
tion of this scale see the support for child arrest scale section) was based on
six items rated on an 6-point scale ranging from (1) definitely disagree to (6)
Table 1. Means (SDs) and intercorrelations of study variables.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mean (SD)
1. Support for child arrest (SCA) scale (6 items) .92 5.15 (1.04)
2. Racial beliefs toward the other (Palestinians) scale (3 items) .40*** .65 6.17 (1.94)
3. Political orientation (higher score = right-wing) .47*** .49*** 6.12 (2.06)
Media use
4. Television -.04 -.14*** -.15*** 3.67 (1.74)
5. Newspaper -.01 -.06* -.05 .49*** 2.87 (1.62)
6. Digital media -.02 -.11*** -.12*** .34*** .33*** 4.34 (1.67)
7. Age -.19*** -.27*** -.29*** .36*** .30*** .16*** 41.98 (15.52)
8. Education (higher score = higher education) -.11*** -.09** -.13*** -.03 -.03 .04 .23*** 14.41 (2.76)

ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES

9. Socioeconomic status (SES) (higher score = higher status) .04 -.09** -.01 .07* .06† .07* .03 .16*** 2.82 (1.13)
10. Gender .00 .06† .01 .04 .01 -.10** .03 -.06* -.09** 1.50 (0.05)
NOTE: Political orientation was based on a (1) left-wing to (9) right-wing scale. Racial beliefs toward the other (Palestinians) was based on a (0) low level of racism to (10) high level
of racism scale. The SCA scale was based on (1) definitely disagree to (6) definitely agree. Media use (television, newspaper, and digital media) was based on (1) never or almost
never to (6) several times every day. Gender was a binary scale (1 = male and 2 = female), education was measured in number of years of formal education, and SES on a scale of
(1) a lot below average to (5) a lot above average.
†
p < 0.10; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001

1957
1958 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

definitely agree. The six items were: participation in demonstrations; partici-

pation in riots; objection to body searches; suspicion of throwing stones; suspi-
cion of possessing a knife; and suspicion of throwing other objects (e.g. Molotov
cocktail). Each respondent’s ratings for all six items were averaged to form an
SCA scale result, with higher scores representing higher levels of support for
child arrests. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for these items was .92 (see
Table 1).

Mediator
Racial beliefs toward the (Palestinian) other (RAO) scale: The RAO scale (for
more details on the construction of this scale see the racism and the violence
of unchilding section) was based on three items rated on an 11-point scale,
ranging from low level of racism (0) to high level of racism (10). The three
items were: “Would you say that residents of East Jerusalem who come to
West Jerusalem generally take jobs away from workers in West Jerusalem, or
do they generally help to create new jobs?”; “Most residents of East Jerusalem
who come to West Jerusalem work and pay taxes. They also use health and
welfare services. On balance, do you think people who come here take out
more than they put in, or do they put in more than they take out?”; and “Are
West Jerusalem’s crime problems made worse or better by people coming
from East Jerusalem?” Each respondent’s ratings for all three items were aver-
aged for each respondent to form an RAO scale result, where higher scores
represented higher levels of racial beliefs toward Palestinians living in EJ.
The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .65 (see Table 1).

Moderator
Media use: Respondents were asked to indicate their use of three different
forms of media – television, newspapers, and digital media – using a six-
point scale ranging from 1 = never or almost never to 6 = several times
every day.

Independent variable
Political orientation: Respondents were asked indicate their political orien-
tation on a nine-point scale ranging from 1 = left-wing to 9 = right-wing. In
addition to the independent variables, the regression models also controlled
for several additional sociodemographic variables that may influence racial
beliefs and support for human rights violations. First, given the women and
peace hypothesis suggests that women are less supportive of militant policies
and human rights violations and more oriented toward peace than men
(Aharoni 2017), gender was measured as a binary scale, where 1 = male
and 2 = female. Participants were also asked to indicate their age, education
level, and socioeconomic status (SES), which have been found to be impor-
tant factors in predicting public opinion and emotions in intergroup relations
 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES 1959

(David et al. 2016, 2018). Age was measured in years. Level of education was
measured in years of formal schooling. Respondents were asked indicate their
socioeconomic status (SES) on a five-point scale ranging from 1 = below
average to 5 = above average. Consequently, another goal of the study is to
present our analytical model with gender, age, SES, and education level
metrics, in addition to measures of political orientation and racial beliefs, as
predictors of support for human rights violations.

Results
Descriptive analyses
The data presented in Table 1 indicate that Jewish-Israelis expressed high
levels of support for child arrests (M = 5.15, SD = 1.04). On average, 88% of
our respondents indicated that they supported the arrest of young Palesti-
nian children in EJ (ratings of 4, 5, or 6 on a scale of 1–6). Additionally, the
respondents expressed high levels of racial beliefs toward Palestinians (M =
6.17, SD = 1.94). On average, 65% of our respondents indicated that they
have racial beliefs toward Palestinians from EJ (ratings of between 6 and 10
on a scale of 0–10). We also found that Jewish-Israelis tended toward a
right-wing political orientation (M = 6.12, SD = 2.06), with 60% of respondents
identifying as right-wingers (ratings of 6–9 on a scale of 1–9).

Hypothesis testing using regression models

Our dependet variable support for child arrests showed strong correlations
whith our predictors (Table 1): (r = .40; p < .001) for racial beliefs toward Pales-
tinians; and (r = .47 p < .001) for political orientation. To test our hypotheses,
we conducted a series of regression analyses.

Political orientation and racial beliefs as predictors of support for child

arrests
The first hypothesis (H1) stated that racial beliefs toward Palestinians and
right-wing (vs. left-wing) political orientation would be associated with
support for violating Palestinians’ human rights. Table 2 presents the ordinary
least squares (OLS) regression models used to test this hypothesis. We found
a statistically significant (adjusted) result: R2 = .26 [F (2, 998) = 173.583, p
< .001]. As hypothesized, respondents with higher scores on the racial
beliefs scale (b = .12, p < .001) and respondents who tended toward a right-
wing political orientation (b = .18, p < .001) showed higher level of support
for child arrests (see Table 2, Model 2).
To assess the robustness of these findings, additional tests were con-
ducted that added gender, age, education, and SES to the model. The
1960 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

Table 2. OLS regression model for predicting support for child arrest (SCA) scale
(unstandardized coefficient values).
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4
b b b b
Political orientation (higher score .24(.01)*** .18(.02)*** .16(.04)*** .16(.04)***
= right-wing)
Racial beliefs toward Palestinians – .12(.02)*** .12(.02)*** .12(.02)***
Television – – .12(.06)* .13(.06)*
Television*Political orientation – – -.02(.01)† -.02(.01)*
Newspaper – – .09(.06) .09(.06)
Newspaper*Political orientation – – -.02(.01)† -.02(.01)†
Digital media – – -.17(.06)** -.16(.06)**
Digital media*Political orientation – – .03(.01)*** .03(.01)***
Age – – – -.00(.00)
Education (higher score = higher – – – -.02(.01)
education)
Socioeconomic status (SES) – – – .06(.03)*
(higher score = higher status)
Gender – – – -.01(.06)
Constant 3.70(.09)*** 3.30(.11)*** 3.30(.30)*** 3.43(.36)***
Adj. R2 0.22 0.26 0.27 0.27
F (1,999) = (2,998) = (8,992) = (12,988) =
284.193*** 173.583*** 46.854*** 32.192***
N 1,001 1,001 1,001 1,001
†
p < 0.10; *p < 0.05;**p < 0.01;**p < 0.01

results (see Table 2, Model 3) indicated that both the racial beliefs scale (b
= .12, p < .001) and political orientation (b = .18, p < .001) still had significant
associations with support for child arrests, when age (b = -.00, p > .05), edu-
cation (b = -.02, p < .1), SES (b = .07, p < .01), and gender (b = -.02, p > .05)
were included in the model. Adding demographic variables to our regression
model did not significantly affect the (adjusted) R 2 = .26 (F change (6,994) =
59.966, p < .001). In conclusion, our additional analyses indicate that political
orientation and racial beliefs strongly predict support for child arrests, even
when controlling for demographic variables.

The mediating role of racial beliefs

The mediation hypothesis (H2) stated that racial beliefs toward Palestinians
would mediate the association between political orientation and (increased)
support for human rights violations. To examine our mediation hypothesis we
used PROCESS (Hayes 2018), to test for the significance role of a mediator.
Using Hayes’s (2018) Model 4 with support for child arrest as the dependent
variable, political orientation as the independent variable, and racial beliefs as
the mediator (see Figure 2). The results confirmed our hypothesis, indicating
the positive and significant mediating role of political orientation on support
for child arrest through racial beliefs. All analyses were controlled for the four
demographic variables: gender, age, education, and SES.
 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES 1961

Figure 2. Racial beliefs toward Palestinians mediates the association between political
orientation and support for violating their human rights (unstandardized OLS
coefficients).

To establish mediation, we used PROCESS macro (Hayes 2018) to examine

the mediating role of racial beliefs on the association of political orientation
with support for child arrest yielded a 95% bootstrap confidence interval,
based on 10,000 resamples (b = 0.05, SE = 0.01, p < .05; LLCI = 0.0356, ULCI =
0.0650). Taken as a whole, these findings suggest the important role that pol-
itical orientation and racial beliefs play in predicting support for child arrest.
They also indicate that a left-wing political orientation is associated with
decreased levels of racism and that lower levels of racism correlate with
decreased support for child arrest.

The moderating role of media use

The important role that mainstream and digital media play in political
conflicts led us to formulate our moderated-mediation hypothesis (H3),
which stated that media use would moderate the association of political
orientation with racial beliefs and support for human rights violations; simul-
taneously, racial beliefs would be mediated by the association between pol-
itical orientation and support for human rights violations. Hayes’s (2018)
Model 8 was used to test this hypothesis, with support for human rights vio-
lations as the dependent variable, political orientation as the independent
variable, racial beliefs as the mediator, and media use as the moderator
(see Figure 3). All analyses were controlled for the four demographic vari-
ables: gender, age, education, and SES. The results indicated that political
orientation and racial beliefs continued to affect support for human rights
violations even after including media use variables as moderators in the
model.
Figure 3 shows the significant interactive role of political orientation and
the three types of media use – television (B = −0.02, SE = 0.01, p < .1), news-
papers (B = −0.01, SE = 0.01, p < .1), and digital media (B = 0.02, SE = 0.01, p
1962 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

Figure 3. Media use moderates the effect of political orientation on racial beliefs and
support for human rights violations (unstandardized OLS coefficients).

< .05) – on support for human rights violations. In addition, it shows a signifi-
cant interaction between mainstream media use and racial beliefs in the case
of television (B = −0.03, SE = 0.01, p < .05) and newspaper (B = −0.04, SE =
0.02, p < .01) use; however, a non-significant association was found for the
use of digital media. In addition, Figure 3 shows a significant direct correlation
between mainstream media use and both racial beliefs and support for
human rights violations, as opposed to a non-significant direct correlation
in the case of digital media use. The direct correlation between mainstream
media use and racial beliefs in the case of television use was (B = 0.19, SE =
0.10, p < .05); in the case of newspaper use it was (B = 0.25, SE = 0.10, p
< .01); while the correlation with support for human rights violations was
(B = 0.13, SE = 0.05, p < .01) in the case of television use and (B = 0.11, SE =
0.06, p < .1) in the case of newspaper use.
The index of moderated-mediation quantified the path of a line that linked
the moderator (media use) to the indirect effect (Hayes 2018). This mediated
interaction was significant, with the association of political orientation and
racial beliefs being stronger among those who reported lower levels of
 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES 1963

television use (indirect b = 0.50, SE = 0.05, p < .001; LLCI = .4145, ULCI = .5933)
than those who reported higher levels of television use (indirect b = 0.37, SE
= 0.03; LLCI = .3040, ULCI = .4342). In the case of newspaper use, this
mediated interaction was also significant, with the association between pol-
itical orientation and racial beliefs being stronger among those who reported
lower levels of newspaper use (indirect b = 0.49, SE = 0.04, p < .001; LLCI
= .4120, ULCI = .5647) than those who reported higher levels of newspaper
use (indirect b = 0.33, SE = 0.04; LLCI = .2473, ULCI = .4163). In addition, this
mediated interaction was significant, with the association between political
orientation and support for human rights violations being stronger among
those who reported lower levels of television use (indirect b = 0.22, SE =
0.03, p < .001; LLCI = .1664, ULCI = .2680) than those who reported higher
levels of television use (indirect b = 0.16, SE = 0.02; LLCI = .1217, ULCI
= .1957). In the case of newspapers, this mediated interaction was also signifi-
cant, with the role of political orientation on support for human rights viola-
tions being stronger among those who reported lower levels of newspaper
use (indirect b = 0.20, SE = 0.02, p < .001; LLCI = .1595, ULCI = .2478) than
those who reported higher levels (indirect b = 0.15, SE = 0.02; LLCI = .0994,
ULCI = .1928).
Taken as a whole, these findings indicate that the use of mainstream
media (i.e. television and newspapers) plays an important role in moderating
the association between political orientation and both racial beliefs and
support for human rights violations; however, the use of digital media was
found to have a non-significant role. In addition, political orientation
played a role in generating racial beliefs and significantly affected support
for human rights violations. The findings also suggest that political orien-
tation increased the level of racial beliefs, regardless of what media outlet
was being used. However, those who consumed less mainstream media
had higher levels of racial beliefs and support for human rights violations
than those who consumed more mainstream media.

Discussion
This study offers an empirical analysis of the role that political orientation,
racial beliefs, and media use play in predicting support for violations of
human rights in the context of detentions of Palestinian children in EJ.
Using a public opinion survey of Jewish-Israeli adults, we examined the pre-
dictors of attitudes toward the child arrest of Palestinian children aged
between 9 and 12. Our results provide initial support for the hypotheses
that respondents who hold right-wing political orientations and those who
report high levels of racial beliefs would evince higher levels of support for
human rights violations; and that racial beliefs would mediate the association
between political orientation and support for child arrest. In addition, the
1964 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

data show that the use of mainstream media moderates the association
between political orientation and both racial beliefs and support for
human rights violations.
This study set out to problematize assumptions about children in conflict,
primarily those related to children and violence. Exploring racism against chil-
dren as it relates to children’s rights also supports our argument regarding
the importance of examining attitudes toward children’s rights when study-
ing conflicts. The results support previous studies’ findings that the structure
of domination shapes and frames the political work of unchilding and that
right-wing political orientations enable respondents to further strip children
of their rights. These findings reflect the role that political orientation and
racial beliefs play in individuals’ support for child arrest. They also demon-
strate that right-wing political orientations are associated with (increased)
levels of racism and support for child arrest and that low levels of racism
are associated with (increased) support for child arrest while mediating the
association between political orientation and support for child arrest. Such
findings indicate that political orientation and racial beliefs contribute signifi-
cantly to explaining support for human rights violations in Israel, while also
demonstrating that racial beliefs mediate the association between political
orientation and support for human rights violations.
Media use was also found to play a significant role in moderating the
association of political orientation on racial beliefs and support for human
rights violations. The findings demonstrate that Jewish-Israelis who use main-
stream media more often tend to be less affected by their political orientation
and express lower levels of racist beliefs and less support for violating the
human rights of Palestinians. These findings are in line with previous
studies, which have found that media use moderates the association of
prior perceptions on public opinion (Chen 2018; David 2022) and might
reduce prejudice and racist beliefs toward racialized others (Goldman and
Mutz 2014). The data expands upon these other findings by examining
directly and systematically racial beliefs as an underlying mechanism that
mediates the association between political orientation and support for violat-
ing the human rights of otherized groups. We found that both of our predic-
tors – political orientation and racial beliefs – simultaneously and
independently played significant roles in predicting support for human
rights violations. Our findings support our analytical model, which investi-
gates Jewish-Israelis’ attitudes toward the detention of Palestinian children
by Israel in EJ. The social and political implications of our results show how
the meanings of racialized difference between controllers and controlled
communities carry ethical consequences.
This research contributes specifically to our understanding of the extent to
which political orientation and racial beliefs toward otherized groups play a
role in shaping public opinion in the conflict between Israel and the
 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES 1965

Palestinians, not only in relation to adults, but also when discussing young
children. Situating our analyses within critical studies, we believe that struc-
tures that advance the non-humanitarian authoritarianism of one sacralized
group against another group, when and while delegitimizing the human
rights of a particular group and insisting on their dangerousness – may
result in racist and, to use Adorno’s terms, omnipotent fantasies (Balibar,
p. 222; in Essed and Goldberg 2001).

Limitations and future studies

This study examined childhood within the complex context of political
conflict. The investigation opens a new avenue for exploring the role of pol-
itical orientation and racial beliefs in promoting support for human rights vio-
lations against otherized children. Connecting childhood studies with conflict
studies requires further research, both methodologically and theoretically. In
terms of methodology, it is important to conduct research using addtional
and innovative methodological tools; in addition, examining racism against
the unchilded might require theoretical research that goes beyond
Adorno’s analyses and invokes psychoanalytical and psychopolitical theoriza-
tion on racism and racial domination. Finally, this study is based on a limited
set of data from a single country and its findings are correlative rather than
causal. Further studies that include larger samples and cover multiple
countries are needed if we are to explore the causal effect of political orien-
tation and racial beliefs on support for human rights violations.
Our findings staged three practical conclusions. The first indicates that
racialization may promote rightist parties’ abilities to justify human rights vio-
lations. In this sense, responses of politicians to voters or specific interests of
citizens can mobilize and advance coercive approaches to dealing with other-
ized groups. Future work should capitalize on the complex process of de-
racialization. The second, a critical reading of our results and the racialization
discussed here suggests that we may be able to understand an ontology, psy-
chology, and linguistics of epistemology (definition of knowledge both divine
and secular) of politics (the nation, the state), economy, and geography
(Mignolo 2012) that presupposes difference as a condition that legitimizes
racialized otherness and subjugates people (Razack 2011). The third suggests
that public opinion that examines racially resentful support for violation of
human rights is a predictor of racism and punitiveness toward disposable
others. In other words, our results indicate that the racial makeup of respon-
dents is a relevant factor when seeking to understand discriminatory treat-
ment and public support for racialized policies that correlate with punitive
attitudes. On the larger analytical level, scholars can benefit from using child-
hood as an analytical site, not only to examine political conflicts, but also to
hinder its racialized motivations and mobilizing ideologies.
1966 Y. DAVID AND N. SHALHOUB-KEVORKIAN

Notes
1. For recent statistics about child arrests in East-Jerusalem see DCIP. Year-in-
review: Violations against Palestinian children unremitting in 2020 (Palestine:
DCI, 2020), https://www.dci-palestine.org/year_in_review_despite_covid-19_
violations_against_palestinian_children_unremitting_in_2020 as well as
Btselem. (2022). Statistics on Palestinian minors in the custody of Israeli security
forces https://www.btselem.org/statistics/minors_in_custody.
2. The sample is representative of the major demographic sectors of the Jewish-
Israeli population, as outlined in data published by the Israeli Central Bureau
of Statistics.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding
This work was supported by Israel Science Foundation: [Grant Number 1019/16].

ORCID
Yossi David http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8020-0317

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