Dec. 9, 2003

Contact: Robert Rowland, communication studies department, (784) 864-9868.

KU professor's book on roots of Israeli-Palestinian conflict wins prize

LAWRENCE -- Robert C. Rowland, University of Kansas professor and chair of communication studies, and his University of Oregon colleague David Frank have won the first $10,000 Kohrs-Campbell Prize in Rhetorical Criticism for their book, "Shared Land/Conflicting Identity: Trajectories of Israeli and Palestinian Symbol Use."

Rowland and Frank accepted the award during the National Communication Association conference in November at Miami Beach, Fla. The biannual Kohrs-Campbell Prize is offered by the Michigan State University Press through its award-winning Rhetoric and Public Affairs Series.

Rowland and Frank's book, published by Michigan State University Press, examines the roots of the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

The book traces the conflict through the past 100 years, concentrating on events of the past 10 years. The idea of a Palestinian people is a relatively late issue, Rowland said. "Until the 1940s in what is now Israel or the West Bank, Palestinians often defined themselves as Southern Syrians," he said.

Rowland said that "if peace is to come to the Middle East, we must understand the way that symbols shape and constrain action. Without an understanding of the symbolic dimensions of the conflict, it never will be possible to reach an ultimate peace that protects the legitimate needs of both peoples."

Choice magazine recently highly recommended the book, noting that the authors not only clearly explain the symbolic dynamic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but they also present a clear, nuanced, balanced account of Zionism, the Palestinian intifada, the Oslo Accords and other attempts at peace.

David Zarefsky, former dean of the speech at Northwestern University, also has praised the book, saying, "If you want to understand why the conflict in the Middle East is so intractable, read the book."

Rowland said, "In this book, we argue that humans understand the world through three related symbolic lenses provided by rhetoric, ideology and myth. These symbol systems define how the world should be understood and set limits on public and private policy."

Israelis see the world through the symbolic lens of the Holocaust, and Palestinians, through the symbolic lens of the "nakba," or catastrophe, referring to 1948, when many Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes, Rowland said. Both Palestinians and Israelis define the land of Israel/Palestine as sacred. Many see that land as essentially a "land grant" from God, Rowland said.

"If Muslims view the Dome of the Rock as their most holy site, there are Israelis who view the same area as the site of the temple," Rowland said.

"It is because both understand the world from symbolic perspectives that define the sacred and shape ideology that the conflict has proved so intractable," Rowland said. "The point I'm making is that we understand the world through symbolic systems or rhetoric -- the words we use that give us an understanding of the world."

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "both sides have done terrible things; both sides have the call of justice. Both are right. And both are wrong," Rowland said.

Rowland's previous books include "The Rhetoric of Menachim Began" (1985) and "Analyzing Rhetoric" (1999 and 2002).

The Kohrs-Campbell Prize in Rhetorical Criticism was created through the generosity of Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and the late Paul Newell Campbell and is one of the largest awards ever established to sustain and advance the study of rhetoric in American higher education.