Multimodal blends and Israel’s genocide in Gaza: A critical cognitive study

Drawing upon conceptual blending theory and the notion of mental context models, this paper analyzes a small-sized corpus of 10 political cartoons on genocidal acts in Gaza. The analysis shows that the cartoonists blend the GAZA frame with input mental spaces such as BILLIARDS, BOXING, BLENDER, CHESS, CHRISTMAS, FORBIDDEN EXPERIMENT, GRILLING, THE SCREAM, SPIDER, and TITANIC. These results demonstrate that cartoonists sought to attribute responsibility for the ongoing genocide to three main factors: condemning Europe’s and USA’s involvement in the killing of Palestinians, criticizing the Arab world’s inaction, powerlessness, and conspicuous absence, alongside pointing to the imbalance between the Israeli forces and the Palestinian civilians. These blends reflect the influence of distinct cultural and political contexts in shaping the representation of genocide in Gaza. The paper has implications for critical cognitive discourse analysis and multimodal communication.