Towards understanding the embedded signs in the military operations' films : a case of two videos of capturing Israeli soldiers by "the Islamic resistance"

Filming of their own military activities by the spawning militant organisations in the Middle East seems to be a major propaganda tool used to win their media battles. Historically and in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation has been aware of the significance of filming their military activities since the 1970s. However, Hezbollah's military arm, "The Islamic Resistance", established a military media unit in the mid-1980s and one of its missions is to film its military operations against the Israeli troops in south Lebanon. Although there are studies about a number of military operations' videos, it seems their basic aims are to explore the notion of propaganda. Furthermore, the studies have focused only on the military operations' videos before the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon in May 2000. However, this paper investigates the contexts and the visual contents of the two military operations‘ videos of capturing Israeli soldiers by ―The Islamic Resistance, the military arm of Lebanese Hezbollah, in October 2000 and July 2006. Each of these videos aired for the first time six years after the respective event. The paucity of study means that no research has incorporated analysing the military operations‘ videos of capturing Israeli soldiers, in order to interpret the denotations of their visual signs. By employing critical discourse analysis and utilising semiotic techniques within this approach, this paper analyses the macro- and the microstructure of these two videos. In analysing their microstructure, this paper identifies and interprets the embedded signs, paying attention in this regard to the symbolic signs, which may have legal implications in the light of international humanitarian law.