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

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.