'We will get through this together': journalism, trauma and the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

Using the case study of the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, this article explores the role of news images in moving collectives through contested and potentially traumatic events. It examines the coverage of the disengagement process in the three major Israeli daily newspapers, and argues that the Israeli press took upon itself the role of healing the potential collective trauma as the events themselves were unfolding. Drawing on a modified version of Judith Herman's model for treating trauma patients, the article identifies a range of discursive strategies employed by the press to move the Israeli collective from trauma to recovery. It suggests that these strategies enabled the press to assert the existence of traumatic elements in the disengagement process, while simultaneously constructing the alleged trauma as curable, liberating in the long run, and demonstrating the strength and morality of Israeli society. Visual elements played a central role in this complicated process by enabling the mourning and the bearing witness act, providing the necessary material environment to establish safety and a healing relationship, connecting the events effectively to certain parts of the cultural mythology, and pushing the future collective memory of the events in specific directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]