The Middle East: Photographic Evidence of four decades of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Università degli Studi di Udine

Corso di laurea in DAMS – Discipline dell’audiovisivo, dei media, dello spettacolo

Tesi di laurea

The Middle East: Photographic evidence of four decades of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Relatore Laureando

Prof. Tommaso Piffer Gabriele Pileggi

Correlatore

Prof. Paolo Villa ___________________

Anno Accademico 2022/2023

Abstract

In questa tesi vengono analizzate diciannove fotografie scattate nel corso di quattro decenni (1967-2007) di conflitto israelo-palestinese. Le immagini fanno originariamente parte di un libro fotografico comprendente circa settecento fotografie, selezionate dalla filosofa e professoressa israeliana Ariella Azoulay. Nonostante il lavoro di analisi fotografica sia collocato alla fine della tesi, ciò è dovuto al fatto che i primi due capitoli sono necessari per contestualizzare il lavoro, sia sul piano della critica fotografica, e alla luce delle diverse opinioni sul tema della fotografia documentaria, sia sul piano storico. Inserito nel dibattito sul fotogiornalismo e nel contesto storico del conflitto arabo-israeliano, è così possibile inquadrare meglio il discorso sulle fotografie analizzate. Di diciannove fotografie, diciassette sono state suddivise in sette temi visivi, per essere poi analizzate singolarmente e in relazione le une con le altre, in base alle somiglianze estetiche e/o tematiche. Le relazioni tra le immagini stesse e tra un’immagine e altre forme d’arte si sono rivelate a volte lampanti ed estremamente suggestive.

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Index

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 6

1. Debate on documentary photography .......................................................................................... 9

1.1 Notes on photography criticism .............................................................................................. 9

1.2 The yin and yang method ....................................................................................................... 12

1.3 The gruesome in art and photography ................................................................................. 13

1.4 Dignifying or violating: two opposite perspectives .............................................................. 15

1.5 Can photographs really denounce? ...................................................................................... 16

2. History of the Arab-Israeli conflict............................................................................................. 18

Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 18

2.1 The origins of the conflict ...................................................................................................... 19

2.2 World War I ............................................................................................................................ 21

2.3 World War II ........................................................................................................................... 22

2.4 The First Arab-Israeli War .................................................................................................... 23

2.5 The 1950s and the Suez Crisis ............................................................................................... 25

2.6 The Six-Day War .................................................................................................................... 26

2.7 The Yom Kippur War ............................................................................................................. 27

2.8 The Lebanon War ................................................................................................................... 28

2.9 Intifada .................................................................................................................................... 29

3. Act of State .................................................................................................................................... 31

Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 31

3.1 The exhibition and the book .................................................................................................. 32

3.2 V sign ....................................................................................................................................... 37

3.3 Rubble...................................................................................................................................... 38

3.3.1 Eldad Rafaelie ................................................................................................................... 39

3.3.2 Shlomo Arad ...................................................................................................................... 41

3.4 Shadows ................................................................................................................................... 42

3.4.1 Jim Hollander ................................................................................................................... 42

3.4.2 Rina Castelnuovo .............................................................................................................. 45

3.4.3 Miki Kratsman .................................................................................................................. 46

3.5 Madonna and child / Pietà ..................................................................................................... 48

3.6 Walls ........................................................................................................................................ 52

3.6.1 Osnat Krasnansky ............................................................................................................. 52

3.6.2 Jim Hollander ................................................................................................................... 54

3.7 Painful vision........................................................................................................................... 56

3.7.1 Miki Kratsman .................................................................................................................. 56

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3.7.2 Micha Kirshner ................................................................................................................. 58

3.7.3 Alex Levac ......................................................................................................................... 60

3.7.4 Anat Saragusti ................................................................................................................... 62

3.8 Transcendental vision of the sublime .................................................................................... 63

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 65

Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... 67

Sitography ......................................................................................................................................... 68

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Introduction

In a world plagued by two major conflicts, the one in Ukraine and the one in Palestine, documentary photography has come back to the foreground. Although documentary photography is somewhat controversial, due to the fine line that separates the pictures resulting from a denouncing purpose, as opposed to the ones profiting off the violence and the pain recorded, it is an essential means through which understand, become aware of, and see the unjust in the world. This is the reason that led me to analyze the photographs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, featured in Ariella Azoulay’s – 1Act of State a Photographed History of the Israeli Occupation.

In the first chapter of this thesis, I have analyzed photography of war and political violence, in the context of photography criticism, and I offer the reader a debate featuring some of the best known critics, whose stance on the matter is presented and compared to similar and discordant opinions. I did so by availing myself of Susie Linfield’s The Cruel Radiance: Photography and2 Political Violence, which was the guiding model for the whole chapter, and which the entire dissertation was conceived from. I start the chapter by briefly covering the history of photography criticism and the different points of view of its pivotal exponents, such as Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes. The chapter then covers what I consider to be an essential contribution in Linfield’s book and the core of my opinion on photojournalism: to photograph pain, death, hunger, injustice is to denounce what happens before the camera, while also evoking its contrary; a dichotomy, therefore, underlies documentary photography, which records a negative state of things, while evoking its positive contrary. The power of photography as a form through Sontag’s lens, of evidence is later discussed in the chapter; I compare the different reactions that the gruesome provokes, when depicted in art, opposed to when it is recorded by photography. What follows is the display of the essence of the debate on photojournalism: is it dignifying or violating? I oppose the equation “photojournalism = pornography”, by commenting on Sebastião Salgado’s work, who I consider to be respectful and dignifying towards his subjects, and by rejecting the idea that artistic photographs necessarily fail their denouncing motive. The first chapter ends with the awareness that photography can be used to perpetrate violence, as well as denounce it. In addition to that, I address photojournalism’s failure in fulfilling its denouncing motive: since men are not able to stop war, photography should not be expected to do so.

1 Ariella Azoulay, Atto di Stato: Palestina-Israele, 1967-2007. Storia fotografica dell’occupazione, (a cura di) Maria Nadotti, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2008.

2 Susie Linfield, La Luce Crudele. Fotografia e violenza politica, tr. it. di Maria Baiocchi e Anna Tagliavini, Contrasto, Roma 2013.

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The second chapter is historical and functional to the contextualization of the photographs analyzed in chapter three. Basing my research on Benny Morris’s Righteous3 Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001, I briefly summarize the Arab-Israeli conflict, in order to present the necessary coordinates to understand and frame the pictures in the last chapter. I start off by revealing how the Jewish immigration to Palestine first, and the Zionist movement later on, originated the first contrasts between Jews and Arabs in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Following history’s major events in the 20th century, I demonstrate how the growth of the Zionist cause during the two world wars, which led to Palestine’s partition and the birth of the State of Israel, increasingly worsened the coexistence of Jews and Arabs in Palestine. This led to the first Arab-Israeli war, which turned many Palestinians into refugees. The second chapter also shows the influence of the USA and the USSR in the Middle East during the Cold War and how the 1948 war and the 1950s created the geopolitical circumstances for the Six-Day War in 1967. This was Israel’s biggest military victory, which led to the occupation of Palestinian territories by the Zionists. I also cover the Yom Kippur War and the Lebanon War, two major conflicts in Israel’s history. I try to explain how the military occupation and the economic dependence caused two Palestinian uprises, called Intifada, and are linked to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism.

Benny Morris’s unbiased and factual approach to the topic made his book an essential factor in the understanding of the history of the conflict, and his biggest contribution was to stress, throughout the entire book, the fact that many propitious moments, which could have led to a lasting peace, were overlooked or rejected by both the Jews and the Arabs.

In the third and last chapter, I have selected and analyzed nineteen out of the seven hundred photographs featured in Ariella Azoulay’s book, –Act of State a Photographed History4 of the Israeli Occupation. The book is of great value and a unique photographic experience, which presents itself as a way to narrate the history of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian revolves around Azoulay’s concept of territories, through photography. It the citizenry of photography, which enables the oppressed to regain their individuality and establishes a civil space where photographer, photographed and spectator should meet. The book originates from Azoulay’s 2007 exhibition, comprising of the same photographs, which were selected from the private archives of several photographers. Ariella Azoulay’s intention, with both the exhibition

3 Benny Morris, Vittime. Storia del conflitto arabo-sionista 1881-2001, tr. it. di Stefano Galli, RCS Libri S.p.A., Milano 2002 [2001].

4 Ariella Azoulay, Atto di Stato: Palestina-Israele, 1967-2007. Storia fotografica dell’occupazione, (a cura di) Maria Nadotti, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2008.

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and the book, is to denounce Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories: the photographs are a perfect example of the concept of political violence.

In selecting the photographs, I have chosen the most meaningful and evocative ones, organizing them in seven visual themes (V sign, Rubble, Shadows, Madonna and child / Pietà, Walls, Painful vision, Transcendental vision of the sublime); I then further dissected the visual themes, organizing most of them by photographer.

I have analyzed the pictures, taking into account the overall geometric construction of the image, its colours and the angle the subjects are captured from; I have also analyzed the emotions and the cross-references, evoked by the photographs, and the relations between one photograph and others, belonging to the same or a different visual theme.

I came to the conclusion that, due to the rarity of the pictures featured, Azoulay’s reconstruction of the photographed events, and the political essence of the book, Ariella Azoulay’s presence imbues her work, making her an author, more than the curator of the book.

Since both Benny Morris’s and Ariella Azoulay’s books were published in the early 2000s, my dissertation covers the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the historical context outlined by the two authors (1881-2001 for Morris; 1967-2007 for Azoulay).

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1. Debate on documentary photography

1.1 Notes on photography criticism

Ever since photography was invented, imposing itself as a technological medium first and as an art form later on, criticism and doubtfulness regarding the status of photography itself accompanied its history and evolution step by step, sometimes vehemently. This is what Susie Linfield, associate professor of journalism at New York University, points out in the very first chapter of her book The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political Violence. Linfield acutely5 observes that the very essence of criticism, what brings a person to become a critic, to write and dissert about something is passion, interest and a personal positive experience of some sort, which eventually evokes in them a need to understand, think and comment about that very matter. The examples she offers are significant: Edmund Wilson is a literary critic, thus it is unthinkable to assume he wouldn’t love literature; or again, what about James Agee? Would it make sense for him to dissert about cinema, if he weren’t interested or loved cinema itself? The heart of the matter is that one shouldn’t be discussing, writing about or critiquing uniquely subjects that they like, make them happy or that they would ultimately praise indiscriminately. What is important to keep in mind is, why would anyone waste ink and time discussing something that they have never considered worthy or which they have never shared an emotional6 bond with? Linfield proves that this is possible by availing herself of photography criticism; Linfield accuses (most) photography critics of a lack of passion, of any emotion really, when engaging in a discussion on photography; and better yet, the way those same critics label photography by using unflattering adjectives is somewhat unprecedented in the history of criticism.

Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes, two pivotal exponents of photography criticism, both regard this medium mostly negatively. On Photography, by Sontag, defines photography as7 8 aggressive, voyeuristic and overall toxic, in the sense that the act of taking a photograph implicates no intervention in what is happening before the camera, making sure that what is

5 Susie Linfield, La Luce Crudele. Fotografia e violenza politica, tr. it. di Maria Baiocchi e Anna Tagliavini, Contrasto, Roma 2013, p. 17.

6 Ivi, pp. 18-19.

7 Susan Sontag, Sulla fotografia. Realtà e immagine nella nostra società, tr. it. di Ettore Capriolo, Einaudi, Torino 2004 [1978], p. 7.

8 Ivi, p. 10.

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being photographed keeps happening, at least as long as the camera is pointed in that direction;9 therefore, if what happens before the camera, Sontag infers, is war, violence, death or sufferance, then yes, I should be held responsible for the continuation of the pain inflicted to others, since this is the catalyst of my mere photographic interest. Sontag points out the (moral)10 aggressiveness that lies behind the camera. Photography, Sontag says, is violating and intruding and to shoot (a photograph) is comparable to the verb to shoot (a person, an animal, an object with, say, a gun). Barthes on the other hand, while praising certain qualities of photography,11 highlights the fact that from his point of view this is a medium that de-realizes humanity.

This is just an introduction to the criticism reserved to photography that records violence (in war, in revolution, during a famine and so on). Linfield presents John Berger’s opinion in12 regards to this matter. Berger talks about the then-current photographs shot in Vietnam, and delivered to Americans; he has Don McCullin photographs of the Vietnam w