Screen Shots: State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine by Rebecca L. Stein (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Screen Shots: State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine by Rebecca L. Stein Joel Stokes Rebecca L. Stein. Screen Shots: State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2021. 234 pp. Rebecca Stein’s 2001 Screen Shots is an ethnography of the camera. The book charts the relationship and respective agency between the camera, its bearer, and the photographic subject(s), set against the often violently and politically contested spaces of Israel-Palestine. While Stein’s source material is now several years old (collected since 2010), this book is as much a glimpse into the future of the Israeli-Palestinian context as its recent (2000 to present) history. Interviews with employees of Israeli NGO B’tselem, numerous Palestinian activists, Israel [End Page 497] Defense Forces (IDF) officials, and Jewish settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) create a rich ethnographic narrative that grapples with the realities of the ever-more complicated ethical and legal frameworks of violent footage. Stein’s writing is lucid; presenting the reader with a well-constructed and considered argument. Despite the book’s quality and readability, it is not, however, a text for Israel-Palestine studies beginners. For educators, supplementary texts on Israel’s occupation over Palestinians such as Saree Makdisi’s Palestine Inside Out (2008) and Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine (2020) are advisable. The need for additional material is compounded by Stein’s mini-malist introductory outline of related literature. This is not a criticism but worth noting. As a researcher/educator working in Israel-Palestine, I found that Stein’s work evidences extensive ethnographic research potential. In chapter 1, Stein begins her thesis framing the camera as an agent caught between being a tool for change or further conflict, alluding to later discussion regarding Israeli and Palestinian claims of legitimacy and authenticity. In doing so, Stein sets out for the reader the human stakes in the study context, most poignantly how possession of mobile phones (and therefore portable cameras) in Gaza between 2008–2009 made Palestinian civilians “legitimate” targets for aggression under IDF policy. Although detailed and well written, Stein’s early analysis can at times be repetitive, and could be sharpened. The introductory chapter brings the reader’s attention to the second of many photographs included in the book, notably that of Elor Azaria on the cover of Makor rishon magazine as “Man of the Year.” Here is as good of a place as any to note that, given the content of the book, Stein’s use of pictures throughout is refreshing in that it does not seek to entertain images for a shock factor. Stein’s interpretation of photographs is sophisticated, considered, and multifaceted. This is a strength of Stein’s work that should not be overlooked. In the second chapter, Stein continues to follow the work of B’tselem in the OPT. In an important shift of policy, Stein rightly highlights the significance of B’tselem’s 2016 decision to “cease all formal work with the military law enforcement system” (60). This decision has continued to shape the conflict and the pathways to justice and/or retribution for those oppressed by the Israeli military. Early in chapter 2, the reader is struck by the parallels of Stein’s content with the events of May 2022, wherein Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist, was shot dead while working—in full “PRESS” attire—in the northern West Bank city of Jenin. Abu Akleh’s death symbolizes a continuation of the patterns of IDF violence against Palestinian camera bearers outlined by Stein. Paradoxically, Stein notes that Palestinian camera bearers well known to the IDF during the 2010s seem to have been met with more leniency. Chapter 3, “Settler Scripts,” presents a complicated scene of truth determinism. Stein portrays a reality whereby both Palestinians and Israeli settlers feel their narrative is being silenced, which only leads to further refusals to listen and observe. Chapter 3 neatly displays the echo chambers of knowledge formation different groups operate within, and the dangers such isolation can foster. The main example Stein presents of conflicting narratives around recorded footage is the evolution of Israeli responses...