Rebecca L. Stein, Screen Shots: State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine

Abstract

Screen Shots by Rebecca L. Stein is a book about political dreams and their breakdowns tied to digital photography in the fi rst two decades of the twenty- fi rst century. By con-ducting interviews and ethnographic observations, Stein shows how those dreams were shaped in the hands of various and opposite groups and how they were broken down by various obstacles in the way of those dreams. This book is about the story of dreams ’ failures for various groups from Palestinian video activists to the Israeli military. Palestinian video activists and human rights workers failed when the results were more restrictions, repressive military policy, and an endless cycle of violence with different audiences ’ framing from what they expected. The Israeli military failed since their pho-tographs faced a narratively stronger opponent whose pain was a reminder of colonial times. This book is a must-read for scholars of political and international communication interested in the dialectic of media and political dreams. While this book indicates we are moving forward in the pursuit of social justice with widespread media devices, it also shows that there are no political guarantees for winning the reality. The fi rst chapter of the book is about the memories of two Israeli soldiers, Noam and Eitan, who served in the West Bank in the waning years of the second Palestinian uprising and brutal military crackdown. One of them photographed for personal ends and the other served as his unit ’ s of fi cial camera operator. Later, both of them became the founding members of the Israeli anti-occupation NGO, Breaking the Silence. This NGO was founded by former Israeli combatants who were radicalized by the brutality military service. This chapter shows how these soldiers were changed during their service only regarding their photography also regarding the that recruited Years later, soldiers gured