israelly-over
"Photography has long served to trivialize the atrocities of war," writes anthropologist Sophia Goodfriend, and not just in Israel and Gaza but everywhere now that smartphones are commonplace on the battlefield. (Be advised: There are images of violence in this article.)
Tracing 75 years of Israeli war photography, an anthropologist explains how images that reframe disproportionate violence as proof of victory have intensified in the war on Gaza that erupted in 2023.
Throughout the genocide, IDF soldiers have looted the homes and belongings of Palestinians. There are videos online of soldiers rummaging through boxes of clothing and jewelry in destroyed homes. In a Facebook group, an Israeli woman posted a photo of a plastic bag full of makeup, with a caption asking what she should do with the “gifts from Gaza” that her husband, an IDF soldier, brought back for her.
Eyeshadow palettes and underwear: these objects have intimate relationships with their wearers, and that’s what makes it insidiously violative to loot as a “gift” or “trophy.” This perverse practice of stealing Palestinian women’s personal objects—objects that touch a skin, a body—and treating them as “souvenirs” of conquest to gift to their wives is a form of sexual violence. The production and circulation of these images among the Israeli military is a tactic to perpetuate violence against Palestinian bodies, beyond and without physical contact.