STEIN, REBECCA. L. (2021). Screen Shots: State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine. Stanford University Press, 234 pp., ISBN 978-1-50362-803-8.

Keywords: Palestine; Israel; State Violence; Visual Anthropology;

During the last seven months, we have been exposed to extremely sensitive content from the Gaza Strip. Young Palestinian journalists like Motaz Azaiza, Bisan Owda or Hind Khoudary have documented their daily lives amidst the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza, becoming digital influencers and attracting millions of new followers. At the same time, a myriad of TikTok videos from Israeli soldiers during the ground invasion of Gaza have become viral, awakening disparate opinions from social media users. During these months, much has been discussed regarding the veracity of pictures from the events of the 7th of October and its aftermath, proving that in a narrative war, pictures become weapons.

This “visual war” is exactly what Rebecca Stein, an American cultural anthropologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Duke University,  documents in her book, Screen Shots: State Violence on Camera in Israel and Palestine. Published in 2021 by Stanford University Press, it focuses on the “entanglement of consumer photographic technologies and Israeli state violence” (p. 5) during the first two decades of the twenty-first century, a period marked by the second intifada and multiple Israeli aggressions on Gaza (2008, 2009, 2014). The core focus of the book is Jewish Israeli actors and institutions such as human rights workers and activists (paying special attention to the International Information Center for Human Rights in The Occupied Territories (B’TSELEM)), the Jewish settler population and the Israeli military. However, it also highlights the stories of Palestinian video activists and civilians living under occupation.

The ethnography analyses the changing media landscape in Palestine and Israel by incorporating visual devices such as cameras into the daily routine of different political constituencies and the attendant challenges. Instead of focusing on the life of pictures after they are taken, the book focuses on what precedes their entry into social worlds: “the various forms of labour, political and aesthetic assessments, negotiations and contestations, that make images and visual circuits possible” (p. 13). Throughout the chapters, Stein answers questions such as: How are images used in the Israeli and Palestinian political and legal arenas? What visual policies emerge? How do different actors adapt to the new use of cameras and mobile devices? In what ways are the images processed and distributed? What strategies are used to communicate a specific message through visual evidence? By answering these questions, Stein shows how, despite having completely different goals, both Israeli and Palestinian actors use visual devices with the aspiration of achieving their political dreams.

Chapter 1 explores military photography in the twenty-first century’s first decade and the use of private optical devices in the Israeli military arena during the second intifada (2000- 2005), the war on Lebanon (2006), and the 2008-2009 assault on the Gaza Strip. Israel uses images to document, acquire information, and ensure spatial control in these contexts, becoming occupation tools. Stein observes how the camera nature changes from a personal device to a wartime actor. In this sense, cameras and cell phones oscillate from personal use and