Operation Protective Edge 2014: Holding Language and Gaza Hostage

Abstract

Examining the Israeli military operation against Gaza during the summer months of 2014, this paper firstly examines how Israel ‘took language hostage’ to justify the multifaceted punishment of the Palestinian. I will identify how this use of language helps to frame Israel’s actions as democratic by acting in defence, a process articulated throughout previous military operations. Such a process is implicit within the dominant political imaginary that constitutes much of the popular discourse that shapes the Israeli relationship with the Palestinian. Secondly, I will draw attention to the critical documentary photography practice of Gianluca Panella’s 2013 World Press award winning series Black Out. Making comparisons to work produced in the West Bank by Israeli Photographer Gaston Ickowicz, I will highlight how Panella’s work goes someway to addressing how to visually articulate a society brought to the ‘brink’, while also being artifacts that communicate the trace of ongoing-catastrophisation.