Comments on: The questions people don’t ask about ‘staged photojournalism’

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:58:15 +0000

“that if these scenes are staged, then they must be inauthentic.”

From this I understand that by your journalistic standards staging an event is legitimate and does not impact the truth value of the report.

That’s a strange standard indeed.

By: rlandes

rlandes — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:31:26 +0000

i am the anonmymous “far-right commentator to whom lisa refers in her opening paragraph, coiner of the term “pallywood.” this is a deeply superficial piece. i have fisked it at my own blog and invite lisa and her readers to come read it, and comment either there or here.
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2011/10/17/railing-against-reality-lisa-goldman-tries-to-defend-journalists-who-use-pallywood/

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:17:01 +0000

Don’t make me insinuate what I didn’t insinuate. That’s not what I was talking about at all. I won’t click on your links until you watch the whole first video. Then maybe we can understand what the other is saying.

By: Deïr Yassin

Deïr Yassin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:59:57 +0000

@ Sylvia
Here’s the killing of Bassem Abu Rahmeh ‘en directe’:
http://www.bilin-village.org/francais/videos/8040-Bassem-Abu-Rahma-Lami-de-tous
Scroll down, the video is available subtitled in Arabic, Hebrew, English and French.
The killing of Bassem Abu Rahmeh is from min 22:00. Shortly before (from min 19:45), a friend of Abu Rahmeh is seriously wounded by the same tear gas canister projectiles.
I guess those “sounds of gun shots” all along are just people banging on non-existing tin fences. They banged so hard the poor guy died….

And don’t even try to insinuate that this is faking. There’s a longer footage of the killing on dailymotion. And a photo of his grave on his Facebook wall.
This is a video made by an Israeli friend of Bassem Abu Rahmeh to commemorate his death. I encourage everyone to see this portrait of a Palestinian hero, coming from a heroic family. There are beaufiful photos on his facebook wall too. It’s spelled Bassem Abu Rahma.

By the way, Sylvia why don’t you go to the West Bank to see or rather HEAR the gun shots for yourself ? You could also check out the black water tanks on the Palestinian roof tops by the same occasion !

By: directrob

directrob — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:12:21 +0000

Sylvia, that you do not recall any death does not mean it did not happen. I do not wish to show people being killed, though this was very close and a prime example of “IDF violence” during a peaceful demonstration.
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQd5qgwiHEI

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:33:56 +0000

Pabelmont
“If the IDF didn’t show up, would the protests continue? If not, then it is the anticipated IDF response that stages the protests. And it is certainly the IDF that stages the violent part — without IDF, who would the protesters throw stones at?”
A very interesting point you’re making here.
There is a kind of theater where the actors call on members of the audience admonishing and provoking them. The reactions are real. The people are real and respond as they would be expected to respond. Is it still theater or has the whole situation become reality? I don’t know.

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:15:44 +0000

Please get hold of yourself. I don’t recall any death in the videos I’ve watched except that of Jawaher Abu Rahmeh before she died (I think) and she wasn’t killed by live bullets or gunfire. This is not to say they didn’t occur but I just didn’t see it on video.
If you’re going to jump on people, at least make it pertinent.
Did you watch the videos?

By: Mik

Mik — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:10:46 +0000

@Lisa, I didn’t watch the first video, but I’m not sure I see the problem with the second- at least not the one you are mentioning: I don’t think the photo journalist is saying everything is a lie- he is just saying that we have to be critical of these “action shots” we see in the media- it also seems as if the Palestinians are just an example for him. Moreover, I didn’t see this a “staged protest” implication at all- he is just saying that journalists sometimes by their presence create scenes- isn’t that obvious? And by the way, in Silwan he is right- sometimes there are protests in Silwan that are not riot-y at all yet anything in Silwan that involves a group of people protesting is called a riot in the Israeli media (so it goes both ways doesn’t it? )If anything, I don’t really see what is new here- didn’t we already know that reporters can’t be objective and that there is no such thing as objective bla bla bla?
You might be right about the other guy though, didn’t bother watching it (perhaps you shouldn’t have written that he was an American). Please raise billions of dollars in the US to continue this fine 972mag manipulation initiative!

By: Deïr Yassin

Deïr Yassin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:52:58 +0000

Sylvia writes:
“The deeper I look into all this cinema, the worse it gets”

And the more I read you, the more I realize you’ve got s… where your brain should be !

I guess these people got killed when banging the fences a little too hard:

http://old.btselem.org/statistics/english/Casualties_Full_Data.asp?Category=28&region=WB

> Muhammad Ibrahim ‘Abd al-Qader Qadous, 15 years, killed by gunfire during demonstration in Iraq Burin 20.03.2010
> Usaied Abd al-Naser Muhammad Qadous, 17 years, killed during the same demonstration in Iraq Burin
> ‘Aqel Sadeq ‘Abd ar-Rahman Srur, 36 years, killed during demonstration against the Wall, Nilin 05.06.2009
> Bassem Ibrahim Ahmed Abu Rahmeh, 31 years, killed during demonstration in Bilin 17.04.2009. His killing was filmed, and it’s on the net. Bassem Abu Rahmeh’s sister, Jawaher, was killed around New Year during another demonstration in Bilin. The IDF started a major smear-campaign: she wasn’t at the demo, she was under medication, she went off to live the high life with Mumammad al-Durah on the French Riviera….
> Muhammad Jamal Ahmad ar-Rahmani, 21 years, killed during demonstration, al-Jalazun
> Ahmad Husain Yusef Musa, 10 YEARS, killed during a procession against the Wall in Bilin 29.07.2008
I stopped at no. 32 out of more than 850 ….

As I said: s… on your brain !

By: @Laila

@Laila — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:10:42 +0000

You raise a good point – IDF is also equally affected by the overwhelming presence of photographers. It adds another level of accountability which in turn makes the protests more of a machismo game for stone-throwing youth.

The question of which comes first, though, the protesters or the IDF is clear. In most civilized countries, there is always some police element when there are organized rallies; Israel is no different.