SALON

Tuesday, Feb 19, 2013 7:20 PM UTC

Instagram image suggests Palestinian child as IDF target

An image seeming to show a boy in cross hairs prompts outrage and disturbs the IDF's social media P.R. efforts

By

Topics: Israel, IDF, Instagram, Palestine, Social Media, ,

Instagram image suggests Palestinian child as IDF target

In the recognizable soft-focus filter of an Instagram image, the back of what appears to be a young Palestinian boy’s head is framed in the cross hairs of a rifle. The photo, posted to the popular social media site by Israeli Defense Force sniper Mor Ostrovski, has caused outrage internationally since it was first flagged by Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah. The Israeli army, according to Al Jazeera, is now investigating as it remains unclear where the photograph was taken.

Abunimah gives some background on the image from Ostrovski’s now-deleted Instagram account:

The context – particularly the character of the buildings seen in the background of the image – strongly suggests the child could be Palestinian.

There are no other images to suggest that the photographer actually fired at the person in the image in this case. The image is simply tasteless and dehumanizing. It embodies the idea that Palestinian children are targets.

As Salon noted during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense attacks on Gaza last November, the IDF employed social media accounts to chilling effect. The army posted videos on YouTube of airstrikes taking out targets in Gaza, while threats to Hamas and warnings to Palestinian civilians were posted on Twitter. Meanwhile, as a number of commentators highlighted, IDF Instagram accounts featured appealing images of smiling, young, attractive IDF soldiers. Benjamin Doherty, also writing for Electronic Intifada, argued that such photographs use “male and female bodies to eroticize the military, to displace violence against Palestinians, to encourage Western publics to identify with Israeli soldiers.”

In an excellent analysis for the New Inquiry, Hew Lewey reflected that the IDF’s use of social media during the most recent Gaza assault was “perhaps an early test of social media’s ability to understand and mediate war within, or on the borders of, a Western society.” He noted of the Instagram effect:

The use of commercially available Instagram filters replicates the visual culture favored by much of its audience, producing images that slip easily into their feeds, naturalising the content. “These are the photos you would take if you served in the IDF,” the aesthetic says, “we are just like you, and these military decisions are the ones you would take, if you were in our situation.” They also step beyond this, including an aspirational aspect of a desirable lifestyle — impossibly handsome young troops, having fun on their downtime.

In the context of viewing the IDF’s use of social media as a part of an integrated global P.R. campaign, Ostrovski’s image is ill-fitting. The 20-year-old sniper posted the image to his account presumably without realizing it would garner outrage. Instead of normalizing warfare to a social media audience (like most of the sanctioned IDF Instagram accounts Lewey describes), the image of a boy in the cross hairs highlights the horror of warfare normalized.

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 11 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username - log out

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Would we give up burgers to stop climate change? New study suggests if we reduce our intake of animal products by 25%, we can halt climate change
448 points449 points | 161 comments
vote
Facebook has been used to find ex-lovers, childhood BFFs or the one who got away. He used it to find the guy who, without his consent, made him his drug mule.
226 points227 points | 21 comments
vote
“This could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann”
136 points137 points | 54 comments
vote
Poll: 3 in 10 voters say “armed revolution might be necessary” - 29% say they believe they'll have to act "in order to protect our liberties" in the next few years
44 points45 points | 16 comments
vote
Capitalism, not feminism, killed home cooking–and fixing our broken food system is gonna take a lot more than some privileged women embracing “new domesticity”
36 points37 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations