Images and Demonstrations in the Occupied West Bank

This article addresses relationships between images and demonstrations in the occupied West Bank. The discussion begins with a semi-anecdotal account of a demonstration in the Palestinian village of Kafr Qaddum in 2013 that enables an initial consideration of different ways that images and image-making have a role within such a context. The discussion then addresses ideas articulated by Hans Belting (2011) in his book An Anthropology of Images as a means of further understanding these relations between images and demonstrations. This is followed by a discussion of Kevin DeLuca’s conception of demonstrations as ‘image events’ in relation to Belting’s suggestion that images are nomadic and travel from one medium and context to another. This concern with how images travel to and through demonstrations shifts the focus of discussion away from the documentary role of lens-based images in this context. Instead, emphasis is placed upon the reproduction of images across media and over time. The article concludes by addressing two demonstrations that occurred in 2010 in the village of Bil’in, which is well known for the creativeness and theatricality of its resistance to the construction of the West Bank Barrier on village land.