Behind the News
About Those Photos of Little Girls and Artillery Shells …
Photographs of Israeli children doodling on artillery rockets have inspired strong reactions across the world. But what’s the story behind the photos?
By Gal Beckerman Thu 20 Jul 2006 05:44 PM
(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner;
click for larger image)
(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner;
click for larger image)
The sweet-faced little Israeli girls drawing with markers have their hair in pigtails. It makes it all the more shocking, then, that they are doodling on artillery shells — shells about to be aimed at Lebanon, where several hundred civilians have been killed in the past few days. Any photographer would be out of his mind not to capture this shot. It’s a lot of things at once: the very image of innocence playing with a tool of death and destruction; a sad comment on the culture of war; a view of Israelis that we don’t often see in the West, where pictures of young Palestinian children wearing fake suicide bomb belts are a more common sight.
No wonder, then, that those photographs, taken by Associated Press photographer Sebastian Scheiner, showed up everywhere — from the Washington Post and the Dallas Morning News to smaller papers like the Memphis Commercial Appeal, not to mention all over the blogosphere.
You don’t need to be Susan Sontag to know that images of war always present us with a problem of representation. They are usually emotionally charged, bloody, wrenching, and almost always presented with no real context. What are we looking at? The man screaming in grief or pain. The dead child amidst the rubble. The father throwing his body over the lifeless corpse of his son. What we receive in these moments is more than just news; it’s a jolt of emotion, be it anger, despair, or frustration.
To look at the way the photos of the little girls have been used by bloggers is to understand how this enigmatic image — Who are these children? Where are their parents? Why are they so close to weaponry? — has become emblematic for many people opposed to the Israeli assault. For those pathologically inclined to hate Israel no matter what, it is a confirmation of all the worst fantasies they have about Jewish society. Most of the Web sites expounding this view have interpreted the photos as Israeli children sending a message to Lebanese children, and have even placed them next to shots of dead Lebanese children, sometimes with a caption such as, “Dear Lebanese/Palestinian/Arab/Muslim/Christians — Kids, Die with love. Yours, Israeli Kids.”
But reality is always more complicated (and infinitely more interesting) than propaganda, and it’s worth understanding the provenance of these photos, at least as an example of how much we miss when we react emotionally to pictures that are intended to get us riled up. Luckily, Israeli blogger Lisa Goldman has done this work on her blog, On the Face. She tracked down Scheiner, the AP photographer who snapped the shots, but he wouldn’t talk on the record. So she got an account instead from a reporter for Yediot Aharanot, an Israeli daily, who was at the scene.
For the full story, you must visit her blog, but, in a nutshell, the children are from Kiryat Shmona, a community that is smack on the border with Lebanon. And as Goldman explains it:
“There was not a single person on the streets and all the businesses were closed. The residents who had friends, family or money for alternate housing out of missile range had left, leaving behind the few who had neither the funds nor connections that would allow them to escape the missiles crashing and booming on their town day and night. The noise was terrifying, people were dying outside, the kids were scared out of their minds and they had been told over and over that some man named Nasrallah was responsible for their having to cower underground for days on end.”
They had just spent the last five days underground in a bomb shelter and this was the first time they had come up for some air. A new army unit had arrived in town, attracting a lot of media attention, and the children and their parents gathered around the missiles. It was the parents who wrote a few messages, then, as Goldman relates it, “the photographers gathered around. Twelve of them. Do you know how many that is? It’s a lot. And they were all simultaneously leaning in with their long camera lenses, clicking the shutter over and over. The parents handed the markers to the kids and they drew little Israeli flags on the shells. Photographers look for striking images, and what is more striking than pretty, innocent little girls contrasted with the ugliness of war? The camera shutters clicked away, and I guess those kids must have felt like stars, especially since the diversion came after they’d been alternately bored and terrified as they waited out the shelling in their bomb shelters.”
Goldman writes, “perhaps the parents were not wise when they encouraged their children to doodle on the tank shells. They were letting off a little steam after being cooped up — afraid, angry and isolated — for days. Sometimes people do silly things when they are under emotional stress. Especially when they fail to understand how their childish, empty gesture might be interpreted.”
We give space to this story only because it helps explain the birth of one particular wartime picture that has already had ramifications. Goldman puts it best when she says, “I wonder why it is so difficult to … get it into our heads that television news and photojournalism manipulate our thoughts and emotions.”
We don’t necessarily think that’s a willful manipulation, nor are we suggesting suppressing certain strong images. What we would suggest, however, is that editors think not just about the emotional response certain photographs can elicit, but also about whether in any given case they have supplied readers with the information they need to really understand what it is they are seeing.
CJR
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Aaron
Fri 21 Jul 2006 01:30 AMI've read your post and the blog you reference, but I'm still not sure that I'm getting all the information I really need to understand the pictures.
Dennis Forbes
Fri 21 Jul 2006 07:15 PMIf only as much effort were expended giving context -- and justification, even for the deplorable like this -- Palestinian/Arab actions.
Al
Sat 22 Jul 2006 01:56 AMOh please, spare us the excuses. You have children writing messages on shells. Of course this was instigated by the parents. It's callous, it's hateful, and it's unacceptable. Period.
Aaron
Sat 22 Jul 2006 12:06 PMI think that's a blunt way of saying that here it appears that CJRDaily is endorsing and advancing a particular spin rather than attempting to cut through the spin.
LordRich
Sat 22 Jul 2006 12:55 PMThat sounds a familiar story. Way back when the Iraq war was about to start I was living in a part of town with a lot of Muslims, we held a rally and BBC journalists turned up with American flags and lighter fuel.
I fled before things got out of hand, but there never was a news story on burning flags so one assumes they didn't get anybody to actually burn one. And that's the difference here, in both cases the journalists were trying to create a story where there was none, but the Israelis parents actually allowed it to happen.
Aaron
Sat 22 Jul 2006 06:06 PMThis article and the linked blog indicate that the only encouragement of the girls was by their parents. Blaming the press is fun, but the information provided contradicts your thesis.
The use of the word "doodle" is interesting, as it suggests a meaningless, absent-minded scribble. This, of course, was drawing, not doodling. This is the sort of careless or misleading word choice that CJR Daily traditionally would criticize.
jenan
Sat 22 Jul 2006 07:26 PMThis is a comment left on a blog that reposted the story:
please stop this. i couldnt even read the whole article i had to skim through it trying to reach the point, and you know what this is a terrible empty excuse for demonic pictures. if the children were unaware of the meaning of such an act, i'm sure the parents looming around in the background are well aware. the parents were simple letting of steam and frustrated after being in shelters for 5 days??? WE WISH WE HAD SHELTERS THAT WE COULD HIDE IN FOR 5 DAYS. 7 of my family were killed, my niece was found in the field next to our house because she was blown out completly ... can you compare what is happening to us to what is happening in isreal, can u even compare??? you are an educated rational logical person, tell me is there a comparsion between what is happening, please enough, kill us, we are dead, but do not take away the peace of death by tormenting us with excuses to make it sound like the isrealis are not to blame... they took my home and my land, they now live on it and call it their home while i am a REFUGEE with no passport no identity no rights no nothing and u say that they r right, they r fruestrated becasue they have been in shelters for 5 days, i have seen my family murdered right in front of my house, they have the whole international worl supporting them, what bull**** what bull****what bull**** what bull**** u say... this is injustice and God will not let this go, this is our suffering, God will not let this go.
it took us so much time to build our house, we built it with our own hands and everymorning my grandmother would spend hours in the garden, perfecting it, growing tomatoes and pears that were celbrated through all of lebabanon and we had our own heaven on earth with swings and flowers and trees and now it is all destruction with my grandmother lying dead with so many of the hands, my family that built this ruined house just for nasrallla whom i do not even support, after we were kicked out of palestine, when the isrealis took our land, we came here and through hard work we were able to start again and have a new life away from home, but now the isrealis have ruined us again, our second try, and they killed the half of my family that was left after the first time, i am so depressed i do not know what to do with my self or who to tell my story to or who will care to listen when i am a palestinian muslim, i am nothing in the eyes of the west, 2 isreali soldiers for so much destruction that is the balance in the modern world lieave me in my grief i cannot read such utter injustice anymore
jenan
Sat 22 Jul 2006 07:44 PMExcellent link here re Palestinian Children: Behind the Images of Children With Guns
http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/11/4146
And another:"They Hate, We Don't"
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2005/12/this_is_in_resp.html
RepresentativePress
Sun 23 Jul 2006 10:45 PMGal,
You are too much. You are just angry that the media didn't keep its mouth shut like it usually does.
You are spoiled by a media that usually suppresses facts like these about Lebanon and Israel
dave y
Tue 25 Jul 2006 02:42 AMWhat a fascinatingly biased article. On so many levels... Even hitting the Dianaesque blame-the-photographers excuse, which writers tend to exploit without thought.
First, I find it very hard to believe there were a dozen photographers around them. There simply isn't room. And for the record, photographers do not use long lenses when in close.
Ultimately, attempts to confuse what's in front of our eyes with squirming wordplay can't change the fact these kids were drawing on shells. Some things are not complicated.
A problem of representation and context? Yes, I wonder what the motivation is of all those suffering or dead victims in news photos. Gal--the people in the photos are representing themselves and their condition. The context is war. Pretty simple.
Mithras
Tue 25 Jul 2006 04:39 AM"'[T]he photographers gathered around. Twelve of them. Do you know how many that is? It's a lot. And they were all simultaneously leaning in with their long camera lenses, clicking the shutter over and over.'"
Oh my god. Those poor little girls. Practically forced to doodle on those shells by the mean, nasty long camera lenses. Vicious. When all their parents wanted was to let them have some fun, and play like normal children, with high explosives.
Certainly has the ring of truthiness to me.
Model UN
Tue 25 Jul 2006 09:51 AMWhat utter crap. You complain of the HORROR of the Israelis having to hide in shelter for days, while Lebanese people are being sliced to bits by Israel bombs.
At first, when the Hezbollah captured the Israeli troops, the response was justified by Israel's fear of terrorism. But now, the death toll in Lebanon is 10 times greater than that of Israel, and growing everyday!
My family is Jewish, but I don't understand how our country people can blow up innocent civilians and towns, all the while saying that they're "just aiming for Hezbollah"!
I THINK YOUR BOMBS ARE MISSING THE TARGETS!! DOES THAT 3 YEAR OLD CHILD WITH NO HEAD LOOK LIKE A TERRORIST?
Like 'Mithras' said, those girls weren't forced to draw on those bombs.
I know that you're probably going to read this comment, and think, what does a 16 year old girl, in Model UN at high school, know about the war.
But I must say, I know much more than you biased people, who exaggerate, only to get in a good story.