Human Wrongs Watch
By Uri Avnery*
5 September 2015
THE MISDEEDS of Napoleon’s occupation army in Spain were not photographed. Photography had not yet been invented. The valiant fighters against the occupation had to rely on Francisco Goya for the immortal painting of the resistance.
Uri Avnery
The partisans and underground fighters against the German occupation of their countries in World War II had no time to take pictures.
Even the heroic uprising of the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw was not filmed by the participants.
The Germans themselves filmed their atrocities, and, being Germans, they catalogued and filed them in an orderly way.
In the meantime, photography has become common commonplace.
The Israeli occupation in the Palestinian occupied territories is being filmed all the time.
Everybody now has cellular phones that take pictures. Also, Israeli peace organizations have distributed cameras to many Arab inhabitants.
Soldiers shoot with guns. The Palestinians shoot pictures.
It is not yet clear which are more effective in the long run: the bullets or the photos.
