Since October 7, 2023, the Image War has overshadowed the arms war. Sprayed hospitals and hungry Gaza infants with mass fits and desperate fathers digs through the rubble, each pixel captured on a smartphone strikes more deep than a missile.
These raw, non -filtered and undeniable images have a much more important impact than any press conference or official speech. And for the first time in its history, Israel cannot delete or drown them in propaganda.
The horrible images of the Israeli army massacring people in the aid distribution places prompted Gideon Levy, the Journal de Haaretz, to write on June 29: “Does Israel perpetuate the genocide in Gaza? (…) The testimonies and images emerging from Gaza do not leave room for many questions. ”
Even the pro-Israeli commentator, and the columnist of the New York, Thomas Friedman, no longer buys in the Israeli story. In an editorial of May 9, addressed to American President Donald Trump, he said: “This Israeli government is not our ally”, clarifying that it “behaves in a manner that threatens hard hard interests in the region”.
Once, the story of Israel was protected by the doors of the editorial rooms and the severity of Western guilt. But the smartphone broke these doors. What we see now is no longer what Israel says – that’s what Gaza shows us.
The platforms carrying these images – Tiktok, Whatsapp, Instagram, X – do not prioritize the context; They prioritize virality. While older generations can look away, the youngest are glued to the flow of suffering, absorbed by each pixel, each siren, at every moment of destruction. The global public is agitated, which works against Israeli interest. Israel is no longer at war with its neighbors; It is at war with the objective itself.
The psychological assessment of this visual war is affected at the bottom of Israeli society. For decades, the Israelis were conditioned to consider themselves as global trauma narrators, and not international control subjects. But now, with Israeli bombing videos, Gaza flattened Gaza districts and emaciated children flooding each platform, many Israelis are struggling with an increasing ethical situation.
There is discomfort, even in centrists, that these visceral images erod the moral high of Israel. For the first time, public speech in Israeli society understands the fear of the mirror: what the world now sees and what the Israelis are forced to confront.
On the international level, the effect was even more destabilizing for the diplomatic position of Israel. Long -standing allies, formerly unconditionally supported, are now faced with the growing interior pressure of citizens who do not consume official declarations, but live flows from Tiktok and an Instagram image flow.
Legislators in Europe and North America openly question weapons expeditions, commercial transactions and diplomatic coverage, not because of the briefings they have on Israeli war crimes, but because their reception boxes are flooded with scattered body screenshots and hungry children.
The battlefield has extended to parliaments, campuses, municipal councils and editorial rooms. It is the backlash of a war that Israel cannot win with a brute force. To regain control of the story, Israeli officials have put pressure on social media platforms to limit the content they don’t like. However, even the most sophisticated public diplomacy efforts in Israel have trouble keeping the rhythm of the virality of raw documentation.
Latest, Israeli soldiers are no longer simply worried about public relations; He is concerned about prosecution. The Israeli army urged soldiers for having taken selfies and filming themselves by demolishing the Palestinian houses, warning that this material is now harvested as proof by international human rights organizations.
Images and images of social networks have already been used by activists to target Israeli soldiers abroad. In a number of cases, Israeli citizens had to flee from countries where they went due to complaints of war crimes filed against them.
In the era of smartphones, the occupation is no longer only visible – it is attributable.
In the past, Israel has fought the wars it could explain. Now he fights a battle to which he can only react – often too late and too clumsy. The smartphone captures what the missile hides. Social media disseminates information that official briefings are trying to delete. The obsessive images, digitally preserved, assured us that we never forget any devastating atrocity or an agitation of brutality.
Conflict images do not only transmit information; They can also redefine our perceptions and influence our political positions. The powerful photo of “Girl Napalm” which captured the consequences of an attack on the South Vietnamese Army American Allied on civilians during the Vietnam War had a deep impact on American society. This helped create a change of public opinion on war, accelerating the decision of the United States government to end it.
Today, in Gaza, the flow of powerful images does not stop. Despite the best efforts in Israel, world opinion is massively against its genocidal war.
The smartphones have completely changed the nature of the conflicts by putting a camera in the hands of each witness. In this new era, Israel has trouble defeating the relentless and not filtered visual record of its crimes which calls for justice.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
