Text To Screen Starts:
A notorious English historian once said (at the onset of the Iraq war) that wars are simply a way of settling disputes… Just how much longer we must be faced with the barbaric and murderous actions, of democratic and undemocratic governments (and/or factions) in waging wars to rectify/reconcile disputes, based on Ideology, Religion, Racism, or Ignorance, remains to be seen…
We are all responsible…
In Judith Butlers introduction to Frames of War, the author asks, what is formed and framed through the technological grasp and circulation of the visual and discursive dimensions of war…
She responds to her own question, saying this grasping and circulation is, already an interpretative manoeuvre, a way of giving an account of
whose life is a life,
whose life is effectively transformed into an instrument,
a target, or
a number, or is
effaced
with only a trace remaining, or
none at all…
We are all responsible…
She asks us to rethink received terms of materialism, in order to understand, how cameras work as instruments of war, how they both frame and form the human (and non-human) target, and to develop an anti-war politics… Focusing on the dispossessed and those rendered precarious in ways that require new vocabularies and new practices
We are all responsible…
The context of the images here, are as Documents, recorded in the moment, by potential victims/targets/numbers/humans-to-be-effaced-by-war…
Of actual victims/targets/numbers/humans-in-the-process-of-being-effaced-by-war…
We are all responsible…
The Texts that follow – The List of Dead Children, from just one episode within a continuing war – supply Documentary Evidence of the the tragedy that happens on regular basis, within all wars…
We are all responsible…
To lose one life, can exhaust our powers of emotional expression
To lose many lives to war, defies our powers of emotional expression, leading to senses of outrage… Which in turn, should find constructive transformation, by creative, positive and applicative outlets within the Social/Political and Ethical circuits, within which we engage, every day…
We are all responsible…
But most fundamental of all…
The images and texts here do not seek to sensationalise war events
They are offered as documents of the world we live in…
These and the myriad of other documentations ‘framed by media’ must not be allowed to become the ground of everyday life, subsumed in our capitulation to mass-media’s lack of interrogation of the true realities and conditions of war, brought about by unaccountable Power, Ideology, Religion, Racism, and Ignorance…
We are all responsible…
These are the names of eighty Palestinian children
killed by IOF in the West Bank (WB) and the Gaza Strip (GS)
during the reporting period. (pre-‘Operation Cast Lead’)
1. Ahmed Abdul Mohsen Al-Ska
Age: 15 Killed: 3/7/2007 (WB)
2. Mohamad Ereib Ahmad Al-Maloukh
Age: 17 Killed: 6/8/2007 (WB)
3. Nouriddin Ibrahim Yousef Mer’ei
Age: 14 Killed: 17/8/2007 (WB)
4. Abdul Qader Yousef Abed Ashour
Age: 14 Killed: 21/8/2007 (GS)
5. Fadi Mansour Yunis Al-Kafarna
Age: 10 Killed: 21/8/2007 (GS)
6. Mahmoud Ibrahim Mahmoud Al-Qrinawi
Age: 11 Killed: 24/8/2007 (WB)
7. Humam Ahmad Abdul Qader Nasser
Age: 15 Killed: 24/8/2007 (GS)
8. Mustafa Adnan Said Nasser
Age: 17 Killed: 24/8/2007 (GS)
9. Mahmoud Mousa Has’san Abu Ghazal
Age: 8 Killed: 29/8/2007 (GS)
10. Sara Sulaiman Abdallah Abu Ghazal
Age: 10 Killed: 29/8/2007 (GS)
11. Yahiya Ramadan Atiya Abu Ghazal
Age: 12 Killed: 29/8/2007 (GS)
12. Ramzi Rajab Hilles
Age: 17 Killed: 8/9/2007 (GS)
13. Wadei Khalil Samara Al-Ghazawi
Age: 13 Killed: 10/9/2007 (WB)
14. Mohammad Ali Mesbah Jabarin
Age: 16 Killed: 17/9/2007 (WB)
15. Mohammed Rida Mahmoud Khaled
Age: 17 Killed: 18/9/2007 (WB)
16. Mohamad Atiya Hasan Kaloub
Age: 16 Killed: 24/10/2007 (GS)
17. Abdel Fattah Fawzi Abed Fatah Askar
Age: 14 Killed: 24/10/2007 (GS)
18. Hashem Eid Abdel Aziz Khadoura
Age: 16 Killed: 4/11/2007 (GS)
19. Ashraf Zaher Salman Al-Arour
Age: 17 Killed: 4/11/2007 (GS)
20. Bilal Ahmad Al-Nabahin
Age: 14 Killed: 9/11/2007 (GS)
21. Jihad Elian Al-Nabahin
Age: 15 Killed: 9/11/2007 (GS)
22. Hadeel Abdel Karim Suliman Al-Smeiri
Age: 8 Killed: 11/6/2008 (GS)
23. Aya Hamdan Al-Najjar
Age: 8 Killed: 5/6/2008 (GS)
24. Hussein Abdel Karim Ahel
Age: 16 Killed: 22/5/2008 (GS)
25. Khaled Abdel Naser Abdel Hadi
Age: 17 Killed: 21/5/2008 (GS)
26. Majd Ziyad Abu Oukal
Age: 12 Killed: 20/5/2008 (GS)
27. Abdel Jawad Al-Dardouk
Age: 15 Killed: 19/5/2008 (WB)
28. Montasir Mohamad Jumaa Abu Anza
Age: 15 Killed: 11/5/2008 (GS)
29. Sami Jamil Abdel Aziz Abu Anza
Age: 17 Killed: 8/5/2008 (GS)
30. Ameer Mohamad Hashem Al Yazji
Age: 5 Killed: 16/1/2008 (GS)
31. Mohamad Naser Al Bura’i
Age: 7 mths Killed: 27/2/2008 (GS)
32. Ala’ Ayman Al-Borno
Age: 17 Killed: 28/2/2008 (GS)
33. Ahmad Naser Al-Gharabli
Age: 16 Killed: 9/4/2008 (GS)
34. Mohammad Maher Fathi Al-Kafarna
Age: 16 Killed: 9/1/2008 (GS)
35. Saleh Ahmad Eid Abu Me’tiq
Age: 5 Killed: 28/4/2008 (GS)
36. Rudeina Ahmad Eid Abu Me’tiq
Age: 4 Killed: 28/4/2008 (GS)
37. Hana Ahmad Eid Abu Me’tiq
Age: 3 Killed: 28/4/2008 (GS
38. Mes’id Ahmad Eid Abu Me’tiq
Age: 1 Killed: 28/4/2008 (GS)
39. Mariam Mustafa Hasan Ma’rouf
Age: 15 Killed: 26/4/2008 (GS)
40. Dardouna Deib Dardouna
Age: 12 Killed: 28/2/2008 (GS)
41. Ali Munir Dardouna
Age: 8 Killed: 28/2/2008 (GS)
42. Omar Hussein Dardouna
Age: 14 Killed: 28/2/2008 (GS)
43. Mohammad Na’im Hammouda
Age: 9 Killed: 28/2/2008 (GS)
44. Mohammad Hani Husein Al-Mabhouh
Age: 17 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
45. Eyad Mohammad Husni Rashid Abu Shbak
Age: 16 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
46. Jacqueline Mohammad Husni Abu Shbak
Age: 16 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
47. Safaa Ra’ad Ali Abu Saif
Age: 12 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
48. Abdallah Abdel Karim Mahmoud Abu Sha’ira
Age: 17 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
49. Na’el Zuhair Abu Oun
Age: 14 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
50. Ahmad Nimer Abdel Latif Zughra
Age: 17 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
51. Khaled Monther Abdel Qader Rayyan
Age: 17 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
52. Salwa Zidan Assaliya
Age: 14 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
53. Mahmoud Bassam Mohammad Ubeid
Age: 16 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
54. Mohammad Fu’ad Khalil Hjazi
Age: 17 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
55. Abdel Karim Hosni El-Ha’ou
Age: 15 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
56. Mahmoud Nayef Hamatto H’neideq
Age: 16 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
57. Salsabeel Majed Mohammad Abu Jalhoum
Age: 2 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
58. Abdel Rahman Mohammad Saleh
Age: 17 Killed: 2/3/2008 (GS)
59. Lu’ai Ismail Ibrahim Taha
Age: 16 Killed: 2/3/2008 (GS)
60. Tala’at Saleh Al-N’meilat
Age: 16 Killed: 28/2/2008 (GS)
61. Ziad Ismail Abu Rukba
Age: 16 Killed: 6/1/2008 (GS)
62. Tamer Mohammad Abu Sha’ar
Age: 11 Killed: 19/2/2008 (GS)
63. Amira Khaled Abu A’ser
Age: 2 mths Killed: 4/3/2008 (GS)
64. Riyad Sharif Al-Eweisi
Age: 12 Killed: 11/4/2008 (GS)
65. Yousef Ibrahim Sarhan
Age: 15 Killed: 11/4/2008 (GS)
66. Ghassan Khaled Abu Otaiwi
Age: 17 Killed: 16/4/2008 (GS)
67. Tareq Farid Abu Taqiya
Age: 16 Killed: 16/4/2008 (GS)
68. Ahmad Aaref Farajallah
Age: 14 Killed: 16/4/2008 (GS)
69. Bayan Samir Al-Khaldi
Age: 17 Killed: 16/4/2008 (GS)
70. Islam Hussam Al-Eissawi
Age: 16 Killed: 16/4/2008 (GS)
71. Abdullah Maher Abu Khalil
Age: 15 Killed: 16/4/2008 (GS)
72. Mohammad Mohammad Al-As’sar
Age: 17 Killed: 16/4/2008 (GS)
73. Talha Hani Abu Ali
Age: 13 Killed: 16/4/2008 (GS)
74. Ahmad Abdel Majied Al-Najjar
Age: 17 Killed: 19/4/2008 (GS)
75. Bilal Sa’ed Al-D’heini
Age: 17 Killed: 20/4/2008 (GS)
76. Kusai Suliman Mohammad Yousef Al-Afandi
Age: 16 Killed: 28/1/2008 (WB)
77. Mahmoud Mohammad Masalma
Age: 14 Killed: 2/3/2008 (WB)
78. Ismail Arafat Mustafa Abu Sultan
Age: 17 Killed: 1/3/2008 (GS)
79. Mohammad Anwar Jamil Abu Sara (Al-Al’lami)
Age: 16 Killed: 26/6/2008 (WB)
80. Mohammed Naser Sa’id Daraghma
Age: 16 Killed: 29/6/2008 (WB)
At approximately 11:25 am on Saturday, 27 December 2008 Israeli forces began to attack the Gaza Strip.
The offensive, codenamed ‘Operation Cast Lead,’ lasted for 23 days.
All above images were extracted from video documentation at one event.
In total, 1,419 Palestinians were killed. 1,182 of the dead – the overwhelming majority – were civilians, the ‘protected persons’ of international humanitarian law.
A further 5,300 individuals were injured, and public and private property throughout the Gaza Strip was extensively and systematically targeted and destroyed.
Source: ‘Blood On Their Hands, Child Killings by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the Gaza Strip June 2007 – June 2008’ Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
We are all responsible…
Text To Screen Ends…
Was originally designed as a performance piece to be executed for the Four Bridges Project – I would wear prims coded to display the images around me, and sit while the text was rendered to screen, it was meant to be a ‘one off performance’ – when I asked Trill and millay to allow me permission to perform – they asked me to ‘install’ the work – and it was shown over the weekend of the two-day War and Peace Event at the Howard Zinn Center for Social Consciousness and the Arts, starting Saturday 16th April 2011
http://www.fourbridgesproject.org/