Image Activism After the Arab Uprisings| Refiguring the Aerial in Human Rights Activism: The Case of the Palestinian-Bedouin Village of al-Araqib

Authors

  • Hagit Keysar Minerva Stiftung, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
  • Debby Farber Ben Gurion University

Keywords:

Israel/Palestine, human rights, activism, open hardware, civic technoscience, geospatial technologies, Ground Truth, photogrammetry, do-it-yourself, aerial photography, kite photography

Abstract

This article argues for the exploration of and experimentation with the potentials of civic technoscience as a way of materializing counterdominant practices in human-rights activism that may challenge conventional uses of technology and rooted understandings of expertise. It examines the Ground Truth project, which addresses the Palestinian-Bedouin struggle for indigenous rights in the Naqab desert, in the southern region of Israel/Palestine. It focuses on the use of do-it-yourself (DIY) aerial photography with balloons and kites, alongside other collaborative practices, for mapping and visualizing Bedouin political and spatial claims. Against a backdrop of increasingly technologically savvy legal-professional cultures in human-rights organizations, this article proposes that a community-based DIY approach to truth making may challenge entrenched thresholds of participation and open opportunities for creating hybrid forums in the human-rights field. Finally, it suggests that civic technoscience can offer an experimental ground for training oneself in critical ways of thinking and engaging with technology.

Author Biographies

Hagit Keysar, Minerva Stiftung, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin

Researcher, Activist

Debby Farber, Ben Gurion University

PhD Candidate, Ben Gurion University

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Published

2020-09-21

Issue

Vol. 14 (2020)

Section

Special Sections

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