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Lannan Writer-In-Residence Ali Abunimah covers the IDF on Instagram

20 Feb 2013

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Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah’s coverage of Israeli soldiers’ photos on social media has gotten worldwide attention since he first reported on a disturbing image on February 15. Abunimah is a co-founder of the website The Electronic Intifadah — where he first covered the story — and a current Lannan writer-in-residence here in Marfa. His piece about an image of a Palestinian child’s head framed in a sniper’s scope has led to coverage from The Guardian and the BBC, and has also attained viral status following coverage from news outlets such as Gawker and Buzzfeed.

His follow-up blog post from February 20, “Stoned, naked, armed and dangerous: more disturbing images from an Israeli soldier’s Instagram“, is an expectedly unsettling read, complete with somewhat NSFW images.

Abunimah’s talk at the Marfa Book Company on February 2 featured excerpts from his current work looking at the influence of Israeli policies on the practices of U.S. security thinking, and the following discussion suggested many parallels between the border politics of the U.S., Mexico, Israel and Palestine.

Click here to listen to Abuminah’s interview on Marfa Public Radio.