The Racialisation of Jews in Israeli Documentary Photography.

This paper explores the visual codes for representing Jews of different origins in Israeli documentary photography in light of the role of photography in constructing the identity of Jewish communities in Israeli space and considering the lack of race discourse in Israel. It reviews the field of Israeli photography while analysing photographs taken in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s and then shows how racist visual codes are replicated in the present. The author argues that, although the concept of race as such does not come up in everyday and academic verbal discourse in Israel, and despite the fact that the State of Israel stresses racial equality in its Declaration of Independence, Israeli photography constructs visual codes that enable a visualisation of race. The discussion points out the dialectic dimension of race in photographs, as both an invented and a camouflaged element which should be attended to, but also as one which should be dismantled and presented as fraudulent and empty. This analysis takes place at the junction of photography, race and nationality in Israeli society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]