Sovereign Intimacy: Private Media and the Traces of Colonial Violence

Israeli television dedicated Memorial Day airtime to videos produced by grieving families of soldiers killed in the line of duty, challenging the state's militaristic memory culture. Laliv Melamed's book Sovereign Intimacy explores how these videos exploit bonds of kinship and reshape larger relationships between the state and its citizens, enabling a collective disavowal of colonial violence.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 28 March 2023
Publisher: University of California Press

In the early 1990s, Israeli television embarked on a remarkable journey, dedicating its airtime to a series of videos produced by the grieving families of soldiers who had fallen in the line of duty. These poignant productions emerged during a period of escalating Israeli discontent with the occupation of southern Lebanon, serving as a powerful challenge to the prevailing militaristic memory culture of the state. Through the lens of Laliv Melamed's insightful book, Sovereign Intimacy, we explore how these videos managed to circumvent a fundamental critique of Israeli militarism, instead finding a comfortable home within the familiar confines of the home.

The emergence of these videos marked a significant shift in the way the dead were remembered and commemorated in Israel. By resituating them in intimate domestic contexts through mediated commemorations, these families sought to reclaim the memory of their loved ones from the militaristic narratives that had dominated the country's consciousness. The media system that facilitated this process was characterized by a proliferation of freelance filmmaking, privatized television, state institutes of care, and grassroots campaigns.

Melamed's book meticulously traces the intricate web of these media systems, shedding light on how they intersected to shape the production and reception of these videos. She reveals how the intimate connections forged between the grieving families and the media exploited bonds of kinship, reshaping larger relationships between the state and its citizens. Through this process, a collective disavowal of colonial violence emerged, as the grieving families found a means to express their pain and loss while simultaneously challenging the dominant narratives of the Israeli military.

However, it is important to note that Sovereign Intimacy does not shy away from addressing the darker implications of this phenomenon. Melamed offers a poignant and critical view of the weaponization of home media and mourning in service of the neoliberal settler state. She highlights how the state's embrace of these videos served to normalize the occupation, obscuring the human cost of military intervention and perpetuating the myth of Israel's invincibility.

Through her meticulous analysis, Melamed challenges us to consider the ways in which media and memory are intertwined, and how they shape our understanding of the world. She prompts us to question the assumptions that underlie our narratives of violence and conflict, and to seek alternative ways of remembering and commemorating the past. Sovereign Intimacy is a thought-provoking and essential read for anyone interested in exploring the complex dynamics of media, memory, and the politics of power.

Weight: 454g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520390294