Dr. ‪Liora Hendelman-Baavur‬‏

Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, Tel Aviv University

Bio

Liora Hendelman-Baavur is a Senior Research Fellow and former Director (2019–2023) of the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University. A historian of modern Iran, she is the award-winning author of Creating the Modern Iranian Woman (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Her research spans Iran’s political, social, media, and visual history, emphasizing gender and cultural representation. Her forthcoming Hebrew book examines the Pahlavi court as a central mechanism for producing and mediating monarchical authority.

Protective Ambiguity vs. Interpretive Instability: Digital Contact across the Iran–Israel Divide

Abstract

This paper traces Iranian–Israeli digital interactions from the late 2000s through the 2025 twelve-day war. It introduces differential ambiguity to explain why the infrastructures produce unequal effects: protective ambiguity enables deniable dissent under Iranian surveillance, whereas interpretive instability exposes solidarity gestures to competing readings in Israel’s polarized public sphere. Drawing on examples from civic campaigns, protest art, wartime humor, and state-linked operations, it shows how digital contact enables recognition while facilitating appropriation, surveillance, and recruitment.