B’Tselem features photo exhibit of Palestinians born in 1967
“50 Years”: Fifty portraits of Palestinians born in 1967 in B’Tselem photography exhibition
Jaffa Art Salon, Jaffa port, November 17 – December 7 | Opening: Friday, November 17, 12:00 noon
Gallery talk: Friday, November 24, 12:00 noon
The exhibition “Fifty Years” is the result of a project in which B’Tselem brought Palestinian and Israeli photographers together with fifty Palestinians who were born in 1967 – the year the occupation began.
Curated by Maayan Sheleff, the exhibition will include works by Raida Adon, David Adika, Galit Aloni, Ron Amir, Tomer Appelbaum, Jamal Aruri, Emad Awad, Haim Yafim Barbalat, Yael Bartana, Noa Ben Shalom, Yael Brandt, Mohammed Dahman, Miri Davidovitz, Natan Dvir, Dan Haimovich, Nitzan Hefner, Sarwat Ibrahim, Yaakov Israel, Muhammad Jabali, Vardi Kahana, Haytam Khateb, Abed Khatib, Safaa Khatib, Miki Kratsman, Elad Malka, Tali Mayer, Abbas Momani, Nadine Nashef, Wissam Nassar, Ronit Porat and Khaled al-‘Azayzeh, Eldad Rafaeli, Issam Rimawi, Goni Riskin, Abed Saymah, Yael Shachar, Tamir Sher, Orit Siman- Tov, Kobi Wolf, Anna Yam, Yanai Yechiel, Ilia Yefimovich, Bassem Zalloum (with the guidance of Atta Awisat, Al-Quds School for Photography and Visual Arts), Oren Ziv.
The photographed Palestinians come from a variety of social backgrounds and locations throughout the Occupied Territories: from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank; from cities such as Ramallah, East Jerusalem, Hebron and Nablus; from rural areas, from refugee camps, and from small communities currently facing expulsion from their homes.
This year, 2017, marked fifty years since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip began. International law presumes that occupation – which involves military control over a civilian population – is by definition, temporary. Yet Israel’s occupation is anything but a fleeting affair. By now, a third and even fourth generation of Palestinians has been born into a world bereft of freedom, self-determination and sovereignty. What better way can there be to illustrate the passage of half a century under these conditions, than the faces of the people who have lived it?
The fleeting encounter between photographer and subject, which in many cases was logistically almost impossible to arrange, is an attempt to look at the occupation directly and see the people who have lived under its oppression for so many years. Nevertheless, this encounter cannot possibly be a meeting on equal footing: The Palestinians photographed live in an occupied territory where their rights are severely curtailed, including their freedom of movement, whereas many of the photographers enjoy the privileges that come with their nationality. They can travel freely to meet and photograph the Palestinians and then return to the safety of their home. Therefore, this project is not about coexistence or dialogue. The encounter between photographer and subject is a point of friction that attempts to draw attention to the very real and far more violent friction of inequality and power imbalance the Palestinians endure in their daily lives.
The exhibition raises questions about the meaning of “freedom” or “liberty” after a lifetime – half a century – spent living under oppression. What role do we, the spectators looking at the faces that gaze out at us from the portraits, play in these power relations?
For more information on the project and on B’Tselem, click here.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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