Jerusalem Dispossessed Activestills.

org | 1

Text text text


Jerusalem Dispossessed
During our documentary work in and around Jerusalem,
we have been increasingly exposed to the dark side
of the City of Light. There, hundreds of thousands of
people are living in shadow, with identity defined by
forces they cannot control, unwanted in their own homes,
afraid of being expelled while they are just asking to live
peacefully in their city.
Above all we want to discuss humanity, but the sad thing
is that in Jerusalem one’s value as a human being is
determined by ethnic group and religion. Together with
its bulldozers, Israel is trying to smash the Palestinian
community in East Jerusalem to dust. Divide and rule.
Conquer and annex.
If Jerusalem is to remain the symbol of peace and
tolerance, it cannot be a ghetto for anyone or owned
by any particular group. In the same year that Israel
celebrates 40 years of the so-called “unity” of Jerusalem,
the city has been divided by force, discrimination and
injustice. In the “holy city” of 2007, it seems that the only
god is “security” and real estate. Israeli policy is drawing
a twisting path of a wall that more than anything ensures
more conflict, suffering and despair.
Activestills.org | 3
The future of Israel cannot be built by blocking the
potential of the other. Any negotiation taking place while
facts and borders are aggressively being determined
according to one side’s interests, is just an illusion.
Without real freedom and respect of the other’s right to
live in dignity, there is no basis for political negotiation.
ActiveStills, October 2007
Anne Paq, Keren Manor, Nir Landau, Oren Ziv,
Tess Scheflan, Yotam Ronen.
Activestills.org
If you are interested in arranging an exhibition
of the photos in this catalogue, or use them in
any other way, please contact us at:
activestills@gmail.com / angela@icahd.org,
or at +972-547-366-393 (Angela)
+972-528-212-930 (Keren)
4 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 5

Where is Peace?
By Muna Hamzeh (1996)
Palestine, of course, needs no introduction. Everyone who has the slightest interest in world affairs
Jerusalem
knows the Holy Land is a turbulent hotspot where peace seems to be as elusive as a cool breeze on a celebrated its
scorching summer afternoon. But what eludes anyone who lives outside the boundaries of Palestine is 40th anniversary
just how psychologically stagnant life here actually is. The constant political instability, the acute Israeli as a “united
racism against the Palestinians, the extremely dire economic situation, the lack of human rights, the city”, while the
military checkpoints wherever you go. Life under occupation is not a life. There is absolutely nothing international
normal or good about it. All it does is stagnate those who are occupied. It is a slow death nibbling at me community
bit by tiny bit. continues
to refuse to
I know I want to live a life as a free woman. I want to go for a drive in my car without worrying about recognise it as
whether or not I have a permit to cross this or that military checkpoint. I want to go to a crowded Israeli the capital of
beach and speak in Arabic without being afraid of getting dirty looks from passers-by because I’m an Israel. In 1967,
Arab. I want to travel abroad with my husband without wondering whether the Israelis will consider Israel annexed
him a “security risk” thus denying him access to their airport. East Jerusalem,
thus breaching
And so I feel choked by this country. A living corpse waiting for something. For what? For Palestinian, international law.
Israeli and American leaders to decide the destiny of the masses who live here! Will there be everlasting For this reason,
peace? Will Jews and Arabs co-exist in the Holy Land? Will there be an independent Palestinian state? East Jerusalem
Will we have human rights? Will we have a better economy? Will we have freedom of movement? remains occupied
Will we have the right to live? Will Israel’s occupation of us ever come to an end? Ever? territory.
6 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 7

The Arab
architectural
features
Bare roots of absorbed
an olive tree into the
in the Sur gentrification
Baher yard of become
a Palestinian major selling
home under points for new
threat of buildings in the
demolition. west of the city.
8 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 9

They left West Palestinian workers

Jerusalem hoping for work in
overnight in Jerusalem, at 6.00 a.m.
panic, in April in a-Ram, which is now
’48, warned by completely surrounded
Jewish terror by the Wall. Tens of
squads that Dir thousands have had
Yassin massacre to move as homes,
would be hospitals, schools,
repeated. Today, clients, friends and
Palestinian family are now cut off;
workers gentrify the Wall has created
old Palestinian a massive population
villas for the transfer. A-Ram had
Jewish real been a major Palestinian
estate market. commercial centre.
10 | activestills.org

South-east
Jerusalem, the
Riot Police and
Border Police
leave after
policing a home
demolition.

Opposite:
After 30 years of
work at Hadassah
Hospital, savings
for a dream
home vanished
in a two-day
demolition. Home
to an extended
family of sons
and daughters.
 Activestills.org | 13

Demolition order.
Home demolitions
in Jerusalem are
conducted for
'administrative'
reasons, generally
for a lack of permit.
Permits from
the Jerusalem
Municipality are
almost impossible
to obtain by
East Jerusalem
Palestinians living
under Occupation.

Opposite:
Three generations
of the Siam family
become homeless
in Silwan. Between
1994-2006, 678
houses were
demolished in East
Jerusalem alone.
14 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 15

Children of the
Shu’afat Refugee
Camp overlooking
the Jewish settlement
of Pisgat Ze’ev built
during the Oslo
“peace process”
years. The camp is
overcrowded and
lacks basic services;
people are being
expelled by the Wall
construction, having
originally been forced
from the Old City
Home in ’67 when Israel
demolitions demolished homes
are also family to make the Western
demolitions. Wall plaza.
16 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 17

Israel conquers the

desert with concrete.
Ma’ale Adumim
settlement (34,000
people – as opposed to
15,000 in 1991), is the
settlement which most
threatens the viability
of a future Palestinian
state, as it divides the
West Bank into cantons,
prevents Palestinians
from having access
to East Jerusalem,
and pre-empts natural
expansion of East
Jerusalem.

Opposite:
3,000 Bedouin Jahalin
refugees (evicted from
their lands in the Negev
in the 50’s), are now
living under eviction
orders because of the
construction of the Wall
around Ma’ale Adumim
settlement.
18 | activestills.org

The wall at Abu Dis curving around

a future settlement, Kidmat Zion.
Contradicting security needs, which
would apply a straight, defensible
line, the choice of path reveals
the real interest: maximum land,
minimum population.

Opposite:
The first Friday of Ramadan:
Palestinian worshippers who have not
been allowed to reach the holy site,
al-Aqsa Mosque, because of heavy
security checks, have to pray outside
it, under Israeli police guard.

Settler take-over in Silwan, near

al-Aqsa mosque; the “Holy Basin”
is the most concentrated focus of
population transfer, especially using
archaeology, home demolitions and
settler take-overs.
20 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 21

School’s out in Anata. In

the shadow of the Wall,
what are the lessons?

Opposite:
Al Quds university
students look towards
the future that Israel is
building for them. After
completion of the Wall,
many students cannot
reach their studies.
22 | activestills.org Israeli soldiers
often harass
Palestinian kids: in
January ’07, border
police shot to
death Abir Aramin,
a 10 year-old girl
on her way home
from Anata school,
with a rubber
bullet; no stones
were thrown by
any kids that day.
Her father is active
in Combatants for
Peace. The file
investigating her
death was closed
for insufficient
evidence.

Opposite:
Although entitled
to free public
education, the Arab
education system
in East Jerusalem
has been severely
neglected,
resulting in a
shortage of over
1,300 classrooms.
 Activestills.org | 25

Demolition of
Jahalin Bedouin
refugee shacks in
mid-winter.

Opposite:
Jahalin refugees
from the Negev
are soon to
be forcibly
transferred by
Israel but with
nowhere to
go… Others are
considered lucky
to be allowed
to live near
the municipal
garbage dump.
26 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 27

Har Homa
settlement, built
during the Oslo
“Peace Process”
(despite Oslo
prohibiting new
settlements),
stifles the
Bethlehem area
whilst destroying
the most
beautiful, wooded
Israeli special hill in the region.
riot police forces Netanyahu
standing on said he “had
Muslim graves, to build Har
watching Homa, to prevent
worshippers Bethlehem from
leave the al-Aqsa creeping into
Mosque. Jerusalem”.
28 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 29

Settler
organisations,
heavily funded by
American Jewish
billionaires,
have focused on
Silwan and the
Holy Basin as a
means of cutting
off the Old City
from Palestinians
and extending
exclusive Israeli
control.

Opposite:
Settler children in
Silwan, which has
been the target
of intense efforts
by extremist
Jewish settlers
to gain a foothold
and expand their
presence in the
heart of strategic
Palestinian
neighbourhoods.
30 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 31

Al Qader (Tunnel)
checkpoint in
the Gush Etzion
Bloc, Greater
Jerusalem. The
apartheid road
system serves
settlers only,
A new police incorporating the
station in the region of Greater
West Bank (E1) Jerusalem into
built by settlers, Israel. There are
at their expense more settlers in
($10 million), the Gush Etzion
to link Maale bloc (a major
Adumim to water source)
Jerusalem. than Palestinians.
32 | activestills.org

Broken families.
Living with
uncertainty.

Opposite:
Palestinian
Jerusalemites
= 34% of the
city’s population.
Paying municipal
rates and taxes,
they receive
less than 10%
of the municipal
budget. “East
Jerusalemites
like to live in
Third World
surroundings,”
said one Israeli
Member of
Knesset. For their
rates and taxes,
Palestinians say
they only get
bulldozers.
34 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 35

Stolen olive tree. Plastic

grass. Roundabout in
Pisgat Zeev settlement
in front of Anata.

Opposite:
Palestinian kids playing
in the Old City’s
Moslem Quarter. A new,
Jewish settlement of 31
residential units is due
to rise here, instead.
West Jerusalem has
531 sports facilities,
East Jerusalem has 33;
West Jerusalem has 36
municipal swimming
pools; East Jerusalem
has none.
36 | activestills.org

Celebrations
of 40 years of
Jewish control
over “united”
Jerusalem.

Opposite:
From 5.00
a.m. onwards,
Palestinian
workers in
Bethlehem queue
hours to try to
enter Jerusalem,
seeking work.
Bethlehem was
always a twin
part of the city.
Ramallah/East
Jerusalem/
Bethlehem is the
major Palestinian
economic
salient, once
representing 40%
of their economy.
38 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 39

Sheikh Sa’ad is yet another

Palestinian neighbourhood of
East Jerusalem where the Wall
and a checkpoint have besieged
the entire area, so that most
villagers have had to abandon
their homes, and the village now
stands empty. Nuaman, Wallaje,
Bir Nabala, A-Ram and A-Zaim
are similar examples.

Opposite:
Qalandia checkpoint. Please wait
your turn patiently. Since 2005,
a massive system of cement
walls, gates, carousels and lanes
marks the northern entrance to
Jerusalem. Daily, thousands of
Palestinians have to wait hours
to return home or reach work.
They are the lucky minority who
manage to obtain permits to use
the checkpoints.
40 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 41

The “Jerusalem Envelope”

is the official name given by
Israel to the construction
of the wall or “separation
barrier” in Jerusalem,
disguising the reality it
creates - ethnic separation
between populations.

Opposite:
Building a separation or
apartheid road: Jews on the
left of the Wall, Palestinians
on the right. In the West
Bank, over 20 “Jews only”
roads, which form the main
grid of the region, have
forced Palestinians onto
non-commercial mountain
tracks, whilst Jewish settlers
have easy access on a road
system upgraded with $3
billion of US aid money.
42 | activestills.org Activestills.org | 43

Nof Zion – “a view

of Zion – a private
neighbourhood in
Jerusalem.” American
Jews buy holiday
homes in a Palestinian
neighbourhood.
On privately owned
Palestinian land. Creating
a wedge of Israeli
settlements deep inside
Palestinian Occupied
Territory that will prevent
the Clinton Parameters
from ever being realised.
Another thorn in the side
of peace.

Opposite:
Ancient and modern.
Israeli settlement and
Wall expansion has
devastated a biblical,
world heritage landscape.
Identity Card, 1966 Mahmoud Darwish
Write! My father .. comes from a family of Write!
I am Arab. labourers That I am Arab
Card number: 50,000 And has nothing to do with gentlemen That you seized the vines of my
Number of children: eight. My grandfather was a peasant – a fathers
And the ninth will arrive after the person And the land I farmed
summer. Without value – or noble descent Me and my children together
And you are furious! Who taught me the pride of the sun You have taken everything from us
before teaching except
Write! Me to read books The survival of my grandchildren
I am Arab. Without a family name – I am nothing These rocks here
Without a family name – I am my first but my first name But your government is going to seize
name them, too
“Infinitely patient” in a country where Write! … from what they say!
everybody My hair .. colour of coal
Lives on the embers of Anger SO! Write!
My eyes … colour of coffee At the top of the first page
My roots … Distinguishing marks That I have no hatred for people
Before the birth of time they were On my head a kuffiya with its cord
growing deep That I attack no one
tightly knotted
Before the overflowing of But that ... if I am hungry
And my palm is rough as a stone
steadfastness. I eat the flesh of my Usurper
… it scratches the hand that shakes it
Before the cypress and the olive Beware! Beware! Beware!
The food I prefer is olive oil and
.. before grass started to grow thyme My fury!
 WWW.ACTIVESTILLS.ORG

This exhibition is mounted by ActiveStills (an independent collective of photographers who believe in photography’s power to
create change through awareness) and ICAHD: The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions’ Action Advocacy Project (Angela
Godfrey - Goldstein). Funding by Irish Aid, The Austrian Development Agency and The Netherlands Representative Office is gratefully
acknowledged, as is generous permission to use the writings of Mahmoud Darwish and Muna Hamzeh by those two Palestinian poets.