A powerful photographic exhibition took place recently at La Boca del Lobo, a cultural center in the Lavapies neighborhood of Madrid. Titled Mirando a Palestina: Proyecciones Fotograficas (Looking towards Palestine: Photographic Projections), the one-week exhibit brought together a diverse group of photographers from Spain, Finland, U.S., Canada, and last but not least, Palestine.
The exhibition provided a unique opportunity. Instead of the usual pictures of political leaders giving speeches and shaking hands, viewers had the chance to see Palestine in all its human fullness, from the most horrific scenes (bleeding bodies on hospital tables and floors, dead bodies being slid into morgue drawers, ordinary people overcome with grief and anger) to the most subtle and quotidian (a young boy sitting on a sofa holding a doll, old men playing cards in a room almost devoid of furnishings).

The work included in “Looking Towards Palestine” represented an impressive diversity of styles and subject matter. The show was full of images of funerals, children’s games, Israeli tanks and bulldozers, living rooms, violent confrontations — in short, the stuff of daily life under occupation and in the Diaspora.

Most striking, however, are the images produced by Rula Halawani, a Birzeit University professor and freelance photographer. In a series of photos titled “Negative Incursion,” Halawani uses negative images to document the 2002 Israeli invasion. The result is ghostly and nightmarish. Halawani’s decision to employ negative black-and-white images leaves the viewer wondering whether the images were shot in 2002 or 1982 or 1948. Which is precisely the point: the nightmare continues.
“The warm light still there,” is another series that showcases Halawani’s native Jerusalem at night, and the contrast with “Negative Incursion” couldn’t be more marked. As the titled indicates, Jerusalem is a place of warmth for Halawani, who takes advantages of the few light bulbs present to cast a loving glow on the deserted streets of the Old City.
Another remarkable work of Halawani is “The Intimacy Series,” in which Halawani’s camera captures a series of what would otherwise be innocuous daily interactions: the exchange of identity cards between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians at Qalandia checkpoint.

Source: EI

The response of Palestinians to the Sharm al-Shaikh Summit varied from cautious optimism to hopeless disappointment. While many consider the whole summit a waste of time and a repetition of the failure of previous summits and gatherings, some consider it a step forward in putting an end to the bloodshed and believe it will bring back hope for a better peaceful future.

Here are some of the comments of both optimistic and pessimistic Palestinians:
“It’s the same old same old. So many summits have come and gone. Besides, it is only security related, nothing more. And if there is no binding agenda, the summit will fail. This is just a delaying tactic being used by Sharon,” says a 38 years old lady. “We have so many decisions in the past-why doesn’t the international community force Israel to abide by them instead of coming up with new summits?”

Others were guardedly optimistic about the summit, in which Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon verbally committed to an end of four years of violence.
“It’s good for now. People are tired, they are poor, and they are hungry. They have truly reached the point of misery in all its meaning. This is a security-related summit, not a political one anyway, and in that regard it is a positive step, “said a store owner.
an unemployed widow said: “We need peace … not more summits. We need the release of the prisoners, and the right of return for the refugees. At the same time, we pray for something to come out of this meeting. The situation is truly bad.”

On the other hand, families of prisoners being held in Israel, who have been demonstrating in the thousands throughout Gaza city for the past few days, said they had hoped for more tangible results on the issue, which was not so much as addressed in the speeches.
In addition, some of the most complicated and crucial issues, such as the right of return of Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, settlements in the West Bank, and the illegal separation wall, were completely absent from the speeches.
“I have no hope, and I’m not optimistic. He’s only withdrawing from cities that he believes are ‘calm’ or neutralised. What he said to the Palestinian people – about wanting peace and wanting us to govern ourselves – was a lie.” A Palestinian citizen says, “How can we govern ourselves as he says if we can’t even go from here to the south of Gaza without being stopped? If you truly want peace, and want to withdraw, then withdraw from all of our cities.”

Source: Al Jazeera

The Electronic Intifada calls on its readers to protest an advertisement for the San Francisco Examiner and Washington Examiner newspapers demonizing Palestinian children. The advertisement appeared in the 24 January 2005 of Media Week, a trade publication.

The advertisement aims to attract advertisers to the Examiner newspapers. It includes a picture of a girl playing a violin on the left-hand side of the page, and another picture of a girl carrying an assault rifle on the right-hand side of the page. Superimposed over the two pictures is the legend “PTA to PLO,” with PTA over the girl with the violin and PLO over the girl with the rifle.

Such anti-Palestinian stereotypes obscure the reality that over the past four years Palestinian children have been the principal victims of violence and other human rights abuses in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The vast majority of killings are never investigated and rarely are the killers punished by Israeli authorities.
While these human rights abuses continue unabated, some pro-Israel groups have aggressively used unrepresentative images similar to the one in The Examiner advertisement in campaigns designed to demonize Palestinian children and portray them as violent and Israel-hating and thereby justify or explain away violence against them.
At the same time, equally disturbing images of Israeli children are readily available but have not been used by advocates for Palestinian rights to try to depict Israeli children in a similar manner.
While many news organizations have taken seriously debunked claims that Palestinian children are routinely taught anti-Israel “hatred” and “incitement” in their schools, they have largely ignored evidence that Israeli children, particularly in West Bank settlements are indoctrinated with anti-Arab hatred.

PALESTINIAN CHILDREN ARE VICTIMS AND NOT DEMONS!

News organizations have a responsibility to investigate the reality behind hate-motivated campaigns against Palestinian children and should certainly not draw on the same stereotypes to sell advertising.

Please contact Mark Wurzer, Vice-President of Advertising, and Jim Pimentel, Managing Editor at The Examiner, to politely request that The Examiner:
· immediately withdraw the adverstisement;
· apologize for stereotyping and demonizing Palestinian children

Mark Wurzer
VP of Advertising
E-mail: mwurzer[at]examiner.com
Phone: +1 (303) 299-1488

Jim Pimentel
Managing Editor
E-mail: jpimentel[at]examiner.com
Phone: +1 (415) 826-1100

Source: EI

If Americans Knew