Translating Silence: Voices from Palestine: January 2009

Sunday, January 11, 2009

We've moved!

This blog is now discontinued on blogger and has been moved to

http://translatingsilence.com/blog/

It's currently the only part of the translatingsilence.com site that's up and running, but it's a start. The formatting should be finished after tomorrow.

If you have any questions, please email us at admin@translatingsilence.com. Both Shawn and myself will receive a copy of the email and one of us will definitely be able to answer your question. I can be reached individually at lilith@translatingsilence.com.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

I still believe in summer days, the seasons always change...

Still working on the website, with Shawn. It will, god willing, consist of a forum, flash gallery blog, dates page, and will include the option of purchasing prints. If you can help out with the flash, please let me know. In the meantime, a heartening video:

Also, please visit Zoriah's blog and read his latest entries on the situation in Gaza.

Video made by Omar Jaber.

Monday, January 5, 2009

News

The exhibition is pleased to welcome a new contributing photographer, Shawn Duffy. He'll be contributing 12 photos, including the following:

Update

Well, Zoriah's photos are up, captioned and titled, as are mine. Still need to tweak some things in the captions and titles, and revise a few lens vignette issues I'm having with a few of my photos, but other than that, khalas. Ahmad, Ahmed and Mohammed's work will be up some time after January 6th.

Let me know if you have any comments or advice.

A real website is still in the works - I want flash and apparently that's a scandalous fit of ambition.

Soldier in Al-Funduq

An Israeli soldier stands by during a prayer vigil on the outskirts of Al-Funduq. All protests and public events have the potential of becoming violent demonstrations, and the army was called out after a week of settler violence to keep the vigil from becoming more violent settler backlash in Al-Funduq. Though the army's concern was clearly for the wellbeing of the settlers, and not the Palestinians nearby, there was no violence that afternoon.

Through The Looking Glass

A window cracked from gunfire on the walk up to my flat in Nablus.

Omar Abdullat

Omar Abdullat, a Jordanian singer, holds up the Palestinian and Jordanian keffiyehs in a display of solidarity and brotherhood while in concert in Ramallah.

In Conversation

An Israeli soldier and settler talk and laugh while his child looks on.

Prayers Behind Bulletproof Vests

"The main roads into and out of Nablus were blocked by settlers, as were Huwwara, Beit Iba and Beit Furiq checkpoints, leaving many Palestinians stranded for hours. Settlers also blocked roads and attacked Palestinians in the villages of Huwwara, Burin, Al-Funduq, Turmasayya, and the old city of Jerusalem. The main road from Nablus to Qalqilia was blocked on Thursday night, only partly opening on Friday, with the section from Nablus to al Funduq closed by Israeli soldiers throughout Friday. Roads between Kufr Laqif and Jinsafut in Qalqiliya region; and Deir Istiyia to Haris in Salfit region were also closed due to settlers stoning Palestinian cars.

Two days after settlers attempted to block Huwwara checkpoint, Palestinians are still denied entrance into Nablus via the key checkpoint. Israeli soldiers now, rather than Israeli settlers, block the main entrance to Nablus. As Ahmad Soufan says, `I think the Israeli settlers and the Israeli army are working together.` As part of its attempt to appear to `crackdown` on ultra-right wing settler extremists, on Thursday 4th December, the Israeli army finally carried out the Israeli supreme court ruling to evacuate one settler-occupied but Palestinian- owned house in Hebron. Although the Israeli authorities received the order to evacuate the illegal settlers more than two weeks ago, Israeli military officials, expecting a settler backlash, waited until precisely the time when most Palestinians would be out of their houses to carry out the command."

- excerpt from the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) report on the violence that week

Israeli Settler

"On Thursday 4th December, extremist Israeli settlers began a multiple-day rampage throughout the West Bank in response to the eviction of a single settler-occupied house in Hebron. Beginning at 3pm, thousands of settlers blocked roads throughout the West Bank, stoning cars, attacking houses, burning olive groves and desecrating mosques.

The main roads into and out of Nablus were blocked by settlers, as were Huwwara, Beit Iba and Beit Furiq checkpoints, leaving many Palestinians stranded for hours. Settlers also blocked roads and attacked Palestinians in the villages of Huwwara, Burin, Al-Funduq, Turmasayya, and the old city of Jerusalem. The main road from Nablus to Qalqilia was blocked on Thursday night, only partly opening on Friday, with the section from Nablus to al Funduq closed by Israeli soldiers throughout Friday. Roads between Kufr Laqif and Jinsafut in Qalqiliya region; and Deir Istiyia to Haris in Salfit region were also closed due to settlers stoning Palestinian cars."

- excerpt from the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) report on the violence that week

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Standing Together - An Israeli Settler and Soldier

"Ramallah is not Auschwitz. Israel is not the Third Reich. We have no death camps and we haven't massacred one third of the Palestinian population in gas chambers. Therefore, everything we do is quite all right. We may fill the occupied territories with tear gas and blood, we may kill and injure and torture and blackmail and dispossess, we may surround millions by electric fences and tanks in tiny enclaves, we may hold them under siege and daily bombing, we may make pregnant women walk to hospitals, and we shoot ambulances too, don't we. But as long as we fall even an inch short of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, it's all fine and good, and don't you dare make the comparison."

Ran HaCohen - writer, teacher, Tel-Aviv University, and a strong critic of Israel's policies

Nablus

The city of Nablus, the largest in the West Bank, is home to more than 130,000 people.

For Gaza

A child stands in a candlelit vigil in Nablus in protest of the siege in Gaza that began November 5, 2008.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Boys in Balata

Young boys in Balata Refugee Camp vending fruit take a break to pose for the camera.

Soldiers Arrive

Israeli soldiers arrive at Al-Funduq with a stated mission of protecting Palestinian villagers from incoming settlers while a wave of settler violence sweeps through the West Bank after a home is evicted in Hebron.

Nothing, pt. 2

"There was no such thing as Palestinians... they never existed."

- Golda Meir
15th June 1969

Nothing, Pt. 1

A severely traumatized and unresponsive boy in Balata Refugee camp sits down on the street corner to eat a banana.

Remains

A wall bearing the scars of Israeli invasions into the camp during the second intifada.

Israeli Soldiers

"We occupied a house in Hebron. You know the procedure – the family moves to the bottom floor. We were on the third floor, and we set up a hose to urinate into, which would drain outside.

We placed the hose so that the urine would flow into the yard beneath us. There were some chicken coops there, and that’s where it fell. And that was the daily joke. To wait until the father or one of the children would reach the chicken coops, and then everyone pisses. ...Those were some of your options... There’s no one to judge you for it."

-An extract from an interview with a veteran Israeli Staff Sergeant who occupied Hebron in 2003

Trespass

A woman trying to get to Al-Aqsa to pray on the last Friday of Ramadan looks over the Separation Barrier at the Kalandia Checkpoint.

Collective Punishment

"What is necessary is cruel and strong reactions. We need precision in time, place, and casualties...we must strike mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise, the reaction is inefficient. At the place of action, there is no need to distinguish between guilty and innocent."

- David Ben-Gurion
1st January 1948

Fatima Khalil

Fatima Khalil is an illiterate Palestinian beggar living in the Israeli city of Haifa.

Youth

A young Palestinian boy dressed in traditional clothing stands for the camera.

Walk Away

A boy walks out of a severely damaged home in Rafah

David and Goliath

A Palestinian slinging rocks at Israeli Border Police during protests over the Separation Wall.

In Cages, pt. 2

Palestinians in Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank

In Cages

Palestinians in Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank.

Wounded

A young man injured by an Israeli rocket after it landed near his school.

Angel

An infant with a compromised immune system suffering from severe bacterial infections which were a result of the lack of sterile equipment in the hospital is treated in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Al Naser Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza Strip Occupied Palestian Territory, May 8, 2006. Doctors at Al Naser do not even have paper towls to dry their hands with before assisting patients much less the essential sterilized linens needed to prevent infection and death in infants and those with with compromised immune systems. After the cessation of aid from America and EU countries, hospitals in Gaza have literally run out of medicine and supplies. Patients die on a daily basis from easily treatable conditions due to lack of supplies such as sterile linens, needles, medicine, chemotherapy treatments etc.

Toy Soldier

A young boy plays with a homemade toy gun designed to look like an AK-47, a popular gun used by militants in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip Occupied Palestinian Territory, May 13, 2006. Civilians and infrastructure in Khan Yunis have suffered greatly from the years of inhabitation by Israeli settlers. The settlers who move in and take land, heavily fortify their neighborhoods with concrete walls and are supported by the Israeli Defense Forces as well as private military guards. Neighborhoods like this one, located next to former settlements, are often completely destroyed by heavy handed Israeli retaliation to the Palestinians efforts to re-claim their land. Civilians are left homeless and without the necessary resources to rebuild their lives.

Boy with Toy Gun

A Palestinian boy poses in front of a bullet riddled wall near Gaza City, Gaza

Rise Above

Seperation Wall grafitti in the West Bank, Palestine.

The Humanitarian Line

Palestinian women and children waiting in line at a military checkpoint in the West Bank. Since the second intifada, checkpoints have made life very difficult for Palestinians, as they completely control their mobility at any given time. Women and children are often sequestered to a separate line, which in misspelled English is referred to at the Huwarra checkpoint outside Nablus as the "Humanitarian" line.

The Separation Barrier

A man and child looking over the Separation Wall that divides The West Bank and Israel, in some places cutting severely into Palestinian land.

Playdate

Children play in front of bullet riddled homes in Rafah, Southern Gaza Strip.

Homeless

Children play in the rubble which was once their home in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip Occupied Palestinian Territory, May 13, 2006. Civilians and infrastructure in Khan YunIs have suffered greatly from the years of inhabitation by Israeli settlers. The settlers who move in and take land, heavily fortify their neighborhoods with concrete walls and are supported by the Israeli Defense Forces as well as private military guards. Neighborhoods like this one located next to former settlements, are often completely destroyed by heavy handed Israeli retaliation to the Palestinians efforts to re-claim their land. Civilians are left homeless and without the necessary resources to rebuild their lives.

In Ruins

Scavengers hunt for usable items in a former Israeli settlement, just outside of Gaza City, Gaza Strip Occupied Palestinian Territory, May 12, 2006. When Israeli settlers were forced to leave the Gaza Strip in 2005, the Israeli Military was called in to completely destroy all of the settlements, their roads, infrastructure, farms etc. What is left behind is a massive expanse of broken concrete, twisted rebar and damaged roads, preventing the Palestinians from using the land for anything other than a dumpsite to scavenge in.

Interrupted

A man playes behind a mesh fence with his daughter in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

Look Within

A young girl holds an x-ray in Gaza City's Beach Camp.

Terror

Islamic Jihadis assemble missiles in the Gaza Strip.

Gazan Refugees

A woman holds an infant in Gaza Citie's Beach Camp, the world's longest standing refugee camp

Animal

An Israeli Border Police dog used for crowd control during protests over the Separation Wall in Ni'ilin.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Exhibition Update

Things are slow, but they'll get done. I was wondering if I should attempt to do something special in honor of those killed and injured recently in Gaza on here, but it wouldn't be enough. I recently sat down and tried to translate a list of the first 187 victims killed and identified in Gaza for my friends on facebook who are interested but don't read Arabic, and it's overwhelming. If you have a facebook, feel free to add me and we can talk about what's been going on. But I don't have any huge, grandstanding gestures to make this better; I don't think anyone does.

Right now I'm in the process of collecting all of the finished work and getting those pesky titles, captions and photographers' statements.

Here are a few picture's of Zoriah's that are not going into the exhibition, but should be seen. For those of you who don't know, Gaza was besieged before the recent air raids. Al Jazeera lost their minds, but I don't know if the rest of the world media really addressed the issue beyond a soundbyte. One of the biggest consequences of that siege is that Gazans now are in serious want of basic healthcare items and medicines. Now, with the recent air raids including the bombing of a medical supplies facility and 400+ dead and 2000+ injured, that coincidental lack of medicine and capacity to treat coupled with whatever the hell Hamas is doing at any given moment that is resulting in the injured not getting to Sinai is resulting in a debilitating medical crisis.

Here are Zoriah's photos, taken in hospitals in Gaza during the medical crisis in 2006.

Click here to see the rest of the Gaza Medical Crisis photo story.