#israeli photography

[cavalierzee]

A Palestinian David vs An Israeli Goliath

A Palestinian David vs An Israeli Goliath

A Palestinian Child vs An Adult Israeli Trained To Kill

A Palestinian Rock vs An Israeli Assault Rifle

A Palestinian Original Land Owner vs A Zionist Invader

[matan4il]

The other day, I went with my rl bff to the Jerusalem branch of the Museum of Tolerance for an exhibition on the Hamas massacre.

This is the sight that greeted us. "Esthers of the world, rise up!"

It's a poster celebrating two women whose families had lived in Iran, one is Jewish, the other is Muslim, and both women ended up being murdered due to the Islamic regime of that country, even though the Jewish woman's family had escaped Iran and fled to Israel after the Islamic revolution. The face of each girl is actually a composite, made from many smaller pictures of her people who have lost their lives because of the Islamist regime of Iran.

I knew this right away, because I have shared a piece that was done about the poster and how it came to be almost 2 months ago. 

"You don't understand!" my bff (who works as a teacher) said, all emotional, "She," my friend points to the Jewish girl on the left side of the poster, Shirel Haim Pour, "is the cousin of one of my students."

There is zero distance in Israel between us and the Oct 7 atrocities. 

We go in and join the tour of the exhibition. The guide tells us it was built jointly with Malki Shem Tov, who is a well known name in Israel, if you work at a museum. Malki founded a "creative visual solutions" company with his brother Assaf, through which among other things, they helped build many Israeli exhibitions over the years. "His son..." the tour guide starts to say and I don't need more than that for something to click in my head. I know so many of the names, faces and stories of the hostages, and so Omer Shem Tov pops right away into my mind. I didn't make the connection before, but now I can only imagine what it meant for this father to work on an exhibition that recounts, among other stories, how his son was victimized and robbed of his freedom during this massacre.

There is zero distance in Israel between us and the Oct 7 atrocities. 

The opening wall has a huge time stamp, 6:29 in the morning. 

The tour guide doesn't have to explain this number to Israelis, or why it's designed to look like an alarm clock display. We were all woken up on that fateful Saturday morning by the alarm clock of Hamas' rockets. And it doesn't matter what we thought or believed the day before, as the full scale and horror of the attack were starting to become known along Oct 7, we were all woken up.

There is zero distance in Israel between us and those atrocities. I know this, and still it strikes me, again and again.

There's an area dedicated to the pictures of one photographer who went to the south soon after the massacre. I knew some of them already, like the pic showing the bodies of 13 elderly Israelis, who were on their way to a tour of the Israeli south on that Saturday.

Some are new, like the pic of the door handle in one bomb shelter. I stop for a second, because now that I've moved into my new place, it hits me that the bomb shelter door was made by the same company. Suddenly, I feel like I'm inside the picture in a reality where the terrorists took a slightly different route on Oct 7. The door was photographed from inside the bomb shelter, and the bullets that pierced it, they had to have hit the personal holding it shut. The handle has blood stains on it, and it's broken off. I can only imagine how many hours this person held, and how much force they had to use, for that to happen. I know one thing, even without knowing exactly who this bomb shelter belonged to... If this person was on their own, they would have probably ended up surrendering rather than keep fighting to hold on to the handle this desperately. This was likely someone trying to keep their family safe. 

One note retrieved from the body of a terrorist is on display. It says everything about the motivation of the monsters who committed these atrocities, and every word is purely motivated by antisemitism and religious zeal. The note is actually not in Arabic, as it may first appear, it's in Farsi, the language spoken in Iran, hinting at the source, the Islamist regime there, which doesn't care about the liberation of anyone, it aspires to create a global network of fanatic terrorism.

The translation: "You must sharpen the blades of your swords and be pure in your intentions before Allah. Know that the enemy is a disease that has no cure, except beheading and uprooting the hearts and livers. Attack them!"

There is a section dedicated to women's stories. The exhibition visitors spread out to watch the testimonies, each on a separate screen. It's a not like a forest, you can't really see it for the trees, and it's another moment of feeling overwhelmed because we can't truly get it. It's just not comprehensible, facing so many stories about intentional, face to face cruelty, brutality, sadism and joy in it. Mali Shoshana tells the story of how she tried to play dead while lying shot in a pool of her own blood, but her body wouldn't stop shaking, so she somehow turned on her side to the wall and knocked her injured knee against it, causing herself to pass out from the pain. It saved her life. Ricarda Louk tells the story of the last message they got from her daughter Shani, trusting she was right and there was nothing for them to worry about. Then Ricarda's son started screaming and crying, because he saw the same vid many of came across on that day, of his sister being dragged into Gaza stripped down, mutilated, abused, molested and humiliated, while Gazan civilians were celebrating the public degradation of her body. And there's more and more and more. "You can come back and continue to listen," the guide promises as he moves us to the next segment, but the truth is no matter how many stories I've listened to and absorbed, it still doesn't feel like enough.

There is a wall with the head shots of the victims in Israel who lost their lives due to this war, whether they were murdered on Oct 7 or since, but it's only been updated up until Mar 27 of this year. Even so, no matter what angle I tried, I couldn't fit in all of the pictures.

Interactive screens allow a geographic telling of the massacre's story. They show maps of Israel's south, with dots on them, red for the murdered, dark blue for hostages, bright blue for hostages who have been returned, grey for the injured. You can tap a dot and read a story. Or you can zoom out and try to comprehend how is it possible for there to be that many dots on the maps.

"From darkness to light," reads the exhibition title. That's the perception of time in Judaism. We always move from darkness to light. And there's a section for the light, for stories of resilience, of bravery, of rehabilitation, of mutual support and caring. Filmed interviews that do their best to summarize an incomprehensible amount of good we've seen in response to an incomprehensible amount of evil. It features people from every demographic in Israel, and in that way also serves as a reminder of just how diverse we are as a society.

This part, I think to myself, was included for visitors from abroad. We Israelis, we know.

There's one story I know already. Tomer Greenberg, an Israeli officer, rescued on Oct 7 baby twins from the carnage. He was later killed fighting in Gaza. Like a puzzle, I've heard this story from several angles, including from Tomer before he died. This movie features an interview I hadn't heard yet, with the volunteer paramedic that Tomer handed the twins to. Shalom, this medic, talks about how they clung to him desperately as they got to be fed and feel safe and cared for again for the first time in what's estimated to have been 14 hours. I'm sitting there, thinking of those babies crying, not understanding why their parents aren't coming to feed them, and I don't know how to deal with this.

Shalom shares that the experiences of Oct 7 have inspired him to try and become a combative soldier, something that wasn't on the cards for him before that. I wonder again at people who can act like subjecting an entire (already traumatized) society to a sadistic massacre can liberate anyone.

And I understand Shalom fully. When your family is in the pits of hell, there's nowhere you want to be other than there, with them, doing what you can, rather than sit and watch helpless from afar. Most people would say he did a lot on that day. Shalom must have felt like that still wasn't enough.

At the very end, visitors are invited to add their own little piece of light, through neon notes and pens on which they'd share their thoughts. Nothing feels like it can sum everything I'm thinking and feeling up, but not writing anything feels worse, so my bff and I add a few of our words to the notes.

I don't have any profound conclusions for this post anymore than I did for my note. I just know that this still hurts, that we're still losing people daily, that we can't begin to heal, because we're still in the middle of the wound being inflicted. But I also know that we WILL heal, that even if the wound can't be closed yet, our collective immune system kicked into action on Oct 7 already, that we will continue to share the pain and the comfort and the care, and this massacre and war will probably never stop hurting, that we'll never be the same, but eventually we will be alright. Where people choose to care, there's just no other option.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[acepumpkinpatrick]

I think most of us have seen the first picture. It dates back to Oct. 21st. 2023

The second one is a very recent one from Rafah taken on Feb. 21st. 2024

Four complete months of Genocide and counting. Four months of the Israeli Zionist Occupation's crusade on the Gaza Strip.

Pictures taken by photographer Mahmoud Bassam

[safije]

Bedouin Women, Sinai Egypt

[may1st1994]

From TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2022: Israeli police confront mourners as they carry the casket of slain Al Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in east Jerusalem, on May 13. Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American reporter who covered the Mideast conflict for more than 25 years, was shot dead during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin. Maya Levin-AP

[chaiaurchaandni]

Alessandra Sanguinetti, "Portrait of Modern Palestinian Childhood," 2004.

[i-am-aprl]

The people have spoken! We pledge unwavering solidarity with Palestine and all those fighting for freedom, today, tomorrow, and every day until liberation.

Politicians, we've heard you, now hear us!! You no longer speak for us. Your thirst for power and wealth has blinded you to our struggles. But we refuse to be silenced any longer. The era of your dominance is crumbling before our eyes as we reclaim our narrative and defy your tyranny and greed.

Power to the people! Liberation for all those shackled by the chains of Western imperialism! 🇵🇸✊🏽

🎥: @Beardvoyage

[postcard-from-the-past]

Town scene in Nahariyya, Israel

Israeli vintage postcard

[youliveveryday]

PEOPLE ARE BEING BURNT ALIVE IN THE "SAFE ZONE" IN RAFAH !! WHAT ARE WE EVEN SUPPOSED TO SAY OR DO! ALL THOSE IN POWER ARENT DOING ANYTHING WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO

[historyforfuture]

Euoro_mediterrenian for human rights monitor :

We documented random mass graves since first one which was at (AlShifa medical complex on 15th of October 2023 till the total number increased highly to reach 140 mass graves 💔

Picking hundreds of corpses is horrible , it requires urgent international action to investigate the circumstances of killing and burying these huge number of corpses and mass graves .

Some corpses were connected to urinary catheters and fracture splints and most corpses were mauled by street cats and dogs after the access to them was prohibited by occupation forces .

Harsh scenes

[cavalierzee]

Every Israeli Accusation Is A Confession

“Hamas radicalizes their kids to hate and kill Jews”

No. It’s the opposite: Every Israeli accusation is a confession.

Jory Micah

[a-light-seeking-dream]

Beabadoobee covers D la Repubblica June 25th, 2022 by Amit Israeli

[zeia-reblog-blog]

These words are from @kareem-family . Their family is currently on Gaza. It is vetted as they mention below!

Dear,

I hope you are doing well,

Please help my family in Gaza (16 person including 8 children )spread their campaign. They have been displaced and living in tents for 10 months under bombing without any basic needs water,electricity,gas,sanitation facilities.

My mother needs a medical care and My nephew, Karim Al-Madhoun, suffers from cerebral palsy and severe malnutrition and needs many medications that are not available. He needs urgent help and your support.

Please don't leave us alone. Your kind contribution whatever you can or sharing my posts will be highly appreciated and valued

It’s vetted by @90-ghost , @mushroomjar (#15 part 2) and @a-shade-of-blue mentioned you in a post! , #276 List of verified Palestinians fundraiser >> vetted by @/el-shab-hussein

Your support means a lot to us.

Helping them can take them to a safe place away from the massacres.

Thanks a lot

Please help them by donating and spreading the word around!

It is vetted as stated before, a child is currently dying due to lack of clean water!

[secular-jew]

The Great Synagogue of Constanța Romania - a former Ashkenazi synagogue ”for the Jews called Polish" located at 2 C. A. Rosetti St, corner with Petru Rareş St.

The synagogue was built between 1910 and 1914 in a Moorish Revival architectural style on the site of an earlier synagogue, erected in 1867/1872, in the place of an older synagogue, built after a firman of Sultan Abdul Azis.

Used up until 1996, it was sadly abandoned (how could this happen??), is overrun with large ferns, and falling into disrepair. Only 3 of the 4 walls remain standing, the roof is gone, the windows have been mostly smashed, and it is now in danger of collapsing.

[koenji]

Unknown Title (an angel in Jerusalem), by Dudi Hasson (דודי חסון).

[dramatic-long-coats]

I think about the 90s

When the future was a testament

To something beautiful and shiny, now

We're only counting down the time that's left

~The 90s, Finneas