an awkward connection

Responding to polarization: voices from Israel (PHOTOS)

PHOTO ESSAY Through her project 'Views from a Real Place', Israeli/Dutch photographer Judith Hertog documents people in Israel to learn about their life, their history, and their hopes and fears for the future. Here's a smaller selection, exclusively for Your Middle East, of the people she met.

Zacharia Abu al-Hija

Location: Ein Hawd

Residence: Ein Hawd

Age: 40

The encounter: I met Zacharia when I hiked from Ein Hod, where I was visiting my family, to the neighboring village of Ein Hawd, which is located on a hilltop just a short distance up the valley. Ein Hod and Ein Hawd have an awkward connection: the people of Ein Hawd are refugees from Ein Hod who squatted a few kilometers away when they fled their village during war in 1948. In 1953, their empty village was turned into an Israeli artist colony. The village of Ein Hawd was not officially recognized and not connected to the grid until 2005.

http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/culture/responding-to-polarization-vo...

Judith Hertog about the project:

This project occurred to me as I was preparing for our move to Israel last summer, at the height of the Gaza war. People who have never lived here and for whom Israel or Palestine are just words in the news felt the need to express harsh opinions about a conflict that doesn’t directly affect them.

A Facebook friend of mine posted Helen Thomas’s remark that “Jews should get the hell out of Palestine and go home to Germany and Poland.” Someone else told me he hoped the Israeli army would flatten Gaza because “the Palestinians deserve it for voting Hamas.”

This project is my response to such polarized, extreme opinions. I want to offer a more nuanced view of Israeli society and offer a glimpse into the lives and visions of real people who live here, with all their complications and contradictions.

http://www.judithhertog.com/