The West Bank, Palestine has held a very special place in my heart since my first travel to the region in 94’ on my first real journey as a young man. I was fascinated by how welcoming the people were that existed within a very strictly guarded refugee camp in Hebron, especially when considering the conditions in which they both physically and mentally lived. At the time they were allowed to fill the water tanks upon their roofs usually once, sometimes twice a week. These tanks were only large enough for a day and half’s use, maybe two days at best of a family’s normal daily living routine: cleaning, cooking and of-course showering. They were rationed an amount of water usage by the Israeli government that would have been difficult for a three person family to exist on, much less these 6+ member families. But still they quickly invited me into their homes to discuss not only their daily struggles with trade, work, education and encroaching Israeli settlers but to compare cultures and ask me a never-ending barrage of questions about my life and family in the United States.
They displayed the highest level of hospitality I had experienced up to that point in my life and it stuck with me. In general I find myself returning to the Middle East more than any other region in the world due to this ongoing hospitality that I experience each time. One of my return trips included Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Israel/Palestine. These images are from this journey in which I put the majority of my time and effort into photographing in the West Bank.
The point of this photo journey was two fold. I knew that this area was constantly being covered by journalists almost entirely for the negative exposure of the Fatah and Hamas movements along with the dissolving peace talks, ever-growing Israeli settler movements and the increasing rocket launches from Gaza Strip. There had also been the bombing of a night club in Tel Aviv just a few weeks before my arrival. I won’t deny that I wanted to get some action shots while I was there if the opportunity arrived.
But my real goal was to express through my images how wonderful the Palestinian people are, how they impeccably continue to exist under such stringent controls by the Israeli military. We see almost entirely negative images of these people in Western media: Molotov cocktails, a gunned down boy, housing being bulldozed, etc. Though we almost never see the “Security Wall” in our newspapers which I simply don’t comprehend.
On this trip once again I was quickly welcomed into people’s homes to stay for tea, lunch and sometimes many days. Some of the stories I heard were agonizing to visualize and allow into my conscious. And at the same time I spent a great deal of each day laughing and thoroughly enjoying these gracious people. I fell in love with the Northern city of Nablus where: I attended large Hamas rallies, I met Fatah rebels who’s occupation was sowing Orthodox Jewish robes and they supplied arms to rebel members in Tel Aviv, I stayed with an amazing family for a few weeks, I experienced the nightly curfew implementation by the Israeli forces overlooking the city and I got to know the local checkpoints in and out of the city very well.
It was not unusual for Israeli checkpoint officials to block my travel on any given day necessitating my rerouting around the mountains and into Nablus via another checkpoint. This is something that many Palestinian college and university students have to deal with on a constant basis. Nablus is home to one of the best universities in the West Bank; students sometimes travel through three checkpoints daily each way just to attend this university. One of the worst ongoing functions of the checkpoints is to minimize the flow of goods from one area of the West Bank to another; this has destroyed many businesses that depend on the movement of their goods.
This journey was a growing experience for me in many ways. The Palestinians I met had many lessons to give in relation to their persistence, their desire for education and peace, and their incredible love of life and family. I hope I have succeeded in capturing and expressing some of their joy as a people in these images.
