This article first appeared in Jadiliyya.
There were an impressive number of Palestinians at the May 19 opening in Ramallah of Keep Your Eye on the Wall, a photographic exhibit. “The Wall” (aka Apartheid Wall, Separation Wall, Security Fence, Barrier) is such an omnipresent feature of Palestinians’ lives, it is surprising they would voluntarily choose to look at photographs of it. But they did, and many seemed entranced by the large artistic images.
“The striking visual impact is critical,” explained Olivia Snaije who conceptualized the project along with Mitchell Albert in order to raise awareness internationally. “Because even people who have heard about The Wall through the media don’t realize the meanings it has for Palestinians, beyond the obvious physicality of it.”
Snaije maintained that exhibiting the photos in Palestine is also important. She mentioned one Palestinian who told her that he had become used to The Wall and had accommodated himself to the many hardships it causes. The exhibit, which includes commissioned photographs that stun, engage and provoke, reminds international people and Palestinians alike that The Wall is not normal.
Only two photographers were present at the opening in Ramallah—Palestinian Rula Halawani and Kai Wiedenhöfer, who is German. Raeda Saadeh and Steve Sabella were unavailable, and Taysir Batniji was prevented from coming by Israeli restrictions.
“Of course I would have come,” said Batniji from his residence in France. His last visit to Ramallah was in 2000, and prior to that, 1992. Batniji explained that although he has a French passport, Israel treats him as a Palestinian from Gaza when he tries to cross a border. “It’s very complicated for me to travel, whether to Gaza or Ramallah. It would have required a great deal of diplomatic intervention.”
Curators of the traveling exhibit, Mónica Santos and Sandra Maunac (Masasam), say that each show is displayed differently in response to the unique opportunities and constraints of the venue. In Ramallah, their care was apparent in the ingenious use of a small alcove with three walls located at the entry to the exhibit hall. Batniji’s photographs, taken of Gaza walls in 2001, are displayed adjacent to one another in row upon row across the three walls of the alcove. In this way, Batniji’s photos themselves constitute bricks in a wall of images of walls. Observers stand surrounded on three sides, simulating the sense of confinement that Palestinians feel on a daily basis.
Batniji said he was interested in the walls in their manifestation as a tool of communication and community support: “The walls are a kind of journal on which people express their thoughts and positions.” He focused on posters announcing the death of martyrs. Of his photos, Batniji said: “These death notices formed a succession of faces that were soon erased, worn away by time, covered over, or torn off deliberately. The uncertain status of these images is what interested me. They were complex, formal, symbolic, and profoundly linked to questions of identity. This series reflects on a double disappearance: of those who gained “recognition” through their images on posters, and of the disappearance of the posters themselves.”
A review of the book upon which the exhibit is based suggests that Keep Your Eye on the Wall risks romanticizing The Wall, but that it is a risk worth taking in order to “make fresh metaphorical connections.”
One such connection is the serendipitous timing of the Ramallah opening, just four days after the sixty-sixth commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba. Batniji agreed: “The Nakba is not a sequence of history that starts at one point and finishes. The Nakba continues, including by making it impossible for people to move freely to and from Palestine and between the West Bank and Gaza.”
Two boys were killed by Israeli live fire at this year’s Nakba protests in Ramallah. Their photographs are now plastered on walls around Ramallah. Soon, the elements will wear their faces away or they will be plastered over by new martyr posters. Sadly, Taysir Batniji is not here to photograph their photographs, to honor in art the lives of these boys who gained notoriety only in death.
But like most Palestinian art, Batniji draws not only on metaphors of death and disappearance, but also on metaphors of resistance. Batniji’s photos of The Wall entered Ramallah though Batniji himself could not. He said: “Although I cannot physically attend the exhibition, my work is there and it’s a way to break the siege that’s imposed on Palestinians and push back against the repression of communication in the space.
The exhibit runs through June 20 at the French-German Cultural Center.
I have duplicated this comment next to the post to which it refers and have responded there. -Nora
Hi,
I wanted to comment not on this post but on an article of yours I read on mondoweiss website about the light rail in Jerusalem. I didn’t want to register to that site but I did want to comment on it.
First, I don’t think that you distinguish between Arab and Ottoman buildings. It was the Ottomans who ruled Palestine for 400 years, not the Arabs. And there are many buildings from the Ottoman era in the route of the light rail – like on Jaffa road, and they do have this oriental style that you probably mix with Arab style.
The parts of west Jerusalem where the train passes were never places that Arabs lived in Jerusalem.
Secondly, your whole amazment and bewilderment about the fact that Arab and Jews both use the light rail is what amazed me. You seem to be totally out of touch with the way Arabs and Jews live in Jerusalem.
Maybe you haven’t heard but in the last 2 years or, the Arabs in east Jerusalem have made the previously Jewish/Zionists parts of town their daily hangout places.
Haven’t you been to Mamilla, Malha, Hadar malls?
Haven’t you been to hospitals or clinics in Jerusalem?
Haven’t you been to coffee shops in Jaffa street, Ben Yehuda?
Haven’t you been to parks and gardens in west Jerusalem?
Haven’t you been to cultural events like the light festival?
Didn’t you know that all the Israeli universities and colleges in Jerusalem are filled with Arabs students from east Jerusalem?
Didn’t you know that most Egged bus drivers, taxi drivers, many light rail drivers and inspectors and a whole wide range of other occupations in Jerusalem are manned by Arabs from east Jerusalem?
I really don’t know in what kind of secluded place you live in Jerusalem not to know all that.
The Arabs are totally floading west Jerusalem on a daily basis and mingle with the Jewish population everywhere.
While it’s dangerous for Jews to enter Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem, the Arabs are visiting the Jewish areas in western Jerusalem by thousands every day.
So I really couldn’t figure out what the hell you were writing about – this amazement of seeing Arabs and Jews on the light rail.
A few thingas that you didn’t hear from the people you talked to:
1. In the early first days of the light rail operation a female Israeli soldier was stabbed by an Arab youth on the train.
2. Arabs sometimes stone the train as it passes through Arab neighborhoods and some of the windows in the train are cracked because of that.
3. Most Jews don’t like the fact that the Arabs are coming in masses to their areas, hang out in their coffee shops, malls, clinics and hospitals, use their public transportation etc.
Just a few days ago an young Arab man shouted hysterically and almost stabbed to death an old Jewish man who asked him to take his feet of the sit in an Egged bus.
An Arab bus driver shouted rudely at an old Jewish passanger who gave him a 50 shekel note and he didn’t have change.
A Jewish egged bus driver told me that the Arab drivers have totally ruined the new Egged buses with their violent way of driving as many passenger feel – they drive too fast and in a more reckless way than Jews bus driver.
Another time I saw a young Arab man jumping on the roof of a new bus stop in west Jerusalem, almost breaking it after he threw the burning cigarette he was smoking to the flowes near by.
Most Jews think that the Arab population is more violent, less considerate of the environment, hostile and really basically taking advantage of Israel.
It amazes you to see Atrabs using the light rail? Why? were they ever shy at taking advange of everything they could get from Israel?
The light rail and the fact that the Arabs now flood west Jerusalem on a daily basis made even the most right wing Israelis want to divide the city and separate ourselves from the Arab population which seem to really love to hang out with us everywhere. I really don’t understand your amazement. What I think is that you, being new to the area just don’t know how the Arabs live in Israel and in Jerusalem.
They WANT to be part of us. They want everything Israel has and gives them. It’s us who don’t want them. I do wish the Palestinian authority and fuure state will provide them with stipends, education, public transportation etc etc. They are not part of Israel and we should separare ourselves from them (you) before they’ll make us like them. They can only take our society and country backward.
I really like your new format. I hope this will replace all the “go-to” lines which tend to keep me at a distance. I like this more direct/selective approach.
We are bombarded with bleak news from Palestine these days!
The news is bleak, Janet, but don’t despair. I’ll try to cover some hopeful news soon — and there is a lot of it. And I’m glad it works for you to link you from the newsletter to the original news source rather than to my website. I actually made that change for you, though it’s counterintuitive (experts say I am supposed to drive readers to my site in order to increase its ranking). I will continue to try to respond to suggestions and thank you so much for your feedback.