Palestinians: Living Through The Images

By Ravichandran D.J Paul ISTANBUL, July 18 (Bernama) -- With her lovely smile, Wesal Zaidan, probably in her late twenties, greets visitors to the Mobile Atelier Society's booth where paintings depicting people adorned the walls. The paintings on paper were engaging with some standing out from the rest, including the "beautiful woman", "the tailor" and even an impressive replica of "Mona Lisa". Wesal, a Palestinian residing in Jordan, says Palestinians want to tell the world through the images that they are carrying on with life despite the hardships and the Apartheid like treatment that they have to endure daily. Palestinians probably had enough of talking and listening to the international community over their plight. They have concedeed that the numerous international forums, the United Nations and the Arab League have let them down. They still live under the oppresive Israeli regime and they get displaced from their homes as the Jewish state encroaches further into Palestinian territory. The images may appear mundane to some but they serve as a powerful reminder that Palestinians's too are human and their rights must be respected. GETTING THE MESSAGE ACROSS The paintings were exhibited at the sidelines of the recent Second Palestine International Forum for Media and Communication (Tawasol 2) held in Istanbul, Turkey. There were a number of other exhibitors as well and interestingly almost all capitalised on visual images in telling the Palestinian story to the world or in connecting with the Palestininan Diaspora. The "beautiful woman" in white hijab was painted by Wesal herself. She has her own grief to share like the thousands of Palestinians in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Wesal's brother has been imprisoned by the Israelis and she is worried over his fate. Wesal is not alone, many of the forum attendees had their own agony to share. For most, words are not enough to describe the ordeal Palestinians have been going through after losing much of their land to Israel. For those who rise against the Israel occupation, they will be dealt harshly by the Israel regime. For those Palestinian youths who just want to get on with life there is not much employment or education opportunities. Most Palestinians are segregated from the Israelis by walls or armed security. IMAGES KEEP THE DIAPORA CONNECTED Like Mobile Atelier Society, Hussein Zeid's Palestine Social Global booth too is pasted with printed images of the information shared by Palestinians through the social media platform. Palestine Social Global uses both Facebook and Twitter, to share the happenings concerning Palestinians in Israel, West Bank and Gaza. A glance at Palestine Social Global shows images of how Palestinians are getting on with life, celebrating Ramadan and Eid, and the daily confrontation with Israel security forces including the recent attack at the Al Aqsa Mosque. The images tell the how the Palestinians are going about with their routines, even praying or moving about, under constraints. In a nutshell, the images tell of the Palestinians' tenacity and resilience in face of adversity. With 58,000 followers in Twitter and Facebook respectively, Hussein said since its establishment in 2012 more than 1 million visual images have been shared in telling the Palestinian story. The platform is manned by 7-8 volunteers and the followers are mostly from the tech savy younger generation Palestinians scattered across the Arab region and the rest of the world. Hussein, a Palestinian from Safed now residing in Lebanon, said the social media platform is most effective in sharing the current developments concerning the community in Israel, West Bank and the Occupied Territories. Often, the Twitter handle and FaceBook walls are blocked by Israel but there is nothing to stop the Palestinians from sharing their stories, visuals and their dreams of returning to Palestine. SHOWING THE PALESTINIANS TO THE WORLD In the booth opposite Hussien's, monochrome images of Palestine during different periods of time greeted visitors. They were the images captured by Joss Dray on Palestinian culture, traditions and tribulations with her camera. Dray, born in Morroco and grew up in France, has literally recorded the Palestinian history through her lense since she first stepped into the country with her friends in 1987. Instead of just snapping images of the skirmishes between the Israelis and Palestinians, she went on to show the world the other side of Palestinians. For Dray, the Palestinians are like the rest of us with their own society, culture and country. For Dray, to talk about the legitimacy of the Palestinians one has to talk about the people beforehand. "I feel they have a legitimacy to stay here in Palestine," said Dray adding that the society's 'intifada' (uprising) is to defend their culture and land. She in fact started capturing spellbinding images through her lense during the Vietnam War. Dray has thousands of images on Palestine and its people in her archives and she will be sharing at least 5,000 of them with the Palestine museum that will be ready soon. MORE COMPELLING IMAGES On the booth behind Dray's, a few monochrome images were on the walls and there was a LCD screen displaying the folders containing the more powerful images of the Palestinians' fate from photo journalists Ryuichi Hirokawa. In fact Hirokawa's images are more compelling in telling not only the Palestine story but the Palestinian tragedy as well. Hirokawa was fascinated with the history and the Palestinians after he discovered the remnants of a Palestinian settlement that once stood near a kibbutz (farm) when he was in Israel from 1967-1970. Over the next three decades he traveled across much of Palestine tracing the settlements and learning the plight of the Palestinians since the creation of Israel in 1948. He documented what he saw through his lense and in his documentary entitled NAKBA Palestine 1948. However, his most defining images of the sad fate of the Palestinians came from Lebanon in 1982. Hirokawa was among the first to enter the Sabra neighbourhood and Shatila refugee camp where reports say up to 3,000 Palestinians were massacared. "I was waiting outside the Sabra refugee camp. There were other reporters too. But we were afraid to enter as the Israeli soldiers were there. Though I feared for my safety, I decided to enter alone into one of the alleys only to find the path blocked by an Israeli tank after some distance. I rushed out and went into another alley and that was when I found at least 50 bloodied bodies," said Hirokawa to Bernama when met at the Palestine Media Forum. Hirokawa has always been associated with the Palestinian cause and thus it is not surprising that he had established the Japanese Committee for the Children of Palestine that help orphans and provide pre-school education. The world too has seen the fate of Palestinians through the images relayed by the media since 1948. However, will the world one day see the images of Palestinians living in a soverign Palestine land, like how it was before 1948? --BERNAMA