IN THIS LAND: ISRAEL IN FRAGMENTS // Zed Nelson
Summary: ‘In This Land’ is a conceptual response to photographing Israel, borne from the challenges and frustrations of attempting to understand and reflect on a conflict that is so deeply rooted in a struggle for possession and occupation of land.
On my first trip to Israel, I travelled the complete land and sea border of the country, exploring the notion that Israel is not only a nation defined by its borders (surrounded by enemies, both perceived and real), but also a population living with, and seemingly trapped by, a collective siege mentality. (see feature: Frontier Israel)
On this, my second trip, I aim to reflect on Israel’s fiercely unwavering beliefs that its identity is embedded in the very fabric of the land, with its past, present and future inextricably linked to the rocky ground underfoot.
Photographically confounded by the over-familiarity of images of stone-throwing Palestinian youths in headscarves, and militant gun-wielding Israeli settlers, the images (photographed with a large-format view camera, in the intense light of Israel) depict stones gathered from places invested with historical, social, religious or military importance.
Under such close scrutiny these seemingly benign objects seem to reveal the scars of history etched into them, bringing to mind past triumphs and tragedies, current conflict, and dreams of the future. The fact that stones have been employed throughout the Palestinian intifada resistance as both a practical and symbolic means of attack and resistance to the Israeli military adds a second layer of resonance to these images.
Israel has fought for the land it inhabits as if it were sacred. And to most Israelis, acutely focused on 2,000 years of Jewish history, it is exactly that. Of course to Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, locked into a bitter conflict over territory and nationhood, every inch of ground is equally important.
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Megiddo (Armageddon). Northern Israel
Megiddo, also known as Armageddon – is the site prophesised in the Bible as being the location of a mighty battle that will bring the world as we know it to an end. St John predicted Megiddo would host the last great battle on earth (Revelation 16:16).
Megiddo has been the scene of important and bloody battles throughout the ages, and historians believe that more battles have been fought at this location than anywhere else on earth. More recently the British army also fought here in WWI, and Jewish and Arab forces also fought here during the 1948 war.
Megiddo is today a very popular attraction for tourists and doomsday watchers. |
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Rosh Hanikra. Israel-Lebanon border. Former battleground in conflict between Israel and Lebanon. In ancient times, Rosh Hanikra was on the trade route between the northern civilizations in Lebanon and Syria, and southern ones in Palestine, Egypt and North Africa. It has been considered the gateway in and out of Palestine since ancient times. In 333 Alexander the Great entered the Land of Israel through Rosh Hanikra, and is believed to have led his Greek army through a tunnel his forces dug in the cliffs. A Jewish kibbutz was established here in 1949 by demobilised Palmach members - an elite underground army of Jewish settlers - and members of Zionist youth movements and young Holocaust survivors. The British army invaded Lebanon via this route during the two world wars, as did Israeli forces in the late 70's and early 80s. During World War II, the British dug a tunnel for the railway running between Haifa and Beirut to facilitate the movement of supplies from Egypt to the north. When the British withdrew in 1948, Israeli forces took over Rosh Hanikra and the Palmach blew up the railway bridges to prevent the Lebanese army from invading using those routes when the War of Independence began.
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Masada. Judean Desert, close to Israel-Jordan border. Masada, (‘stronghold’) - is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South of Israel on top of an isolated rock plateau. After the First Jewish-Roman War, a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to the legendary mass suicide of the Jewish Sicarii rebels, who preferred death to surrender. Masada figures prominently in the Israeli psyche. Shorthand for describing an attitude - ‘they will never take us alive’. The term ‘Masada complex’ is part of modern-day Israeli parlance. The story of the siege that took place here has been adopted as a symbol for the modern Jewish state. Israeli school children visit the site as part of their curriculum and some Israel Defence Forces (IDF) units hold their swearing-in ceremonies here. In AD 66, the Jews rose up against the Romans in what is known as the First Revolt. A group called the Zealots captured Masada, which became a sanctuary for fleeing Jews. After four years the uprising was suppressed by the Romans, who then turned their attention to the mountain-top stronghold. The sole account of what happened next comes from the chronicles of Flavius Josephus, a 1st-century historian known for his colourful story telling. Josephus wrote that the Romans set up 8,000 men around the base of the mountain. Inside the walls, the defenders of Masada numbered 967 men, women and children with enough food and water to last them for months. As the Romans prepared to breach the fortress, the Zealots, according to Josephus, set fire to their homes and possessions to prevent them falling into Roman hands. Then 10 men were chosen by lots and given the task of killing all of the others. Nine of the 10 were then executed by their companion before he finally killed himself. When the Romans broke through they found only two women and five children alive. The mass suicide of Masada marked the end of the Jewish presence in Palestine.
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King Abdullah Bridge, Palestine-Jordan border, Palestinian West Bank. The site was a battle ground in the conflict between Israel and Jordan. During the Six-Day War, on 7 July 1967 the bridge was destroyed by the Harel Brigade of the Israeli Defence force (IDF). The bridge is close to the biblical village of Bethabara, where it is believed that John the Baptist was baptized in the river Jordan. The area is also known as Qasr el Yahud, believed to be the location where Joshua led the Israelites into the promised land.
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Jayyous, a militant Palestinian town in the West Bank. Site of regular intifada protest. Jayyous was the first village to mount a non-violent campaign - with support from some Israeli and international groups - against the construction of the Israeli ‘separation wall’ and the expansion of Jewish settlements on its land. In the 19th century and early 20th century the village was ruled by the largest Palestinian family, the Al-Jayyousi family. When the construction of the wall began, farmers expected it would follow the route of the ‘Green Line’, Israel's pre-1967 border with the West Bank. When locals learned that the wall would be built almost four miles east of the Green Line, encroaching into Palestinian territory, and in places 90 feet from resident’s homes, hundreds turned out to protest. 75 percent of the village's farmland is cut off by the wall. In order to reach their cultivated land the farmers must use one of two security gates: Gate Number 943 and Gate Number 979. Finding the gates often closed, farmers began staging regular protests at the barriers. From 2007 the gates have been opened for approximately one hour each morning, afternoon and evening.
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Tel Aviv beach. Tel Aviv was begun by small groups of Jews who wished to migrate from the cramped confines of long-established, predominantly Arab town of Jaffa. Initially, they settled in two small communities among the dunes on the sandy coastal plain just north of the Arab town. Soon after, they were joined by another 60 families, led by Meir Dizengoff, an ambitious figure who had plans to create a major Jewish town. Taking as a model the English garden city, several town planners were invited to submit schemes for the new town. Progress was briefly halted when the Turks broke up the settlement and expelled the Jews from the area, but with the British victory in WWI, development was permitted to continue. Arab riots in Jaffa in 1921 sent many Jews fleeing for Tel Aviv, swelling the numbers from a founding 550 people living in 65 homes to 40,000 inhabitants. The town grew quickly to accommodate the newcomers and immigrants kept coming. The 1930s saw waves of Jewish arrivals from overseas, many fleeing the threat of Nazi Germany. Early restrictions on the height of buildings were removed, and skyscraper development began in earnest in the 1980s, and with it came a hi-tech boom. Investment was hampered in the 1990s by a wave a Palestinian suicide bomb attacks that targeted buses, cafés and nightclubs. The second intifada (2001–05) left Tel Aviv virtually devoid of foreign visitors. But today, the cafés and beaches are full, and Tel Aviv is considered Irael’s most liberal city.
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Netafim Border Crossing. Israel-Egypt border. Operation Uvda was the last operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces during the Arab-Israeli ‘5 Day War’, from March 5 to March 10, 1949. The objective was to capture the southern Negev desert, which was claimed by the Kingdom of Jordan to be under Jordanian control. The southern Negev was designated to be part of the Jewish State in the 1947 UN Partition Plan. The name 'uvda' is Hebrew for 'fact', referring to the operations objective to establish de facto Israeli sovereignty over the territory. In the last day of Operation Uvda, the Negev Brigade captured the abandoned position of the Jordanian Legion in Ras al-Naqb, exactly where the border crossing Netafim is located today.
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Atlit detention camp for illegal immigrants. British Internment Camp for illegal immigrants to Palestine. Between 1934 and 1948, 141 ships carrying 121,000 unauthorized and ‘illegal’ Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine (now Israel). The British Mandate Authority established the detention camp for illegal immigrants in Atlit in 1939. The camp was active until 1948. During these years tens of thousands of newly arrived immigrants were contained within the fences, before being allowed to settle in Israel. The authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine limited the number of Immigration Permits considerably below the number of people requesting the right to immigrate. Requests were particularly high after Hitler rose to power in Germany. The Atlit Detention Camp became a symbol of the struggle for immigration to Palestine, and attempts to circumvent the British policy and enter the country without permit from the British authorities. Later, after the establishment of the state of Israel, the camp continued to serve as one of the absorption sites for the massive numbers of immigrants arriving in Israel. |
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Cave of Bar Yochai in Peqi'in. Historical site. Peqi'in evokes strong feelings in religious and secular Jews because it is the only place in the Holy Land that is believed to have had continuous Jewish settlement from the days of the Second Temple, and because the noted scholar, Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, is believed to have lived here for many years. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, was a famous rabbi who lived in the era of the Tannaim (scholars of the Mishnah) in the area of what is today Israel during the Roman period, after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. He was an eminent disciple of Rabbi Akiva, one of Israels’ legendary sages, and is attributed by many with the authorship of the Zohar ("The Brightness"), the chief work of modern-day Jewish mysticism. According to the Talmud, the Jewish collection of doctrines and laws written before the 8th Century, A.D., Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was forced to go into hiding with his son for thirteen years, after criticizing the Roman government. They sheltered in a cave in nearby Peki'in where a traditional fable states that next to the mouth of the cave a carob tree sprang up and a spring of fresh water gushed forth. Provided against hunger and thirst they cast off their clothing except during prayers to keep them from wearing out, embedded themselves in the sand up to their necks, and studied the Torah all day long for the passing years.
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Qalqilya Checkpoint. Israeli Defence Force (IDF) checkpoint at entry point in the ‘separation wall’ diving Israel and Palestinian West Bank town of Qalqilya.
Qalqilya is surrounded on all four sides by Israel’s ‘separation wall’ – an 8 metre high concrete and barbed wire fence which separates many locals from their farmland and neighbours. There is a high concentration of illegal Israeli settlements around Qalqilya, located on Palestinian land. According to Israel, the wall built to encircle the Palestinian town is designed to ‘protect’ Israeli’s from attack. The creation of the wall and the Jewish settlements are regarded by critics of Jewish policy as a process oppression and colonisation, encroaching into Palestinian territory.
Thousands of Palestinian refugees took refuge in Qalqilya during the 1948 Palestinian exodus prior to and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. After the conquest of Qalqilya in the ‘Six Day War’, the residents were driven out and buildings demolished. Moshe Dayan wrote in his memoirs that the destruction of Qalilya was not a result of battles but rather was a "punishment" that was meant to "chase away the inhabitants". Eventually, the population was allowed to return and the cost of reconstructing the damaged houses was financed by the military authorities. Following the Oslo Accords, the town came under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. In 2003, the vast Israeli West Bank Barrier (‘separation wall’) was built, encircling the town and separating it from agricultural lands on the other side of the wall, infuriating the local population. In March 2008, Israeli soldiers arrested Omar Jabar, in the Tulkarem region, the Hamas bomber who masterminded the 2002 Netanya suicide attack in which 30 Israelis were killed and 143 wounded during a Passover dinner celebration.
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Gaza checkpoint. Israel-Gaza border.
Israel Defence Force (IDF) checkpoint at ‘separation wall’ diving Israel and Gaza Strip. The Gaza strip occupies a small stretch of land just 45km long and less than 10km wide. According to the United Nations Development Programme the area is experiencing a period of ‘de-development’. Unemployment stands at 38% whilst 78% of the population lives below the poverty line existing on less that US$2 per day. In one of the most densely packed camps, Jabalia, almost 107,000 people live in an area of less than 2 sq km. Over 30% of Gaza’s adults (as well as a high number of children) are reported to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. In August 2005, former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s controversial disengagement plan ordered the removal from Gaza of 8,000 Jewish Israeli settlers living in 21 settlements. Following the relocation, rocket attacks were launched from Gaza into Israel. The Israeli army retaliated by launching an artillery bombardment of Gaza. From September 2005 (when the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) withdrew from Gaza) until May 2007, Israel fired more than 14,600 artillery shells into the Gaza Strip, killing 59 Palestinians and injuring 270. Human Rights Watch's investigations indicate that the fatalities were primarily civilians.
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Links
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