Neighbours (2008)

Introduction to the publication

This publication comprises an interesting file of black and white photographs from the area of Palestine and Israel, which reflect the inconsistent reality in the everyday life of common people in an area of conflict. These photos were taken in the year 2008 in Jerusalem, Ashdod, Bethlehem and Hebron, which are old biblical towns that symbolize the unity of all three monotheistic religions, which have mutual prophets and respect their various, modified, Ten Commandments. In Islam, they are called the people of the (holy) book, i.e. the Bible, the Tora and the Koran, which have to use the protection of Muslim rulers. They share a common God, called Allah, by both Palestinian Muslims and Christians. The Arabian greeting as-salamu alajkum or the Hebrew equivalent šalom alechem (uvracha) mean the same – peace be with you. They represent the yearning of the ancestors of the both Semitic nations for peace, stability and order. This enumeration of the conditions for ideal co-existence of the global religions in the given locality has not been, for many reasons, asserted.

Jana Hunter has caught the calm atmosphere of everyday religious observance of individual confessions; in Jewish, Christian and Muslim sanctuaries. This idyll is disturbed by dramatic pictures which have the character of political metaphors. In these photographs we can see the symbols of Israeli colonization, barbed wire, the wall of separation and the omnipresent checkpoints of the Israel army. The Israelis see these symbols as a legitimate tool to reinforce their safety, but for the Palestinians they are proof of their deepening ghettoisation and the creation of a specific system of non co-existence, in the spirit of apartheid. A European may see in this as reminiscent of the infamous Berlin wall which, this time, however, separating two ethnicities and confessions. This feeling is enforced by ever-present graffiti with pacifist and revolutionary themes. Violence is everywhere. Hebron is the site of the final resting place of Abraham, forefather of the Christians, Muslims and Jews. However, in this very city year in 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a man blinded by hatred, murdered dozens of Muslims at prayer in their sanctuary, taking them for a mere vermin. Muslims committed the same crime when in the year 1929 they killed 67 Jews, suspicious of a plan to assault their sanctuary. Conflict did not evade the Christian sanctuaries in Jerusalem. During an attack by the Israel army in 2002, a group of armed Palestinian men barricaded themselves in the Temple of the Birth of the Lord, and only at the last moment was this important Christian relic, reminiscent of the birth of Jesus Christ, saved.                                                              

Most of the photographs were taken in Jerusalem, one of the most holy places for all three religions. Its Arabic name Al-Quds (Holy) is proof of this. The holiness of Jerusalem was transferred by confessions on the whole mandate of Palestine, claimed to be the Holy Land. In July 1967 the Israel army occupied Eastern Jerusalem, belonging to Jordan at that time, and in the year 1980 the Israel government made the unified Jerusalem the capital of Israel. This step wasn’t accepted at the global- judicial level and every change in this direction was proclaimed illegal under international law. In the year 2002 the Arabic nations declared eastern Jerusalem to be the capital of the future state of Palestine and declared this a condition to the normalization of relations with the Israelis. This decision was defended by the UN Security Council resolution N° 224, which included eastern Jerusalem in the occupied Arabic territory. The question of the sovereignty of eastern Jerusalem and the problem of the return of Palestinian refugees became the largest obstacles to peace in the Middle-East. Jerusalem is still not a place of peace; in despite of its original Hebrew name Jerušalajim. 

The neuralgic point for potential conflict is Temple Mountain and below there are the ruins of the second Jewish Temple called the Wailing Wall. Noble sanctuary, Rock Dome and the Mosque al-Aksá are also found on the Temple Mountain. For Muslims, the Rock Dome symbolizes the passing of the prophet Muhammad, and the Jews see it as the place where Abraham sacrificed his son Isaac. The Arc of the Covenant and the altar with Menorah was hidden here. Since the founding of Israel, conflicts between Jews and Muslims were ever present. Most recently the provocative visit by the Prime Minister A. Saron to the Temple Mountain lit the spark that started the second Palestinian intifada in the year 2000.  Nowadays, the Israel government forbids Jews from praying in the building of the Temple Mountain to prevent further acts of emotion and aggression.

The photographs of the authoress do not focus on the dynamics of the conflict which touches the life of local population, regardless of their religion. She seeks harmony between the confessors of the Abraham religions that existed here in the past, for example in the times of the Osman millets-religion communities. Cultural and religious differences then accepted as the norm.

In conclusion I ask: What is the chance of achieving peace and stability in such a hot temperate environment? Solving the Palestine question and the conflict in the Middle-East must be sought in International Law. The urge for such development must also by ignited by a change of thinking. Muslims are expected to relieve their messiah of the often violently promoted religious universalism, and Jews that they’ll pass their humanistic thinking in the framework of God into their dealings with other nations, confessions and cultures. A way out is through the peaceful acceptance of cultural differences and the renunciation of violence as a tool to solve political disputes. Arabians and Israeli, Jews and Muslims can even find support in their religion. Even King David was not able to build a temple because he was tainted by war. A Zachariah prophecy is read at every Chanukah, a Jewish holiday: Not by the strength of men, not by power will it happen, but through my Spirit, said the Lord to the people. Similarly, Muslims reject the aggression of war, violence against civilians and they appeal to moderation and restraint. In the fifth sura of the Koran it is stated that he who kills a man is to be judged as if he has killed the mankind. A prominent religionist Hans Küng does not only talk about the need for religious dialogue, but also reminds us of the urgent need to accept global and ethic standards, which will be respected not only by believers but also by atheists. A voluntary reception of an ethos of peace in relationships is to be seen as a key step in the right direction towards the solution of the Palestinian question in the region, where all forms of intimidation, political initiatives and economic incentives have failed.

PhDr. Jaroslav Bures

Research worker Institute of International Relations

Representative of Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Culture