The Palestinian refugee camps…why do they strive to annihilate them? 1982

Palestinian attempts to create a historical visual narrative have been challenged, contested and destroyed systematically. Battles of self-representation are constantly fought between a Zionist narrative that denies the sheer existence of Palestinian people, thus confiscates, hides and deletes evidence on Palestinian history, and a Palestinian “archive fever” that collects and exposes nationalistic visual materials reversing the Zionist narrative. The images used here are exhibited virtually by The Palestine Poster Project Archives– particularly The Liberation Graphics Collection of Palestine Posters- (Nominated to UNESCO’s memory of the world program 2016-2017).

“We are lost and trying to hold on to simplistic nationalistic narrative, in the pursuit of this nationalism we have lost a lot subtilities and are actually losing things in the past. It is a stab in the back to all the work we had before in the 60’s and 70’s“. Explained Shuruq Harb, a Palestinian visual artist who studied iconography in Palestinian paintings about the features of prevailing Palestinian visual narrative which she finds, nationalistic and excluds diverse and multiple narratives once embraced in the 60’s and 70’s.

According to Harb, combating the Zionist narrative requires embracing the diversity of the Palestinian condition, as in including the Bedouin, refugee, Shia, Druzes as well as the Christian and Jewish. The idea of including religious and cultural diversity has been celebrated often, a recent restoration of Urgent Call of Palestine a film on how the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) viewed their purpose, directed by Ismail Shammout, (1973). The call was to liberate Palestinians, but also Jews from Zionism.

Glimpses of Self-representation in Exile

The Palestine Liberation Movement was born in 1964, under circumstances of exile. At that time, the Palestinian cause was an integral part of the broader anti-colonial movements and struggles against racism, imperialism and colonialism. For the first time, Palestinian representations were entering the political realm and thus creating an extensive visual narration from a Palestinian perspective. The PLO was particularly invested in producing and exhibiting visual arts including photography, paintings, posters and graphics. In addition to collecting various resources, produced about Palestine, academic research, published by Palestinian Research Center, documentary and film collections, still photographs, and art productions that served as the infrastructure of the Palestine Museum in exile.

Refugee child by UNRWA in 1978.

Refugee children during al-Karamah ninth Anniversary by Fatah in 1977.

Most importantly, the camera became a tool in the Palestinian struggle, and the Palestinian image transformed, from a victim, presented and taken mainly by others into fida’i (a spirited freedom fighter), responsible for his own fate and aspiring to realize justice, equality and freedom.

The image of fida’i freedom fighter, who was anonymous, courageous, disguised in Kufiya, who offers his/her life to defend and attack enemy lines, was particularly celebrated following al-Karamah, (Dignity Battle) in March 1968, in which Palestinian fighters fought fearlessly against the Israeli forces for more than 19 hours and won. Hani Jawharieh – a Palestinian photographer and film-maker, a founder member of Palestinian cinema initiative, started capturing portraits of Palestinians including women, posturing self-determination and fighting side by side to men.

At least, eighteen still photographs were magnified and reproduced into posters, then vastly distributed in refugee camps but also around the world. Jawharieh explained the importance of self-representation in his article (The Early Beginnings of the Palestine Cinema Institution); “There was an increasing need for photos from a Palestinian viewpoint as the Palestinian revolution became the target of fierce international media reports”.

Then Hani Jawharieh along with Mustafa Abu Ali and Sulafa Jadallah founded a photography department, – (it elaborated later (1986) into Palestinian Film Unit) which supplied international press agencies, as well as Palestinian journals, publications and the Media Revolution Information Office with abundant choices of still photographs, mainly for Palestinians life in refugee camps and fightersactivities in South of Lebanon.

Although Jawharieh was killed in an Israeli attack (1976) while filming in the Aintoura Mountains of Lebanon, his legacy stayed with preceding photographers, confirmed Khaleel Sadeh, a Palestinian photographer, who filmed during mid-70s in Lebanon. Sadeh remembered other courageous photographers who were killed or wounded during filming like Mutee’ Ibrahim, and Abdel-Hafiz Asmar. He explained:

‘We believed in the revolution, and we worked day and night, 24 hours. Each shift had around six photographers, the photography unit was always busy, people were either developing films, or going to shoot films. What was unique, is the freedom we enjoyed in determining subjects of the photographs,’

Sadeh nostalgically recalled the cameras they used; Nikon and Canon for still photographs and a REFLEXL Bolex 16mm camera for film. There were often collaborations with Iraqi and Italian professional teams. The quantities of images, filmed and developed on daily basis, were approximately five to ten films. Most of the photographs were developed in black at and white however “important ones” were developed in colours in a private Lebanese studio.

Palestinian treasure gathering dust

Currently, Israel “Defense Forces” and “Defense Ministry“ reserve piles and stacks of rare Palestinian visual materials, most of this archive was presumed lost or/and destroyed. But as it turns out, it was looted (1982) during the Israeli invasion of the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Beirut, according to Dr. Rona Sela, an Israeli curator and researcher of visual history, who have been rigorously researching and exposing Israeli mechanisms of concealing and erasing Palestinian visual materials to suit the Zionist narration. Throughout twenty years, she was able to access some of the classified materials, managed by the military- and after documenting and recording testimonies of Israeli soldiers who actually did the confiscation in her documentary; Looted and Hidden – Palestinian Archives in Israel, the film exposed some of the lost treasures, Israel looted throughout decades and most importantly defending the return of this material to its owners. She explained:

” Israel controls the Palestinian history, culture and memory. When I was at the archive at the Israeli defence, I saw several digital copies at first. It took more than ten years to get permission…. look at few dozens of photos that were labelled and catalogued as PLO archive. I started looking at the visual material and at first, I had no clue, what the material was and from where it was taken…after a long journey of research, I saw historical material, archived, photographs from late 60- to early 80s, It has al-Karamah fight and also the life of refugee camps. So, there are three categories before 48, the resistance military and daily life of Palestinians in refugee camps”.

The Israeli confiscation of entire collections of visual repertoires that documented historical scenes from a Palestinian perspective- memory in exile. This historically and culturally rare and unique restricted archive, eliminate significant elements and chapters from the Palestinian memory; the complexity of the Palestinian revolution in exile as well as Palestinians refugees. While it is impossible today to reduce the French or American revolutions to questions of terrorism, instead they are discussed from diverse angles, studied as transformative and carried out by people who have actual names and stories to tell.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Informed Comment.

“At first when Adel (my son) got arrested, I was a wreck, thinking about his future, school and education, he loves to play football and reading, he was very good at school. The idea that he is losing precious childhood time- breaks my heart. but then I need to be strong and stand on my feet for my son’s sake.”

So explained Amani Ajaj, 39 years old, an Arabic teacher at Hizma’s elementary school and the mother of Adel Alkhatib (16 years old).

Adel was arrested last May, 2018, for throwing stones at an Israeli Jeep and a settlers’ car. His family is waiting the official prosecution which has been postponed, for the thirteenth time, this time until the 26^th of January.

Adel Alkhatib

Amani explains:

“Our location exposes children to dangerous confrontation with settlers and the Israeli army. Adel’s friend lost his eye with a bullet, his brother’s friend got killed, and he was exposed to a sound bomb that exploded in his face when he was 13 years old.”

The maltreatment of children has a continuous destructive impact on the mental health status of those children but also their families.

Ayed Abu Qtaish, Director of the Accountability Program of the International Defense for Children, which takes legal advocacy for Adel and other children in the West bank, commented that “it is very common with children prisoners, to keep delaying the official indictment by military courts- what aggravates things further for those children is the remand in custody until the end of the proceeding and a conviction rate of 97 percent.”

For the past eight months, Adel has been in prison but he is not serving a prison sentence yet. He is, as many other children prisoners are, in stressful and Isolated locations like Hizma. The village is only seven kilometres away from Jerusalem’s old city but completely cut off from Jerusalem and West Bank by the apartheid wall in 2005. Families of Hizma struggle with continuous land confiscations that go to enlarge four surrounding Israeli squatter settlements; Neve Yaakov, Pisgat Ze’ev and Geva Binyamin and Almon.

Although precious time is lost from their childhood, Amani like other mothers and children prisoners try to catch any spark of hope for her son’s future and education.

She continues:

“I will continue to bring books for the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination. We can bring prisoners two books every other month, but books should not contain any photos for Jerusalem nor the Palestinian flag. So, if you excuse me I need to choose what school books I can take, then I will cover all images. “

Every year, hundreds of Palestinian children are brought before the Israeli penal system on different charges, including throwing stones, not having a permit when in Israel, membership in illegal associations and traffic. As of October, 2018 there were 220 Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons, according to Israel Prison Service (IPS) statistics published by B’Tselem, (an Israeli NGO for Human Rights).

Israel Prison Service (IPS), source B’Tselem

Since 1967, Israel has implemented two distinct legal systems towards Palestinian prisoners, in other words- Palestinians are tried in different courts with different laws for the same “offense.” In Jerusalem and those who hold the Israeli identity card, are prosecuted under civilian and criminal legal system, whereas children in the West Bank are tried in the Israeli military juvenile court.

Mistreatment of child prisoners

Israel’s ill treatment of children prisoners has been repeatedly, addressed, condemned and well-documented by various human rights organizations and watchdogs over the years with the same conclusions; children’s rights are regularly and systemically violated by Israel. Numerous annual reports for 2018 confirm the continuous abuse of children prisoners. The way in which the Israeli system mistreats and even tortures Palestinian detainees has been criticized by Amnesty recent annual report for 2017/2018 which disapproved the violation of international children’s rights laws and having no actual consequence for that. The report pinpoints that “No criminal investigations were opened into more than 1,000 complaints filed since 2001”.

What makes this violation systematic according to Addameer (Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association), is the policies and laws that legitimize and provide a legal loophole for continuing torture against Palestinians suspected of withholding information on “militant operation” particularly Article 1/34 of the Israeli Penal Code of 1972 .

Then there is the case of Shadi Farah.

“I was 12 years old when I first got imprisoned, for something I did not do, it’s unfair and unjust. But I am out now, and I am very happy to be free and be with my family, I missed my mother so much.”

Shadi Farrah, first moments of liberty.

On December the third 2018, Shadi Farah, now 15 years old, a Jerusalemite resident of Kafr Aqeb got out of an Israeli juvenile centre after three years of imprisonment. Shadi, one of the youngest Palestinian prisoners, was arrested with his friend Ahmad Zaatari on December 30, 2015 and prosecuted for an “attempt at stabbing Israelis solders” (again, he was 12 and he denies the charge). The final verdict was handed down on 2016 – a year after his arrest, the additional year went unaccounted for.

Shadi describes his first moments of freedom:

When I first got out, I ran to kiss my mom– I even kissed her feet, this is how much I missed her. Then I went out with my friends to eat Knafeh (a traditional Arab dessert) in Ramallah and visit Yasser Arafat’s grave . . . I want people from the outside- those interested in human rights- to come and see what happens to us inside- No 12-year-old should go through this anywhere . . . the prison experience I had, happened to most of my friends in Jerusalem; I was tortured, spent extended hours with wet clothes, it was winter time- I was extremely cold. I underwent electrical shocks, I was brutally beaten up and abused.”

Shadi clarified that people have no idea what goes on for Palestinian children inside the juvenile centres, which primarily hold Israeli criminals and offenders. Media attention on minor prisoners increased somewhat because of the celebrity of the teenage Ahed al-Tamimi who was sentenced for eight months in military Israeli court for slapping an Israeli soldier.

Thousands gathered in the streets to welcome the freed children, since Palestinian society regards prisoners as heroes. Palestinian officials from the Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and media personnel are present. Getting out of Israeli prisons is cause for a special celebration. Families sing and dance and offer sweets.