From my journal and letters, my dispatches from the field, as I photograph internally displaced refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, plus their ancestral lands.
September 12, 2018, Wednesday, Bethlehem
Maybe for this writing, only notes, because I meet the team in 1 hour for breakfast and then hurry off to our first AVP (Alternatives to Violence Project) training. Luckily my equipment is ready: I’d prepped it for Mousa [arranger and translator] and then didn’t use it because he was late and I’d left. And yesterday I used the audio recorder in the field for the first time with our meeting with Ali Abu Awwad and his organization Taghyeer south of Bethlehem.
- Man, 90 yrs old, 22 when fled
- From village of Ellar/’Illar/Allar southwest of Jerusalem
- Lives in one room, shares kitchen, family in same building, wife dead
- No photos of family because they won’t care for him (did I hear that correctly?)
- Went back multiple times for food, equipment, etc, at night avoided streets, never caught
- Once shot at, hit in the shoe, uninjured (shows foot)
- Active politically, demos etc
- Theme of key
- Had money, could rent, but first space was offered free
- Both he and wife came to Bethlehem first because of proximity to village
- Vibrant way of speaking, which I tell him I notice
- Often interviewed because of his age
- Compliment him on his memory
- Thinks about village every day
- It is now Israeli and built up
- Wishes to return with me, possible because he’s old and won’t be stopped (another virtue of age)
- Mousa would not be able to go (too young and without a permit)
- Village near Bethlehem?
- Feel project has finally, fitfully begun, actual people and stories
- Whether to video or photograph?
- How use narration, get it translated?
- Not particularly pleased with my first photos
- Return to photograph full front, into camera, as a starter and finisher
- Odd juxtaposition of my project and Taghyeer (Ali Abu Awwad’s resistance organization using nonviolence)
- Mousa and I work reasonably well together, given the language and cultural differences
- Finally know my way between Aida refugee camp where I photograph and Casa Nova guest house on Manger Sq where I reside with the AVP team—what a contrast!
LINKS
- Allar, near Jerusalem (the village)
- “I spoke to Palestinians who still hold the keys to homes they fled decades ago – many are still determined to return” (Robert Fisk, June 2018)
- For first time in 70 years, Palestinians return to their villages (Shatha Hammad, 2015)
- Nakba: The man reconstructing Palestine’s lost villages (Vacy Vlazna, 2016)
TO BE CONTINUED
Skip Schiel & Teeksa Photography 
I feel like you are sharing the ordinary details of travel, communication, challenges, thanks!
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