A photographic journey through the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict

by Larry Goldbaum

In June 1999, I traveled to the Middle East as part of an interfaith human rights delegation, to assess the current state of the peace process and the impact of the Oslo accords on Israeli-Palestinian relations.

We visited the Palestinian cities of Hebron, Ramallah, and Gaza; Bedouin villages near Beersheva; Israeli-Arab villages in the Galilee; Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza City and the outskirts of Bethlehem; and many other places that most American Jews, and indeed most Israelis, have never seen first-hand. It was a sobering experience.

Our purpose was to learn how conditions had changed as a result of the [first] intifadeh (1987-1993), the Oslo accords (1993), and the subsequent breakdown in the peace process, in order to understand the obstacles to a permanent peace settlement. Many of these sights, like the conflict itself, were painful to see.

As I wrote these lines, at the end of July 2000, the summit meeting between Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak had just ended, after two weeks of non-stop negotiations at Camp David, with no peace settlement in sight and widespread predictions of violence. The so-called “final status” issues—international borders, Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, water rights, and above all, the fate of Jerusalem—could not be resolved, not even with the intense hands-on mediation of President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

The photographs reprinted here are just a few of the hundreds of photos I took during my trip. Hopefully they will provide a bit of subtle coloration to a conflict that all too often appears to be black-and-white.

Larry Goldbaum is director of the UMass Amherst Office of Jewish Affairs.
All photos copyright 1999 by Larry Goldbaum.

The Dome of the Rock Mosque, with its picturesque gold dome and
intricately patterned blue tile borders, towers above the Wailing Wall,
a remnant of the ancient Temple, Judaism’s holiest site. Haram al-Sharif
(the "Noble Sacred Enclosure") is likewise one of Islam's holiest places.

Rooftop view of the Old City, from the Notre Dame de Sion hostel
at the Ecce Homo Arch on Via Dolorosa, where our interdenominational
group of Christians, Muslims and Jews stayed while visiting Jerusalem.

A bird’s-eye view of Damascus Gate, from the ramparts of the Old City. Damascus Gate opens onto a plaza that is usually bustling with street vendors selling everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to clothing and cheap jewelry. It is the main thoroughfare between the predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and the Old City.

Although not nearly as beautiful as the nearby Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque (below) is far more important to Muslims.

Much of the terrain in the West Bank consists of steep, rocky hillsides. Agriculture is extremely labor-intensive: terraces are carved into the hillsides, and the excavated rocks are stacked to create stone walls, thereby preserving enough topsoil and water to grow olive and fig trees.

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Palestinian students at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah. From left to right: Mahdi, an archeology and history major; Ashraf and Niveen, both accounting majors; and Jihan (in head covering), studying math. All but humanities classes were taught in English.

A teacher at the Bedouin school of Amal ("Hope") in a village near Beersheva. Our van travelled slowly over the rutted dirt path leading to the village, which has no running water, sewer, or phones, and only recently got an electric generator. Classes for children up to 7th grade are conducted primarily in Arabic, with 5 hours of Hebrew instruction each week.

The bustling center of Hebron, one of a half dozen West Bank cities under full Palestinian control. The heavy traffic comes to an abrupt end a few hundred meters from here, at the IDF checkpoint demarcating Palestinian-controlled "Area A" (comprising most of Hebron and more than 100,000 Palestinians) from the Israeli-controlled Jewish settlement of Beit Hadassah in the center of town.

The few dozen settlers living in Hebron (in "Area B") receive continuous military protection; consequently the settlement is a source of constant tension, symbolically as well as practically, because it divides the city in two, making daily life very difficult for the 100,000 Palestinian residents of the city.

IDF checkpoint outside the Muslim entrance to the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.
According to Jewish and Muslim tradition, Abraham and Sarah were buried here
in the Cave of Machpelah—a site that is holy for both Jews and Muslims. Hebron
has become a flashpoint for tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. In 1929,
Jewish inhabitants of Hebron were killed or forced to flee during an Arab riot against
burgeoning Jewish immigration to Palestine. In 1993, a right-wing Jewish settler,
Baruch Goldstein, killed more than 20 Muslims as they were praying in the Ibrahimi
Mosque. Since that incident, the mosque has been off-limits to Jews, and the Jewish
section of the Tomb of the Patriarchs has been off-limits to Muslims.

Yael Goldstein, a Jewish resident of Eli Settlement in the West Bank, with her infant son. Yael told us that all Jewish settlers have reinforced windows in their cars—a legacy of the rock-throwing of the Intifadeh (1987-93). Like many other settlers, Yael believes that God gave the land of “Judea and Samaria” to the Jews. Nevertheless, she said she would accept a Palestinian state as a "political reality" and would move, if necessary, “if it would avoid bloodshed.”

The downtown skyline of Gaza City. We saw construction projects
everywhere, including many new skyscrapers such as the beach-front
hotel where our group stayed while visiting Gaza. And yet many of the
roads, and the alleyways winding through some residential neighborhoods,
were still unpaved dirt or sand. The beach next to our hotel was badly
polluted and the water unswimmable.

Israeli and Palestinian soldiers in a joint military patrol near Kfar Darom,
Gaza. The two soldiers in the middle are Palestinian; the others are Israeli.
This seemingly contradictory scene symbolized the peaceful cooperation
between Israel and the Palestinian Authority during the Oslo peace process
[until its demise in September 2000]. The soldiers spoke to each other in
English, a more neutral language than either Hebrew or Arabic.

IDF guardhouse and Palestinian administration building near Kfar Darom, Gaza. Notice the Israeli flag on the military bunker and the Palestinian flag on the four-story building behind it. Such a sight would have been unimaginable before the 1993 Oslo accords.

Palestinian soldiers guarding Yasser Arafat's residence in Gaza City. I was nervous after I accidentally wandered into their compound; but they were eager to talk to me. The bearded man told me Israeli soldiers had killed his father and brother. "How can I forgive?" he asked; and yet he was friendly to me, even after I told him I was Jewish. We asked each other difficult questions. He asked, "Whose land is this?" I asked him, "Do you think Jews and Arabs can share this land?" We couldn't answer each other's questions, but our conversation was respectful.

Everywhere we went in Gaza we encountered hordes of children anxious to have their photos taken and use the little English they knew. ("Hi, how are you? I’m fine.") Like their U.S. counterparts, many of the children were wearing tee-shirts with the slogans of American companies such as Nike.

Teachers at the Ghassan Kanafani Kindergarten in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp in Gaza City. There were 60 children in the kindergarten; but we saw far more kids running through the streets unsupervised. There were few other schools in the camp, so many children did not attend school.

Sheikh Yasin [right], the spiritual leader of Hamas, had only recently been released from an Israeli prison as part of a prisoner exchange. Although he could barely speak, the nearly-blind and wheelchair-bound Yasin told us (through his translator) that he doesn’t trust Israel and has no interest in peace negotiations. [Yasin was later killed in an Israeli bombing raid on Gaza, during the second Intifadeh.]

Hanan Ashrawi, Secretary General of MIFTAH: The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, at her office in Ramallah, in the West Bank. Ashrawi was one of the lead Palestinian negotiators of the Oslo accord but has since resigned from the Palestinian Authority, which she considers corrupt and anti-democratic.

We passed through Kiryat Shemona, on the Lebanese border,
on our way back from the Golan Heights, shortly after two rounds
of Katyusha rockets had struck the town. Some fires were still
burning as we drove by. A few hours later, a third round of
rockets—fired by Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon—
killed two residents. It was a harsh reminder that despite the
surface peace, this remains a region at war.
(Front page of The Jerusalem Post, 6/25/99)

Sign at the entrance to
Neve Shalom/Nahat al-Salam
welcoming First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton,
who had been scheduled to visit the region but cancelled her trip at the urging of the State Department.
Neve Shalom/Nahat al-Salam is the only village in Israel where Jews and Arabs live together as equals. The village operates its own bilingual school, with classes taught equally in Arabic and Hebrew.

Our visit to Neve Shalom/Nahat sl-Salam was a hopeful way to end our trip [in June 1999], and an appropriately hopeful way to end this photo essay!!

—Larry Goldbaum


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