JERUSALEM: Photo exhibition shows Palestinian women using sewage tunnel to gain access to holy sites in Jerusalem

Record ID: 737680

  • Title: JERUSALEM: Photo exhibition shows Palestinian women using sewage tunnel to gain access to holy sites in Jerusalem
  • Date: 3rd September 2008
  • Summary: CLOSE OF PICTURE SHOWING DIRTY LEG AFTER PASSING THE SEWAGE TUNNEL
  • Embargoed: 18th September 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA16VCKEPZR4R7DXOZWPBGB4FRR
  • Story Text: A photographic exhibition on display in eastern Jerusalem highlights the plight of Palestinian women who use sewage tunnels under the Israeli-built barrier between Jerusalem and the West Bank to bypass Israeli checkpoints into the Holy City.
    "Passage", a photographic exhibition by Palestinian photographer Khaled Jarar currently on display in Jerusalem, illustrates the journey of seven Palestinian women through a sewage tunnel dug under the Israeli barrier separating Jerusalem and the West Bank.
    The women had been barred from entering Jerusalem through a checkpoint above ground and chose to use the subterranean route to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the holy city instead.
    Jarar, like the subjects of his photographs, was prevented from attending the exhibition.
    The photographer was born in 1976 in the West Bank city of Jenin and studied interior design at Palestine Polytechnic University.

    "Photography is getting to be an important issue for the young artists. Young people are trying to develop their talent in photography and taking pictures nowadays is not a career related to news but also can tell a story, can express a huge artistic project. The exhibition "Passage"
    is the work of a young photographer who is still studying in the academy," Rawan Sharaf, the head of the Palestinian Art Court Al-Hoash, where the exhibition is being held, said on Thursday (August 28).
    Israeli artist Merav Rahat, who visited the exhibition, said that although the exhibition centred on the plight of seven women, the fact that regardless of their gender, Palestinians were having to use the sewage tunnels to access their holy places in Jerusalem was sad.

    "It's a human being, it could have been a guy, a child, a woman.
    The story is the same story. It's a human story and the passage, and the necessity of having this passage, is a sad story for me. So it's not the woman. It's the human," Rahat said.
    Kholoud Abu Subaih, who visited the exhibition, said the photographs highlighted the problems Palestinians face.

    "The exhibition is so expressive. It explains the Palestinian situation and the suffering that is experienced by the Palestinians. The pictures tell the story and show seven women, who struggle and go through hardships and are tortured when they're stopped from going to Al Aqsa mosque or to any where else. The photographs are so touching, showing them entering through sewage. Also the tunnels express how the situation is hard."
    Passage through checkpoints into Jerusalem has become nearly impossible for Palestinians who don't carry an Israeli-issued Jerusalem residency identity card or permit.
    Israel has said the barrier, a mix of electronic fences and walls, is meant to keep suicide bombers out of its cities.
    Palestinians call the barrier -- whose course encompasses Israeli settlements in the West Bank -- a disguised move to annex or fragment territory Palestinians seek for a viable state.
    The World Court declared the planned 600-km (370-mile) barrier, more than half of which is completed, illegal but Israel has ignored the non-binding ruling.

    "Passage" exhibition is on display at the Palestinian Art court - Al Hoash in eastern Jerusalem, till the end of September.
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