Nature Theatre of Hebron

I thought you might be interested to see a new feature I have up on

ZNet about Hebron. All comments, inflammatory and otherwise, welcome

as always.

 

http://www.zmag.org/meastwatch/applebyhebron/appleby_hebron.htm

Provactive report. Well done Ron...jf

Yep, strong piece! I like this new style of yours, the provocatively harsh visuals - the montages being as effective as the tableaus. I think they go along extremely well with your thought provoking report. The "America" paragraph is maybe a bit to longwinded, especially positioned as it is in the very first chapter. From a dramatic viewpoint, it might have been stronger as a reminder on the Kafkaeque in the second half. But that's a dramatist nagging, the photographer is fascinated. ;o)

There will be problems there until the Jews (and I'm Jewish) finally learn to accept the fact that there were always Arabs living there, that DNA research shows that the Arabs and the Hebrews did indeed share a common ancestor about the time of Abraham, and that the Arabs aren't about to quietly pack up and dissapear. They've lived there for thousands of years.

 

After World War II Europe was full of displaced Jewish refugees, and Palestine was a British Mandate. The Brits controlled most of the Middle East. Somebody came up with the bright idea that the socially acceptable "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem" was to let them all move to Palestine, supposedly where they came from hundreds of years before. It would avoid the stigma the Germans got for gassing them. Forget the fact that people already lived there, owned land and farms and houses. They didn't count, being neither Jewish nor Christian. The mood of the day was to look at the Arabs the way Americans viewed Native Americans in the 19th century. Let them cross the river and live in Jordan. Of course there was the same problem there with people already living in Jordan owning the farms and the houses and the land. Then whatever stabilizing influence the British may have had was lost in the Israeli war of independance (from the British) in 1948.

 

My son Jonathan, having graduated seminary with a masters in theology, spent the summer two years ago doing research in Lebanon and Syria. Continuing his work, now going for a masters in biblical history, he spent last summer in Israel. Israeli immigration held him for like 8 or 9 hours of grilling about why he'd visited Arab countries the previous summer before finally allowing him entry.

 

The Leica connection? He took lots of photos with his CL, 40mm Summicron-C and 90mm Elmar-C!

Al

 

Your analysis seems pretty fair, although the origin of the return of Jews to Palestine was a Zionist idea and the British in a fit of gratitude to Weizmann and also with a view to promulgating "Western values" in their newly acquired Middle East Mandate/Empire agreed to it. British governments came to rue the day the Balfour declaration came into force, and they were only too happy to leave the cauldron in 1948.

 

Interesting photos and article (color is different for sure) Rob too (sorry, Xinbad).

Nice work, X.

I've seen so many photo essays that aim to show the human face of the Palestinians.

Yet there's still little if anything in the main stream media showing the Israeli families

that have been wiped out by suicide bombers, who are in turn apparently untouchable

by world criticism.<P>

 

Arafat wreaked havoc in Jordan and Lebanon- neither of those countries want these

people, and they share much more heritage with them than Israelis do.<P>

 

One eyewitness at the Passover massacre saw a small boy with a fist-sized hole in his

chest- apparently his last words were something like "am I going to be OK?".

"<cite>and I was treated very nicely by the Palestinians and Jordanians (in contrast to the Israelis). Kudos.</cite>"

<P>

I was in Hebron in the early 1980s and too quite well treated by the local Arabs who took me for a German: "<cite>Germany good. Hitler good</cite>".

<P>

The hate is deep and the proverty is encouraged by a corrupt Arab leadership that can only hold onto their power by scapegoating.. The Palestianian Administration (PA) has worked more to enrich the pockets of a few--- alone Arrafat is said in Swiss bank accounts to have an estimated sum of between 900 million (the International Monetary Fund's eastimate) and 20 billion (current Israeli Intellegence) USD.

Development and water distribution projects take a back seat to "solidarity pensions" for suicide bombers and their families. Death and terror is the investment since it prevents any movements towards peace. Peace is bad for mafia structures. The profit is in poverty and death.

<P>

Arrafat's current assets (excluding gray assets such as in accounts said to be only under his control) have been put at over $300 million USD by Forbes Magazine clearly putting him in the corrupt "Hall of Fame".. A profession of killing children has been good to Arrafat...

mr kaplan,

you know such a great deal about photography and apparently nothing

of import concerning the history of the jews' return to their homeland.

nothing of historic worth, at any rate.

 

your son entered israel after having been in syria. syria and israel

are technically "at war", a peace treaty never having been signed.

and lest we forget, syria currently occupies the lebanon. so the nine

hours of his being held up at the airport might be understood in this light.

 

the suffering endured by the israelis and palestinians is terrible

and seemingly unending. i don't believe your uninformed remarks

made much of a contribution.

 

thank you for listening.

Once again we all go on the journey called �lets belief in a fantasy of our imagination�. The very noble leaders we elect, because the media they own tell us to do so, and we believe because it suits us �..well, they are alright Jack ! Shame about the rest.

 

Money and power, and honest greed, that�s what it�s about. The Real Deal. While that condition exists, well, work it out.

 

Usually excellent gritty , get in there stuff, Rob X.

Anyway, there's these babies to kiss, and these girls, and this land deal....sorry got to go, busy busy......

So did everyone look at the photos or are some you here just to rant?

 

Rob's one of the best photographers on the forum and the photos are certainly worth some time rather than just soapboxing.

He should think about getting a big zoom, his going to get his head blown off one day.

Well, the search is on for a �starving politicians�. I've given the task to Holmes and his faithful companion Watson. In a Democratic world, with at least one tenth of the world starving, you would think there would be a few starving politicians...wouldn�t you��or at least near starving . So let's find them.

And you wonder folks are killing each other over a bit of land...not hard to work out really. Sorry about the rant,Rob X, i'll shut the f up now.

I didn't know Al Kaplan is Jewish.

Very thoughtful. The ranters--of course--are not.

<i>Sinbad the Sailor and Tinbad the Tailor and Jinbad the Jailer and Whinbad the Whaler and Ninbad the Nailer and Finbad the Failer and Binbad the Bailer and Pinbad the Pailer and Minbad the Mailer and Hinbad the Hailer and Rinbad the Railer and Dinbad the Kailer and Vinbad the Quailer and Linbad the Yailer and Xinbad the Phthailer:</i><p>

 

Mind if I call you Xinny? Once again, I really like the juxtaposition of images in a strip. The combination of black and white with color, and the way some of the images are elongated by having other images spliced into them, is altogether very effective, at least to me, in setting up a tempo (as I said in my email, "montage") and disjointedness that reflect a sense of crisis and alarm and anxiety. Tension, I guess, is the right word.<p>

 

Another kind of tension is created by the oblique narration when you are describing Kafka stories in the accompanying text. When the text moves on to actual description of the events pictured, however, the story you tell of the girls taunting the soldiers weakens, in my view, the work overall, because the story is so strong and yet doesn't describe, when we might most want it to, the pictures we are seeing. In a work that is otherwise so effective and well wrought, I'm not sure this is a minor problem. But it may be. <p>

 

<i>Narrator: reclined laterally, left, with right and left legs flexed, the index finger and thumb of the right hand resting on the bridge of the nose, in the attitude depicted in a snapshot photograph made by Percy Apjohn, the childman weary, the manchild in the womb.<p>

 

Womb? Weary? He rests. He has travelled. With?

</i>

<i>Jeff, if it was just about the photos then he wouldn't have written a story to go with it. </i><p>

 

The people who soapboxed without commenting on the photos are a) people who don't seem to post on this forum, except, I guess, to harrass X, and b) people who don't seem to have any photos of their own. So I would venture a guess that the only reason they have commented here is because they don't like X's politics and decided to slam that rather than comment on either the photos or the totality of what X posted.

 

In other words, they aren't of much use to this post.

Hi Jeff<P>

I think the debate sparked by the photos is as compelling and revealing as the photos themselves, so why insist that people restrict their comments to the artistic merit of the photos only? Clearly Mr. Appleby is making a statement with these photos, his text and with the glaring lack of photos of the other side of the story- the Israeli victims of terror. We are all entitled to respond how we wish.<P>

Very impressive photos, Mr. Appleby. I would love to see you point your camera at the Israeli families who have lost parents, siblings, children and friends in this war. Hear their story as well. Show that there are no winners in any war. Thank you.

Great and tragic narrative Rob. What kind of process did you use to emphasize the photo's. I'm moved by the situation in the middle east, but not very optimistic, sad.

The problem isn't that the photos provoke debate, I agree that is good. It's that there's some people (non-participants on this forum, what they would probably call "outside agitators" if it was on their turf) who think photos are irrelevant and come here to discuss politics. There's plenty of message boards for that.

<i>All comments,

inflammatory and otherwise, welcome as always.</i>

Great photos, several are a lot stronger than the illustrations

they're being used as. Liked the piece a lot, gave me a better

"day-in-the-life" insight than CNN ( which isn't really difficult).

Perfect example of dedication meets application. Well done,

Rob.

 

Tom

On Paul Neuthaler , nov 24, 2003; 07:11 p.m. commented "<cite>I didn't know Al Kaplan is Jewish.</cite>"

<P>

Sure. Did you not know that all Jews go to "Chruch" and send their kids to Theological Seminaries?

<P>

While the background of Mr. Kaplan is indeed irrevelant to the analysis of a bit of trite agiprop using a melange of stereotypical images, what is relevant is his alignment of the conflict as purely ethnic (Jew versus Arab) and a claimed a position "despite" being a member of one of the ethnic groups. Membership or ethnicity (often counterfeit as here) is used a a typical ploy within propaganda.. "<cite>Look even a darn X agrees that all Xs are...</cite>" The ploy is to confuse the killer with the killed. Poverty and bombed buildings are not proof of victim or shall we cry for the poor Germans in WW-II? Or the Hutus in exile fearing revenge for their mass killings? Or the Palestinian leadership...?