Equals - "Yad be Yad" (Hand in Hand) Bilingual School in Jerusalem
After years of documenting the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, I can say that photographing the conflict is "easy". "Easy" because it is taken for granted, accessible, photographed thousands of times over. The conflict is what we all see on television, in newspapers, it is burnt into the collective memory, here and in the whole world. It is much more difficult to look for...
more »Equals - "Yad be Yad" (Hand in Hand) Bilingual School in Jerusalem
After years of documenting the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, I can say that photographing the conflict is "easy". "Easy" because it is taken for granted, accessible, photographed thousands of times over. The conflict is what we all see on television, in newspapers, it is burnt into the collective memory, here and in the whole world. It is much more difficult to look for the other possibility, to photograph real, concrete, true peace.
Despite my pessimistic feeling that there is no solution in horizon, despite an urge to give up, the sentence "if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem" resounded in our conscience; so we decided to be part of the solution and last year joined the kindergarten of the bilingual school in Jerusalem.
470 pupils attend today the school for bilingual education. Arab and Jewish children study together from pre-kindergarten (50% Jews 50% Arabs in every class). The children, their parents and the rest of the community, build together a partnership that will enable both sides to study together, while each side safeguards its language, culture and unique tradition. . Two teachers, one Jewish one Arab, educate together each class.
Through my sons' experience I understood the meaning of life together, as against philosophical deliberations about the possibility of co-existence. The truth is that the children, the teachers, the staff, the managers and the parents at school, put their faith in a different, optimistic possibility.
At no point of this work did I try to be escapist; it is clear to me that in the prevailing situation, the school is but a drop in the sea.
Without commitment to true peace, violence and arms will probably go on dictating the future; it is also true that through life together, learning together and mutual respect a different society can be created.
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