Is this what the world allows for its children? Is this the price of our western lives lived in relative luxury, our own children "full of innocence and hope" to be denied to others?
"Dreams of Home"
The fourth set of photographs from the workshops involved the children at Lajee Center interviewing the elders of the camp, the underlying theme clearly and simply as with the title, dreams of home, of the right of return. While those over sixteen could not enter Israeli occupied territory, the youth of the camp were allowed to return and visit the sites of their grandparent's homes and villages. The photos in this section are colour, and they do not carry the grainy gritty evocativeness of the black and white of life in the camps, but the ongoing wish to return to home, to where the heart is, to where life at one time flourished and passed peacefully.
It is a book that expresses in words and photos the basic dignity of the older generation, all of whom had to flee their homes in the Nakba, most taking little but the clothes on their backs. Throughout though, two symbolic elements seem constant: the keys to the houses left behind, and the deeds of land that showed ownership. The main theme is of course the wish to return, of the importance of a home and land and the culture that goes with those elements. Accompanying this are the connections made between the original refugees and their grandchildren, passing on their memories, but more importantly their hopes and dreams of a return to a better future. For all the children it is pride and hope, as expressed by one participant Suhaib, "I get very excited and proud; as this house stood, my family and I will continue withstanding until we return."
The photographs show the full range of human emotion and the geographic beauty of the land, including the remains of houses and buildings slowly succumbing to nature. For the refugees, a stoic pride, a dignity, shows in their clothes, demeanour, and facial expressions. For the youth, the full range from sullen hostility to the innocence of mugging for a camera. For the landscape, the beauty of the flowers and trees, the rock walls and crumbling houses that give lie to the Israeli myth of a barren land without people. The irony of "The Silver Family Nature Trail" plaque set in concrete in what used to be a Palestinian village. The ever-present, fences, barriers, metal spike belts in the roadway, and inevitably, the Wall. And in the distant background, the flash of a modern high speed train, an image of freedom and travel denied to the refugees behind the wall.
Above all, strength, dreams of a better future, and hope.
All the photographs in both books are a wonderful testament to the will of a people to survive in a hostile environment, not geographically, but imposed on them by an occupying force that denies them the basic elements of human rights. The work continually reveals different levels of emotion and understanding within the viewer as well as within the photographer. It is through the eyes of children, of being able to stand back from our supposedly adult intelligence and knowledge (but mostly our ingrained prejudices and unmoving ignorance), of renewing our vision of a better future and hope, of knowing with child-like conviction and emotion that the world can be a better place, a place of freedom and love.
These two books provide us with a wonderful opportunity to enter that vision, that world, to realize that the wishes of children are not just foolish immature desires and dreams but the expression of humanities strongest goal – to have a land and a culture that we call our own, to live in peace and in harmony with our neighbours near and far, and to know and feel free, to have friends, to love and be loved in a secure environment.
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