Dreams. Photos by Rula Halawani

Dreams

Photos by Rula Halawani

From May 18 to June 11, 2006.

Sala Oberta - La Nau

From Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 to 13.30 and from 16 to 20 h.

Sunday, from 10 to 14 h.

Alaa Sumreen, 16 years. Arab Sport Centre. Taekwondo

“ Independent peaceful Palestinian State”

In April 1997, I went to Hebron to cover a demonstration. A group of young people (about 16 and 17 years-old) appeared and started throwing stones at Israeli army officers. I remember these same kids, years ago, playing soccer. At that time, I enjoyed talking to them. I let them take photos with my camera. As one of them approached and threw stones, he was slightly injured by a rubber bullet in the leg. He was taken away by a some Palestinians who were nearby. When I realized he was fine, I thanked God. After a very short while, he returned and started throwing stones again. Within seconds, he was shot again in the head and died. When I saw and photographed him lying on the ground – with the stone still in his hand, I was scared and baffled. I asked myself why he had come back to die. He was such a good boy and so young.

The images presented by the international media show exactly this: Palestinian children as either stone-throwers or victims of the Israeli aggression. They the show confrontations, shootings, killings, arrests, and a 50-year old war that does not seem to be ending. Despite all the political arguments about the conflict, Palestinian children remain children, whether they are stone-throwers, victims of occupation, or anything else.

Hiba Harhash (15 years old). Young Women Christians Association (YWCA). Ballet

“I want to travel abroad, to become a Professional Ballet dancer, come back to my homeland, Palestine, and start the first professional Ballet school in my country"

Fuad Bawab (16 years old). College des Freres. Basketball

“Two states for two people without any war”

The project ‘DREAMS’ exposes a different side of Palestinian children than what the media shows each day. It profiles children practicing their favorite sports and, meanwhile, expressing their dreams. These children try their best to lead normal lives and achieve their normal dreams, but amidst the perpetually fragile circumstances in which they live this verges on impossible. The

circumstances include: the pressures of occupation; the lack of qualified athletic trainers; the almost total lack of activities, youth clubs and playgrounds. Yet, even with all these weakening factors they still have strong dreams. They may include becoming a leading soccer champion or a renowned ballet dancer. For all of them there is the common dream of freedom, of the end of occupation, and of peace.

As a photographer and a Palestinian, I generally focus at different levels on unique aspects of our daily lives as Palestinians. I strive to be totally different in everything I do: my lifestyle, my ideas, and my work. In the last fifteen years I have photographed Palestinian children being killed, injured and arrested. In 2005, I decided to photograph another side of their lives: children enjoying their favorite sports…even when peace is a distant possibility. I wanted to talk with them and to bear witness, recording their dreams with my camera.

Marwan Khatib (16 years old). College des Freres. Soccer

“Independent democratic Palestinian state”

May Abed El-Azeez, Karate (14 years old). Arab Sport Centre. Karate

“Peace prevail on earth”

I have chosen my city, Jerusalem because I know it in all its complexity and difficulty brought by the Occupation. Although the city of Jerusalem is considered one of the most privileged Palestinian areas, young Jerusalemites still feel that their

dreams are fleeting and almost unattainable. East Jerusalem has no athletic swimming pool, so a teenager who aspires to become a swimming champion has to the Western side of the city. A

teenager who likes American Football learns it from American movies, without a teacher to guide him or her and with no appropriate field on which to practice. Thus, they focus on deepening their passion for their hobbies, absent any support for a future professional direction. The group of teenagers I met, however, decided not to be isolated and marginalized by these obstacles. 

To show another side of my work, I chose the picture of Palestinian and international peace activists replanting an olive tree that the Israeli bulldozers uprooted to build the Har Homa settlement on the Palestine East Jerusalem mountain of Abu Ghneim. The picture symbolizes the thirst of most people of my generation: a thirst for justice, peace and freedom.

Just like humans change across their lives, dreams change too. These photos may serve to document the strength of the teenagers’ dreams, before they are diluted by the realities of how much cannot be actualized in such an oppressive state.

It is my hope that when they look back to photos in 10 or 15 years, and be reminded of their abundant visions and aspirations. These visions go beyond killings, the shelling, the checkpoints and the walls. They transcend the agonies of war that play out between the occupied and the occupiers. They are the rays of what is possible amidst a dark sky of the impossible. 

Issa Abdeen (19 years old). Young Men Christian Association (YMCA). Volleyball

“Liberate Palestine and realize peace in my country”

Rula Halawani

Palestina, 1965. PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCES > From ´90: Freelance Photojournalist: Reuters. Freelance Photojournalist. 1992: Photojournalist- Photographed. Portraits of political leaders for John Walach´s book, The New Palestinians. 1993-1994: Sygma. Full-time Photojournalist. 1995: High School in Jaffa. Teacher of palestinian and israeli students. From 1998: University West Bank, Bierzeit. Teacher of Photojournalist. One semestre per year. 1998: Almamal Art Foundation in Jerusalem. Director and teacher of photography. 1999: Photojournalist. Submitted 25 images of Intimada for Our Story. The Palestinians. Book by Sabeel. Theology Center. From 2001: Teacher and founder of photography at Bierzeit University, Palestine. PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS > 1992: French Cultural Center. East Jerusalem Exhibition of portraits of palestians martyrs mothers, entitled Mother. 1993: Fifth Internacional Photojournalism Festival, Visa pour Image, Perpignan, (France). Exhibition: They call it Peace / Third recontres Photographiques de Normandy (France). Exhibition: Four Years of Intimada, photographic series. 1996: Fnac Gallery, Paris, exhibited series of photographs produced by my israeli and palestian students in Jaffa. 1997: Fnac Gallery, Paris. Exhibition Graffiti. 1998: Folly Gallery, Lancaster (Great Britain). Exhibition Graffiti. 1999: Drammen Museum Art and Cultural History, Norway.Exhibition Graffiti, / series of Graffiti Gent, Belgium / Exhibition Lifta ´48…East Jerusalem ´67 / Tel Aviv. Exhibition Lifta ´48…East Jerusalem ´67. 2000: Alternative Space, Tel Aviv Symbols From My Homeland / Wigmore Fine Art Gallery, London. Exhibition Symbols From My Homeland. 2002: March Gallery, Stutgard, Germany. Palestina I´m 2003: Artcar Museum, Texas (USA): Negative Incursión / Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah (United Arab Emirates). Negative Incursión and Palestian I´m.

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