Music & Arts, Pages 45-46

Farsakh Exhibit “Palestinians, Meanwhile” a Huge Success

ON DISPLAY at the Jerusalem Fund Gallery in Washington, DC, from Jan. 22 to Feb. 26, 2010 were photographer Elena Farsakh’s provocative images from her most recent stay in Palestine. Because Farsakh’s sharp eye captures the basic humanity and dignity of ordinary Palestinians living under occupation, her audience is surprised to learn: they’re just like us. She captures special moments—a tender wedding dance, a storyteller engaging children, a musician aware of nothing but the beat of his drum. Her depictions of everyday scenes are snapshots in time—shy girl scouts, children on a schoolbus, boys hanging out, shopkeepers hoping for customers, travelers dealing with checkpoints...people just sitting and waiting. Farsakh’s photos portray the lives of Palestinians as they await a future they cannot yet see.

In an interview with gallery curator Dagmar Painter, available on the Jerusalem Fund’s Web site, Farsakh explained that the exhibit portrays what Palestinians themselves are doing—while everyone else is going through the empty motions of a peace process. “They’re living their lives meanwhile,” Farsakh said. They still have to go on with the cycles of life. Palestinians are regular people as we are here, just as Israelis are there.

The mainstream media has done its part covering the misery of Haitians, but it rarely shows the challenges Palestinians have faced for decades. Farsakh noted that Palestinians showed their empathy for suffering Haitians by putting together relief supplies. For more information and to watch the interview visit <www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/sp/i/225/pid/225>.

—Delinda C. Hanley