4: Occupation: ordinary life
By Skip Schiel

Photos: The Israeli settlement Pesagot and one of its neighbors, Mr. Mohamed Shuri (not his real name), Ramallah, October 2004

Last week as I hiked along some ridges across from the Israeli settlement of Pesagot--hoping to gain a decent viewpoint for photos (I’d been photographing the settlement at night)--a man hailed me, asked me what I was doing. He stood before an elegant stone house with lush landscaping.

--Just trying to photograph this settlement.

And I explained my mission in Ramallah, disclosing the all important fact of using digital equipment.

--I’ve been having problems with my new digital camera, most of the photographs I made last week at my daughter’s wedding were red.

--Like me to have a look?

And that led to a tutorial in his home, correcting his camera’s white balance problem. After offering me tea and sweets and chatting about his years in the US training as a civil engineer at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee (“Most of the buildings you see under construction around Ramallah are mine,” he not so humbly admitted), he allowed me to photograph him on a sofa.

Looks like an easy and luxurious life from the photo, perhaps, but another part of his story provides a different tone: during the Israeli army incursion into Ramallah 2 years ago, Palestinian militants fired into Pesagot from homes near him. Many home were destroyed, his--he emphasized his good fortune--was hit by only one bullet, smashing a glass cube over his garage door.

Occupation, ordinary life, for how long?

Pesagot--

“Meet the Israeli Settlers,” May 11, 2003 , By Maha Sbitani--

http://www.peace-online.org/english/interviews/meet-the-settlers.html

“Separate and Unequal on the West Bank ,” By Amira Hass, The New York Times, 2 September 2001--

http://www.themodernreligion.com/jihad/separate.html

“One Year Later: Remembering Edward Said,” by Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, 27 September 2004--

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3129.shtml