Letter from Ramallah, September 18, 2004

By Skip Schiel

Some good news: I’m in Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine concluding my first day of orientation at Birzeit University where I intend to photograph and teach photography. The University sits atop limestone hills, the air is clean and cool, the sky perfectly clear, the students (some 5,000 of them) and staff very hospitable.

Coming thru the Kalandia checkpoint two days ago from Jerusalem presented no problem. Altho Israelis have on their books a law preventing non Palestinians from entering the West Bank, this seems intended mainly to deter activists and supporters of the resistance, namely those from the International Solidarity Movement. Israel rarely checks and to do so would require even more security personnel.

I reside in a fairly spacious, very spartan five room apartment—potentially shared with two other men (but at this point I’m the only resident)—in a large apartment block not more than 2 km from downtown Ramallah. I’m slowly learning how to use shared taxis, where to buy food, how to wash my laundry and other necessities of survival. The Travelers’ Illness I picked up while in Cairo—among some Palestinians Egypt is famous for this-- seems to have abated, very happily for me and my gut.

My work here is complicated. It is primarily to show the story of the Right to Education Campaign. To do this with advanced photography students. To travel throughout the region interpreting obstruction to education (checkpoints, curfews, roadblocks, arrests and detentions) and direct attacks on educational institutions. A side story, we hope, is to show the experience of detained and imprisoned students. Although the Campaign began under the wing of Birzeit, it is slowly swelling to include all ages of learners. Helen Murray, the Campaign’s coordinator, and I spoke this morning about traveling to Hebron and Nablus to foster the coverage. Look at http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/ for more information.

Independently of this project I hope to photograph for other agencies, both Palestinian and Israeli, but I’ve not begun to work out details. So the complication extends from how to enter the various regions, how to gain access to the photographic subjects and situations, how to fairly interpret a variety of experiences and perspectives, how to effectively work with students and other Palestinians, and finally—seems a long way away—what to do with the materials when I return home in January. Since you signed up for my paired photos list, please watch for my weekly submissions, assuming I can manage them. (This letter is just a warm-up, I don’t yet have good computer access for photography.) The first will probably be about meeting and photographing Mordechai Vanunu in East Jerusalem, where he is in sanctuary at the same guest house I used, St Georges. You may remember his case: spoke out about Israel developing and concealing nuclear weapons, imprisoned for 18 years, 11 of them in solitary, released last spring.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1197406,00.html for details about Vanunu.

If you have a chance, drop a line, let me know how your life is Stateside. Thanks for your interest.

Good news indeed, following the still small voice.

--Skip

Ramallah Friends Meeting House

Paired Photo set #4 Occupation: ordinary life

schiel@ccae.org

www.teeksaphoto.org

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