What & why?
Based on his most recent 3 month journey, Skip Schiel is assembling a set of slide shows, print exhibits, publications, and a website that is available to the wider public. Some are ready for viewing ( ), others are in various stages of development ( ).
The story is of suffering and resilience, despair and hope, in the land of Palestine & Israel.
Quoting from the newsletter Multiversity: Myers book commentary (from the Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights):
Skip is an ethical witness photographer. [Since 2003] he lived with, observed, and learned through participation how Palestinians are resisting the injustices of occupation--one of them a 350+ mile wall of separation crazily placed with 700+ checkpoints and permanent obstacles between homes and farm land, between one family member and another.
We do not see such photographs, or this level of discussion, in the mainstream media. His work takes us into the heart of the maelstrom of Palestinian reality. For example, on May 27th [2006], while alternative media in this country were decrying internationally withheld medical supplies (boycotting the democratically elected Hamas government), Skip wrote: "The main work of the day was visiting Gaza City's main hospital, Shifa. Calling it the house of suffering would not be an exaggeration. Expertly toured by Mohanad Al-Helo, a medical doctor working for an advanced degree in community health, we visited sick and dying people, suffering not only from the usual pains and threats of life but the siege, the occupation, the problems induced by the current political conditions, especially the US-led funding slashes. Causes of the injuries include the factional violence that cuts down innocent children, hits by the Israeli army, and even family violence generated by the anxieties of the siege. Most revealing, most difficult to observe were the children. Some on IV tubes, some with advanced cancer, some with bodies distorted by congenital disease, and the babies in incubators."
The photos show the human face of anguish as parents stand by a dying child who could have been saved had not the medicine supply been cut off by our government. No cancer drugs, either, only palliatives; weekly dialysis treatments cut from three to two.
(thanks to Louise Dunlap and Loretta Williams)
To read the entire article
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