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ARCHIVING "ARCHIVE" (WITH THE DANCER ARKADI ZEIDES)

During May 2015, the right-wing Likud party member Miri Regev became minister of culture and sports. With her inauguration she announced she would cease the ministry of culture’s support and sponsorship of institutions, artists and shows that expressed objection to the occupation and the settlements in Judea and Samaria. She confronted a large number of artists who whose work did not align with the government’s nationalistic, right wing perception. Her policy aroused a wave of protest from many artists and cultural institutions. Among others, the sponsorship given by the ministry of culture to esteemed dancer and choreographer Arkady Zaides’ “Archive” dance performance was terminated.

Zaides is an Israeli. He is a former dancer in Bat Sheva, an independent dancer who has won several awards. His performances can be seen all over the world, including “Archive”, which has been praised time and time again.

In “Archive”, Arkady Zaides uses a background screen on which videos shot by “B'TSELEM” organization, that deals with human rights issues in the occupied territories, are presented. In the videos taken from the “B'TSELEM” archive only Israelis are filmed.

During June 2015, two “Archive” performances had been scheduled in Israel. The minister of culture demanded that her ministry’s sponsorship of the performance be terminated, and demanded that the programs on which the ministry’s logo had been printed be thrown out as well. The performance became highly charged and intriguing, and the tickets sold out.

Arkady Zaides agreed to let me escort him before the performance, during it, and then later on during the speech he gave in the protest organized by the artists in Jaffa.

A ROOM

A few years ago, I shot the homes of the different kibbutzim’s elders. In the time that has passed since, many have passed away, and have young people now residing in their homes. The interior and exterior architecture in the kibbutz is a form of extinct architecture. The interior design, as can be seen in the photos, was affected by ideology, and hints at the tension between a dominant collective space and the natural desire for a private personal space. Although the kibbutz has since changed its appearance, its elderly have continued to maintain islands of different time, society, and culture within it. They have preserved the small “room” of old, in which the furniture and décor express simplicity, modesty, and abstemiousness.

WILD WEST BANK

The southern part of the West Bank is an area often overlooked by most Israelis. It is also often ignored by the media, and therefore hardly provokes the world’s interest. It is a mountainous region with borderline desert climate. Populating it are Israelis residing in a number of settlements and illegal outposts, as well as rural Palestinians, called “the cave dwellers”. The latter mostly dwell in small villages today, and earn their living from old agricultural practices. Some of these villages, such as Susya, are constantly threatened by demolition orders.

The secluded and rural area of South Mount Hebron is a “no man’s land”, existing in constant political tension, expressed by severe mutual violence and power struggles over control of grazing fields, and agriculture and living areas. The reality of life in this region is saturated with terror attacks by Palestinians against Jews, and with incidents of violence by settlers toward Arabs. Both sides try to make their neighbors’ lives intolerable and impossible.

NO FUTURE CITY

Following the Hebron Agreement (1997), the city was divided into the H1 zone-governed by the Palestinian authority- and the H2 zone- which was under the authority of the IDF. After the agreement had been signed, the Palestinian population in H2 was made up of 35,000 people. The Jewish population was made up of 500. Violence on both sides and constant friction between settlers and Palestinians brought to the prohibition of Palestinian movement in the main streets of the city. In addition, shop doors have been welded and markets, the "Casbah" and the Shuhada Street have shut down. This policy caused an abandonment of about 50% of the Palestinian population, and a withdrawal of the rest to their houses and cage-like balconies. The once crowded and active city of the former days is now a ghost town. Abandoned, dreary and poor.