Images of the West Bank divide

By Kristin E. Holmes

Inquirer Staff Writer

A barrier that supporters argue stops mass murder and that opponents say imposes an inhumane collective punishment is the subject of an exhibition at the Philadelphia Cathedral in University City.

Is the structure along the border of Israel and the West Bank essential to stopping terrorist attacks on Israel or is it a land grab that dehumanizes Palestinians?

Photographer Elisheva Smith, 73, the Israeli and Holocaust survivor who took the pictures, has an opinion some might not expect.

"I am against it," said Smith, in a phone interview from her home in Israel. "It is like a monster that is threatening everything on both sides."

In "Cemented," Smith's 24-photo exhibition at the cathedral, the photographer argues that what she calls a "separation wall" stops not only people, but progress, compassion and peace.

The show, which runs through Dec. 5, is meant to encourage the exchange of ideas and inspire people to work toward peace in the Middle East, said the Rev. Richard Giles, dean of the Episcopal Cathedral.

"I can see the agony of the Israeli people," Giles says, but the barrier "escalates division and hatred and makes violence even more likely."

The Episcopal Church is among a half-dozen Christian denominations that have been debating Israeli government policies pertaining to Israel's pullout from Gaza and the continued existence of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Smith's melancholy images show a woman squeezing through an opening in the wall. There are wired fences, armed guards, and a line of children at a checkpoint.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Philadelphia Cathedral, the Interfaith Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, Bubbes & Zeydes (Yiddish for grandmother and grandfather) for Peace in the Middle East, and the Catholic Peace Fellowship.

"They are great photographs. They are photographs of what is," said Ilana Krop Wilensik, executive director of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Jewish Committee, "but it doesn't change the necessity."

Wilensik and other supporters of the barrier argue that what they view as a "security fence" is vital for Israel's protection. They say that since its construction, suicide bombings have declined significantly.

"If Israel had not been living under a situation in which people were coming into Israel for the sole purpose of killing people, the fence wouldn't have been built," said Burt Siegel, director of community relations for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

The subject of "Cemented" is a stretch of fencing, wall, observation posts, ditches, electric sensing devices and Israeli soldiers. About 19 miles - less than 5 percent - of the proposed 400-mile barrier consists of an actual concrete wall. For the most part, it follows the Green Line of demarcation, but also wraps around Jewish settlements in the West Bank, placing them on Israel's side of the barrier.

"It's a land grab," said Nadeem Muaddi of Prospect Park, a board member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee and a national spokesman for the Palestine Solidarity Movement.

The barrier "divides communities in half, makes it impossible for students to attend schools and for people to go to work," Muaddi said.

The Palestine Solidarity Movement calls for an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and divestment from institutions that do business with Israel.

Among Christian groups, the World Council of Churches has endorsed pulling investments from Israel, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) is exploring a process it calls "selective divestment."

Siegel called those efforts unrealistic.

"I think it is naive to think that Israel will not do what it believes is necessary to protect its population because certain entities won't invest," Siegel said.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church have decided not to go the divestment route. The ELCA said it would seek positive economic development opportunities and the Episcopal Church has decided to pursue "positive investment" among Palestinians and "corporate engagement" with Israel.

The United Church of Christ (UCC) favors "broad-based economic leverage," to support the development of Israel and Palestine. The UCC and Lutheran and Presbyterian groups have condemned the barrier.

Like photographer Smith, Cy and Lois Swartz of Chestnut Hill are Jews who have opposed the barrier. They have long been active in peace efforts and have protested Israel's government policies. The Swartzes helped to bring the exhibition to the Philadelphia Cathedral and are founders of Bubbes & Zeydes for Peace in the Middle East.

"A climate exists in the organized Jewish community that it is forbidden to criticize the policies of the Israeli government," Lois Swartz said. "We support the existence of Israel, but we feel that as Jews that we should be able to criticize the policies."

After the exhibition closes in Philadelphia, it may travel locally and in the West Coast, Lois Swartz said.

Wherever it ends up, Swartz hopes that it will, at the very least, start a conversation.

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