Review
Rich Wiles Behind the Wall is an amazingly powerful read, relating the stories of the people of Palestine and their suffering and struggle against the occupiers of their territory. It relates the great pathos and the brief joys of life lived under dispossession and oppression. Above all, it is the story of the Palestinian sumoud steadfastness when confronted with ongoing everyday repression and hostility. It is a story also seen mainly through the eyes of the children, second and third generations growing up in refugee camps. It is the children who have grasped and understood the dreams of return of their parents, reinforced daily by the confined and fearful existence they are forced to live under occupation. Children who have been imprisoned, tortured, murdered, denied their health, their education, denied the simple pleasures of seeing green fields lying under open blue sky. It is the story of a people living behind a wall of concrete that continues to encircle their land, their wells, their farms, separating husband and wife, mothers and children, creating a gulag of small Bantustan style cantons that imprison the people of Palestine. It is a story of ever-changing rules and regulations imposed by the whim and arbitrariness of military rule; of invasions and incursions into farmlands, villages, and the very private spaces of bedrooms and living rooms of people whose only crime is not being Israeli. It is a story of land, of the Right of Return under international law. The elders pass the story on to their children, the value of the land, I want the youths to never forget our land an our history. They must help us return, and they must return one day. Now I am old, but I still hope to return. Maybe I can t return, but if my grandchildren can, then that is good. And the children remember, My aunt asked me to bring her zaatar and marimeyah, but I took her stones and soil instead....I felt the stones were still ours...Those stones I took will make me always remember that my homeland will return to me and my people one day. Between these generational thoughts Rich Wiles relates haunting stories of the tragedy of the Nakba and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, combined with the daily activities of the IOF that crudely abrogate all international laws relating to invasion, occupation, and the rights of civilians and prisoners. The stories are all tragedies, but within the tragedies and suffering rises a particular sense of humour, a defiance, a will against physical forces denied by the spirit sumoud. Wiles writing style is elegant and clear, using a simplicity of language that allows the people of Palestine to speak for themselves with all the honest emotion involved in their daily struggles. Of all the books I have read to date, this one more than any other, by using the voices of the children, of the parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, takes the reader straight to the brutal dark heart of Israeli militarism. It reaches to the heart of anyone who considers family and children to be the cornerstone of a civil society as it addresses the torture and purposeful targeting of children and youth: the use of incendiary candies ; rubber coated bullets; live sniper fire; imprisonment and torture under very abusive conditions. All the stories are disturbing vignettes of violence, mental and physical, used against dreams of freedom, homes, land, and family. To reiterate, finally, These are stories that are passed down through generations...The memories will not die. Not the memories of a rich land denied, nor the memories of the occupation and its endless repression. ;If anyone really wants to know what life is like under the Zionist occupation, and grasp the daily struggle endured by five million Palestinians, for the last sixty years, This is the book. --Newsline Magazine March Issue
Ali Abunimah invokes the Palest --Middle East International issue 12
It s rare that books about Palestine focus on the Palestinian people rather than the territory or the issue, but here is one that does this skillfully while providing the reader with the relevant politico-historical framework. The author lives in the West Bank. This means that the people whose stories he tells are ones he has met many times over and often lived with. His gaze is warm and human, respectful and responsive. His text conveys in all their complexity both a tentacular occupation, and the myriad resistances through which Palestinians mobilize themselves to survive and outlast it. From the vantage point of his home in Aida camp, Rich Wiles experiences the occupation at first-hand. The frequent forays of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) into the camp leave dead and wounded, homes destroyed, youths and boys arrested. A military jeep comes upon 14-year old Mahmoud alone in an alley with his dog, scoops him up, beats him, and throws him into a military cell. From here he is transferred to Acion Detention Center, then to Ofer, then to Telmond prison. Charged with throwing stones and carrying a knife, he is fined $5,000, and sentenced to more than three months in prison. Many similar cases have been documented, but Rich Wiles fills out the details and consequences of this typical Occupation event: the other child prisoners; the inadequate food; self-scarring in protest; a gas attack by guards; the visit of a 10-year old brother (but they can t hug each other through the reinforced glass). There s a welcome party with fireworks when Mahmoud finally gets home, but his dog has died, and he doesn t want to go out any more . --Al Majdal Quarterly Magazine
Wiles first visited Palestine as a photographic artist in 2003, and began to work at Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem in 2005. Behind the Wall is a tapestry of stories and political commentary reflecting the lives of Palestinians he got to know. The text and accompanying photographs do not present them as people to be pitied rather, the images inspire, anger and provoke a principled response. Despite the progress made in the West by the Palestine solidarity movement, there is still much ignorance about the routine injustice experienced by Palestinians under occupation. Wiles witnessed this first-hand in Aida, and his book faithfully documents the unreported crimes of Israel s occupying army: the beatings, kidnappings and detentions, shootings of innocents, and the bureaucratic nightmares that dominate people s lives. This book is highly personal, shaped by the experience and emotional response of its author. Yet the history of the land still emerges. In Wiles book, it is through the oral histories of refugee survivors of the Nakba. Sumoud (steadfastness) is another constant theme. In his foreword to Wiles book, Ali Abunimah contrasts the media s focus on sensational violence with the sumoud that more accurately describes reality for most Palestinians. Wiles response to what he witnessed in Palestine was to return and stay, and devote himself to documenting the Palestinian experience through words and images, with an integrity shaped by passion and moral clarity. Wiles knows that in Palestine, after more than 60 years of Nakba, everybody has stories to tell , and it is to his credit that he brings these voices to life. Ben White --Middle East International issue 12
Ali Abunimah invokes the Palest --Middle East International issue 12
It s rare that books about Palestine focus on the Palestinian people rather than the territory or the issue, but here is one that does this skillfully while providing the reader with the relevant politico-historical framework. The author lives in the West Bank. This means that the people whose stories he tells are ones he has met many times over and often lived with. His gaze is warm and human, respectful and responsive. His text conveys in all their complexity both a tentacular occupation, and the myriad resistances through which Palestinians mobilize themselves to survive and outlast it. From the vantage point of his home in Aida camp, Rich Wiles experiences the occupation at first-hand. The frequent forays of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) into the camp leave dead and wounded, homes destroyed, youths and boys arrested. A military jeep comes upon 14-year old Mahmoud alone in an alley with his dog, scoops him up, beats him, and throws him into a military cell. From here he is transferred to Acion Detention Center, then to Ofer, then to Telmond prison. Charged with throwing stones and carrying a knife, he is fined $5,000, and sentenced to more than three months in prison. Many similar cases have been documented, but Rich Wiles fills out the details and consequences of this typical Occupation event: the other child prisoners; the inadequate food; self-scarring in protest; a gas attack by guards; the visit of a 10-year old brother (but they can t hug each other through the reinforced glass). There s a welcome party with fireworks when Mahmoud finally gets home, but his dog has died, and he doesn t want to go out any more . --Al Majdal Quarterly Magazine
Wiles first visited Palestine as a photographic artist in 2003, and began to work at Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem in 2005. Behind the Wall is a tapestry of stories and political commentary reflecting the lives of Palestinians he got to know. The text and accompanying photographs do not present them as people to be pitied rather, the images inspire, anger and provoke a principled response. Despite the progress made in the West by the Palestine solidarity movement, there is still much ignorance about the routine injustice experienced by Palestinians under occupation. Wiles witnessed this first-hand in Aida, and his book faithfully documents the unreported crimes of Israel s occupying army: the beatings, kidnappings and detentions, shootings of innocents, and the bureaucratic nightmares that dominate people s lives. This book is highly personal, shaped by the experience and emotional response of its author. Yet the history of the land still emerges. In Wiles book, it is through the oral histories of refugee survivors of the Nakba. Sumoud (steadfastness) is another constant theme. In his foreword to Wiles book, Ali Abunimah contrasts the media s focus on sensational violence with the sumoud that more accurately describes reality for most Palestinians. Wiles response to what he witnessed in Palestine was to return and stay, and devote himself to documenting the Palestinian experience through words and images, with an integrity shaped by passion and moral clarity. Wiles knows that in Palestine, after more than 60 years of Nakba, everybody has stories to tell , and it is to his credit that he brings these voices to life. Ben White --Middle East International issue 12
Product Description
Accompanied by intimate photographic portraits taken by the author, "Behind the Wall" is a collection of short factual stories, conversations, and articles written between 2006 and 2007 about daily life in and around Palestinian refugee camps in the area of Palestine currently referred to as the West Bank. Wiles recounts conversations with Palestinians of all ages, including survivors of al-Nakba, released child and female prisoners, parents trying to rear their children amid the violence of military occupation, and people struggling for the right of return to their original villages. These intimate portrayals offer clues to understanding the Palestinian psyche and the psychological effects of exile, colonization, and occupation. Having spent much of his time in Palestine since 2003, both inside and outside the refugee camps, Wiles asserts that the camps often suffer from greater levels of Israeli Army incursions, violence, poverty, and desperation than the towns or villages. There are approximately seven million Palestinian refugees around the world, of which more than 650,000 are living in camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These stories provide a glimpse into the underreported situation inside the camps as seen through the eyes of those living there while the photographs illustrate the human face of a people who have often been denied this exposure by the world press.
About the Author
Rich Wiles is a British photographer and human rights activist. He is the Coordinator of International Relations at Lajee Center (for Refugee Youth and Children) in Aida Refugee Camp where he directs collaborative youth arts projects; he has also run similar projects in UK schools. His photos have been published by the British Journal of Photography, Times Educational Supplement, and Yorkshire Post, and in Palestine by Haq-Al-Awda. Exhibitions of his photographs and youth arts projects have been shown extensively across Europe, in Australia, in the United States, and in Palestine itself. He currently lives in Palestine.
