The West Bank

a barred life
 The West Bank
a barred life
A series of photographs by Scott Smith © 2008

A collection of images gathered from six months spent in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The purpose of the series is not to be political but merely an attempt to point out all that
is not normal in Palestinian life and serve as a visual reference point of the broader issues
that are affecting the Palestinian people in all areas of their lives.

About the photographer:

Scott Smith is an independent writer and photojournalist, currently based in Johannesburg,
Cover picture
South Africa. The photographs in this series are a result of living and working in the West
A barred life
Bank for six months in 2008.
Location: Bethlehem
Date: 12 September Contact: +27 (0)82 547 5948 / scottsmith@submedia.co.za / www.scottsmith.co.za
Yielded settlements

View of the Israeli Har Homa settlement to the east of

Bethlehem from the troubled Arab village of An Nu’man
whose future existence is under threat due to Israeli
settlement expansion in the West Bank. Settlement
expansion in the West Bank is one of the sticking points of
any peace negotiation.

Location: An Nu’man, east of Bethlehem

Date: 11 November
Demolished by your best friend

The rubble remains of a house demolition in Silwan,

outside the Old City of Jerusalem, minutes after it occurred.
Residents are often given little or no warning of the
demolition and a very short time to remove any valuables.

Location: Silwan, East Jerusalem

Date: 5 November
Basketball diaries

A decaying school court in the Muslim quarter of the old

city of Jerusalem

Location: Old City Jerusalem

Date: 28 February
Wasted hands

A strange apparition of hands on a newly constructed wall

down the road from the Bethlehem terminal; I felt the
image was a perfect way of saying a 1000 words.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 6 November
Jerusalem protest post

Israeli soldiers stand watch over an organised protest in

remembrance of the Nakba at the Damascus gate of the
Old City of Jerusalem. Protests are a common occurrence
in the West Bank but are more commonly attended by
internationals.

Location: Jerusalem
Date: 15 May
Bedouin boy demolition

A Bedouin boy in Arab Ar-rahmadin Ash-shamali, near

the Zufin settlement, Qalqiliya district stands over the
demolished remains of his family’s animal house. The land
they live on is in the so-called seam zone; that is the area
of land between the wall and the green line. On the hill
behind the boy is a military district office.

Location: Qalqilya
Date: 12 March
Flower power

A famous work by the UK graffiti artist, Banksy, in Bet

Sahour, outside Bethlehem. A call to non-violent protest.

Location: Bet Sahour, Bethlehem

Date: 27 September
Stop the occupation

Members of the EAPPI gather in central Jerusalem along

with the Women in Black in protest of the continuing
occupation of the West Bank. Occurring every Friday, these
protests are one of the few protests allowed by the Israeli
government. Public reaction is varied.

Location: Jerusalem
Date: 29 August
Bethlehem terminal before it opens

Men jump the queue at the Bethlehem terminal before the

checkpoint opens on a working day. Hundreds of men pass
through the terminal before 7:00 in the morning, some
wait at the entrance from 2:00 to ensure that they are the
first to go through. Those who come late may wait some 3
hours before they are allowed into Israel.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 9 November
Hebron walls

A view of the wall separating H1 from H2 in the southern

city of Hebron, on route to the famous Shahuda street, a
once thriving market area, now deserted.

Location: Hebron
Date: 25 March
Beware, cameras everywhere!

A stencilled warning in the Muslim Quarter of the old city

of Jerusalem

Location: Old City Jerusalem

Date: 24 August
Rose on a car

A rose placed on a car burnt out the day before. Parked

outside the Jewish neighbourhood of Yemin Moshe, a
stones throw from the Jaffa gate of the old city of Jerusalem.
Residents say this kind of thing occurs often.

Location: Jerusalem
Date: 14 November
Denied entry

Two elderly Palestinian men attempt to avoid the crushing

queue on this Ramadan Friday when thousands flock to
Jerusalem to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Even though
both men were over 60, their green ID cards were denied
and they had to join the common queue.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 19 September
Sunrays before the sweat

Taken in the early morning as pilgrims gathered at the

Bethlehem Terminal on a Friday during Ramadan.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 19 September
Grimaced access

Woman struggle to stand in the swaying and crushing of

the queue; the very old and the very young are crushed
indiscriminately

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 19 September
Last chance

Palestinian men who have been denied entry into Jerusalem

cautiously observe an Israeli soldier in the late morning.
All opportunities to pass through the terminal on this day
are gone.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 19 September
Sheltered existence

The men’s queue on Friday during Ramadan, under a sun

shade placed there temporarily.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 26 September
Crushed

The crushing force of the queue at the Bethlehem terminal;

the man to the bottom left of the photograph feints shortly
after this photograph is taken

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 26 September
Barred women

Women line up at the checkpoint on Friday during

Ramadan. The cement wall can be seen behind them,
snaking over the hilltop, dividing the West Bank and Israel
on a superficial border.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 26 September
Photographed young man

Photograph of an unknown man, placed on the bars of the

terminal bars with a coat hanger on Friday during Ramadan

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 26 September
Voices from the ghetto

Through the wall, can be seen the free land of Israel

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 26 September
Israeli soldiers withdraw

Israeli soldiers and border police take one last look before
they close the gate at the Bethlehem Terminal for the last
Friday of Ramadan.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 26 September
Organised occupation

A member of the Israeli border police, this Druze man

directs Palestinian woman in the queue early in the
morning on a Friday during Ramadan.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 5 September
A moment at the cement wall

A man turns momentarily in the crushing queue at the

Bethlehem terminal on a Friday during Ramadan; note the
green ID book ready for inspection.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 12 September
Barbed little girl

In the front of the queue a little girl still gets pushed up

against the bars and the barbed wire in the early morning
on a Friday during Ramadan.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 12 September
Red keffiyeh and a soldier

A Palestinian man waits to join the queue with a soldier in

the foreground

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 12 September
Young woman through the bars

After the terminal is closed, people still push to get through

the barred gates even though there are no Israeli soldiers
present.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 5 September
Muslim girl

A lone teenaged girl at the Bethlehem terminal after it

has been closed. According to Israeli security restrictions,
she is both too young and too old to pass through the gate
based on terrorist profiling – a prime suspect.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 26 September
Escape hatch

Political graffiti painted by an unknown artist on the steel

gate that provides entrance to Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem.
The tomb was closed off to Palestinians by the Israeli’s
who feared revenge attacks after the shooting incident at
Abraham’s Mosque in 1994 by a Jewish American-Israeli
that killed 29 Muslims while they prayed.

Location: Bethlehem
Date: 22 March