Despite usually being portrayed as a battlefield in the media, Palestine has a whole other side to it. It is also a home, a place to earn a living, and a place to enjoy life.
Many of the pictures are from Gaza, a strip of land wedged between Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea. Last year’s conflict between Hamas and Israel led to thousands of deaths in the volatile region. Yet the pictures show daily life of Palestinians in the region. Children flying kites, crowds bathing in the sea, a child playing with a donkey foal.
Palestine has always been a turbulent region. For 3,500 years it successively belonged to Egyptians, Jews, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, and Turks. After World War I, Britain gained control over the region, supporting the Zionist movement that led hundreds of thousands of Jews to settle in the area. After World War II, the United Nations decided to split the region into an Arab and a Jewish state. Jews agreed. Arabs did not. Regardless, in May 1948, the Jewish people declared the State of Israel. Immediately, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq’s armies attacked Israel. The Israelis prevailed, but the conflict, in some form, has continued ever since.
Friends Read Free