Michal Peleg is now gone. Another enormous loss, just two weeks after Muhammad died.
Continue readingIn Memoriam: Michal Peleg, 1959-2025. Text by David Shulman; photographs and additional text by Margaret Olin
visual activism
May 29, 2025 Ras al-‘Ain. text: David Shulman
Emptiness. Sorrow. The madafeh, indeed the whole village, feels empty without Muhammad. Just last week we were sitting with him, drinking tea, chatting,devouring the cake he had bought for us. We took for granted his gracious manner, his steadiness, his gentle nature. He seemed as solid as the desert rocks, as the rolling waves of the hills. He was killed earlier this week in a car crash near Nablus; his car collided with a huge truck, and he died instantly. This man who survived years of settler violence and harassment, the theft of his herd, the never-ending threats from soldiers and police, died in broad daylight on the road.
Continue readingRas al-‘Ain, December 15-16, 2024. text: David Shulman; photographs: Margaret Olin
Daily settler attacks on Ras al-‘Ain are becoming tougher, also more dangerous; more settlers involved, more outrageous acts, more physical violence, a surplus of arrogance and burning hatred. Every day they invade the village, on horseback, on donkeys, in their vehicles, with their herds of sheep and camels. It feels like something bigger is boiling, about to spill over. They know they are completely immune to punishment of any kind; the police and soldiers stand with them. As for the government, the extremists, including the prime minister, initiate, fund, arm, and fully support lethal settler violence everywhere on the West Bank, with the unmistakable aim of expelling the entire Palestinian population of Area C.
Continue readingEin Rashash, September 4, 2023. text: David Shulman
avant-propos: Next year Intellect Press will publish The Bitter Landscapes of Palestine, a book of photographs and texts inspired by our work on this blog. Please consider donating to our kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the book. The campaign ends September 27. You can see our video, read our story and donate at this link. NB: the first, modest goal has now (Sept. 9) been met; donations are still very welcome and much appreciated.
Like so many Palestinian villages in the central West Bank, between Ramallah and Jericho, Ein Rashash is hanging by a thread in the perilous space between life and death. A massive program of ethnic cleansing is taking place before our eyes. Israeli settlers, religious in some perverted sense of the word, have perfected very effective methods to reach their goal. Readers of this blog are familiar with some of them.
Continue readingApril 22, 2023. Week 16 of the anti-government, anti-coup demonstrations. Text by David Shulman
So far, there is no doubt that we are winning. We will stop the thugs and killers of this so-called government in their tracks.
Continue readingOctober 29, 2022. Umm al-‘Ara’is. Text by David Shulman. Photographs by Margaret Olin
Qawawis, Ar-Rakiz, June 4, 2022. Text, photographs by Margaret Olin
Until the police came and started barking orders and pushing people, or rather until the first stun grenade set everybody running, the morning in the South Hebron Hills seemed reasonably peaceful.
Continue readingFebruary 6, 2021. The Hague, text: David Shulman, photographs: Margaret Olin
Sometimes, possibly more often than we think, there is also good news.
Continue readingHollywood Endings: The Northern and Southern Jordan Valley. Text and photographs: Margaret Olin
Before the fires: Al-‘Auja, July 22, 2017
Fields were burning in the fall of 2017, but in late July the story was different.
Continue readingNovember 11, 2019: ‘Ein Rashshash. Text by David Shulman.
We are three—Guy, Nina, and me. We reach Rashshash with the dawn. Tea is served. How are things? “Settlers at our throat every day.”
Photograph: David Shulman, 2019
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