Every photograph we take is a self-portrait. They reveal our interests, musings, concerns, anxieties, sympathies, preoccupations, obsessions, and passions. Given the opportunity to photograph whatever we see within our field of view, we usually ignore anything that doesn’t reflect our current interests and core beliefs. Instead, we find a mirror.
We have all been following the devastating conflict in the Middle East. We were shocked by the news of the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians on October 7. We are also shocked that, following this attack and the taking of more than 220 hostages by Hamas, Israel deprived most Palestinian civilians living in Gaza of water, food, medicine, and fuel, and bombed residential neighbourhoods across the length of the besieged territory.
As I write this, the Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 8,500 Palestinian civilians, almost half of them children. The Palestinian population is young and, since Oct. 7, Israeli attacks on residential areas have resulted in the death of a Palestinian child every ten minutes. It is estimated that about 3,450 Palestinian children have been killed so far.
The latest news is that Israel Defense Forces jets bombed the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest such camp in Gaza, flattening residential buildings over a large area, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians, and wounding many more. Israel says they also killed Hamas terrorists.
Craig Mokhiber, the director of the New York office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights resigned because, as he wrote, the UN had failed in its duty “to meet the imperatives of prevention of mass atrocities, of protection of the vulnerable, and of accountability for perpetrators”. He said the situation in Gaza “is a textbook case of genocide”, and that “the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe, are wholly complicit in the horrific assault” because they are “actively arming the assault, providing economic and intelligence support, and giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel’s atrocities”. Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has refused to agree to halt the war on Gaza, saying that it would only strengthen Hamas.
Writing in The Guardian, Chris McGreal notes that in America (as in New Zealand, I can report), ‘‘A kind of tribalism’’ has set in and supporters of both Israel and Palestine have found it very difficult to see things from the perspective of the other side. “The result is that Americans on both camps have not only struggled to acknowledge the suffering on the other side but also to admit wrongdoing by their own”.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Prime Minister-elect, Christopher Luxon, says he hasn’t ‘seen any advice’ to suggest Israel is not respecting international law in their war on Gaza. Either he hasn’t been watching the news, or he only sees what he wants to see.
What’s next?
It is now the middle of the week here in New Zealand, and this post is a few days late. I’m not sure about the wisdom of mixing photography and politics in this substack, but I was finding it difficult to ignore the heartbreaking news. I wrote several long drafts of this piece out of a need to say something about the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. In the end, I decided to keep it short. I’ve been following Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and the New York Times, as well as news outlets from Canada (where I was born) and New Zealand (I am also a New Zealand citizen). The waves and ripples of what is happening in a thin strip of land on the other side of the world will be felt on all our shores.
What do you think?
You are invited to leave a comment below.
Good on you, Mark. We can't just look away. I hope you post some photos of the rally.
Yes appreciate this, including the evocative photos.