Video Installation
2010
As a child, I used to come to this place with my father, which we called the Souk or market. It was always full of people, in spite of the Israeli soldiers hovering on the roofs above us. I used to watch them while holding onto my father, but they did not scare me because I felt protected by him. I have now gone back as an adult. The number of soldiers has increased; there are cameras everywhere; and the Israeli settlers have completely taken control of the rooftops. So that when I looked up, I am terrified and feel vulnerable. The place is now two conflicting spaces - the Souk and the rooftops - which are separated by netting that the settlers use as a rubbish dump, hanging over the heads of the Palestinian passers-by. And the Souk itself has been emptied of the clamor of the salesmen and of its shoppers. Now, there are only children and cats running around, and old people staring in despair at the shops that no longer carry goods.
I am filled with fear and the sight pains me. So I secretly point my camera at this visual ruin that the occupier has attempted to impose here, in a place imbued with a bygone history.
duration 4.47 minutes