The Sacred Space Oddity
by Tanya Habjouqa
The Sacred Space Oddity is an elegiac meditation on the interaction of the physical and psychological space encompassed in the loaded, often effacing, phrase “Holy Land”. Media representations of Israel-Palestine so frequently reduce narrative rather than expanding it. To successfully document life in Israel Palestine requires a powerful and uncomfortable capacity for empathy, an ability to accept the existence of two contradictory and often hostile realities at once. I take a perspective closer to the ground- exploring the confidential, intimate urges, hopes, fears, and choices that weave the living tapestry on which the conflict is played out.
Building on the approaches I have used in my ground breaking Occupied Pleasures project, Sacred Space Oddity engages a diverse cast of characters, modulating between realist and surrealist aesthetics deployed against the backdrop of quotidian events in the lives of Palestinians and Israelis. I seek to challenge the simplifying mythologies that emerge in regions of conflict, both about “the other side” and which populations tell themselves about who they are and who they seek to be.
The characters featured in my images are metaphorical co-authors of this project; their understandings of the land will be embedded within the imagery in a participatory excavation of their experience and socio-political imaginaries. The result, I hope, will be an audio-visual project with immersive dimensions, offering people a multitude of ways to learn and unlearn the material and psychic space that defines the so-called “Holy Land”.
In development with award-winning photo book Dutch designer Teun van der Heijden, publishing date 2022, and exhibited in Breda Festival’s 2020 edition. The project was funded by a grant from the Magnum Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, with partnership at the The Brown Institute for Media Innovation.
“Competing” Palestinian and Israeli radio frequencies interrupt each other in the Occupied West Bank. The Visual is one of three “competing” baptism sites: Occupied West Bank, Jordan, and an invented location to maximize tourists in the Galilee.
A visitor peaks out of Rawabi's sleek PR office. The first new Palestinian city, it pulled out all the stops in visuals to sell. Live sized city models, amphitheater, and banners everywhere. It sold the Palestinian dream, for a majority who can't afford it.
"Psychedelic space herder". Hasidic Breslov youth celebrates Jewish Purim in lush organic settlement of Bayt Ayn in Occupied West Bank. There is a growing movement of youth who leave urban centers like Tel Aviv for a “hippie” and "authentic" life style in settlements.
Israeli drones dropped tear gas canisters on protestors marking Nakba day in Ramallah. 2018
David is a rabbi and a teacher in the Israeli settlement of Eli in the Occupied West Bank. David spreads his arms and hangs his head, tongue lolling out, a nearly but not quite blasphemous, affectionate parody of the “Holy Land’.
Hussein, 8, wants to be an astronaut. His parents Mohammad and Mariam Hussein were born in Jalazon refugee camp outside Ramallah. They see their true origin as the Bayt Naballa, a “depopulated” village taken in 1948. When the villagers tried to come back they were shot at, often killed. Few of the hundreds of thousands zooming by on Israel’s main highway knew it was ever there. Religion, says Mariam, shouldn’t be used by political movements to achieve concrete goals. Their son is in the background, agitated and constrained in an astronaut suit. He roams around the living room, insisting: I AM GOING TO THE MOON.
A Palestinian child reaches for his father's beloved "Sistine chapel" like facade of blue sky and cloud molding, crafted by his own hands in the Occupied West Bank village of Wallaja. The house has already been demolished once, and is on cusp of demolition again--after orders came from the Israeli government insisting the house did not have a permit, despite being built on their family land and being located firmly in West Bank. There are over ten family members living in the house, including a newborn.
Portrait of Breslav follower in fresh water Mikveh, in a nature reserve on the “depopulated” Palestinian village of Malha, taken in 1948. An Israeli mall stands nearby, named “Malha Mall”.
Palestinian brothers playing in Ein Qinya
Siblings from the farming community of the Abu Muhessein family witnessed their father attacked by the Rotem settlement guard Didi. The French Israeli settler often traumatizes the communities in the area, and they witnessed him head butt their father, his head splitting open and him passing out on the ground in blood. Here, Omar plays with a baby sheep. He says he tries to help his family and will find a way protect them next time from Didi.
A portrait of a mother, a hidden pregnant belly, and her daughter in her lap. Over the last eight years, the 31-year-old pregnant mother of two known as Umm Ahmad has had two miscarriages and an induced abortion. Doctors believe this is because of the constant use of tear gas by Israeli army in her home in Aida Refugee camp in Bethlehem.
Yossef buys a chicken for the yearly "kaparot" ritual - the passing of one's sins onto a chicken that is ritually killed and is given to the poor for a holiday meal. He talks to the chicken, feeds it a children's snack and solemnly wipes its bottom when it defecates on his kitchen floor. He is about to move to a settlement; he says he is not into politics but that the atmosphere there is so much more “liberal” than in the ultra-conservative Mea Shearim. Palestinians never seem to factor into the decision making of settling in the Occupied West Bank
Youth from a refugee camp in Hebron. He is studying in stone masonry, and built a miniature replica of the Dome of the Rock, a favorite motif of his. He managed to access the Dome of the Rock in person once, sneaking into Jerusalem without getting caught.
Rock marked with blood of Mahmoud Odeh, a 47-year-old Palestinian farmer and father of ten, was killed on his land by hiking Israeli settlers who claimed he had threatened them. Qusra, Occupied West Bank
Hussein Saleh Merei is a 23 years old Palestinian refugee in Tyre, Lebanon. His family is originally from Acre. Here he is, 54 kilometers from his ancestral family home in Acre along same coast.
The Holy Sepulcher church, Israeli security corner.
Palestinian mother carries her dead mother's portrait in a bag, protesting the Israeli state's refusal to allow her recently deceased mother to be buried next to her father in a nearby military site. She has never been able to visit his grave, as it was turned into military property in 1948.
Ramallah schoolgirls from a government school enjoy one of the few open spaces of greenery on the cusp of the city in Ein Qinya. It is “Area C”, so despite deeds owned by Palestinians, no one is allowed to build on their land except to maintain olive groves.
Suzan Hassan Ghazali, 25, was born in Burj Al-Barajneh camp in Lebanon, but her family is originally from Haifa. Proud to have graduated in economics, she held back form her true dream of architecture due to state limitations on job prospects for Palestinian refugees in certain fields in Lebanon.
Twin brothers pose for a portrait in front of a wingless airplane. They had procured it over a decade before, intending to make a theme park. The second intifada put an end to that, as Israeli soldiers set up a permanent barricade there. So the brothers built a trash landfill near by, yet now that the soldiers are gone, the smell is too strong to realize their amusement park dream.
A carpet that survived an incursion into Al Araqeeb Bedouin village, demolished by Israeli authorities over 100 times in five years. Despite the scarcity of water, one of the most common practices of Israeli demolition teams is choking off wells with rocks and sand. The only part of the village left standing in each successive demolition is the cemetery, which then serves as nucleus as the village is rebuilt, over and over again.
Siblings from the farming community of the Abu Muhessein family witnessed their father attacked by the Rotem settlement guard Didi. The French Israeli settler often traumatizes the communities in the area, and they witnessed him head butt their father, his head splitting open and him passing out on the ground in blood. Here, Liana role-plays sleeping beauty in the dirt while her father works the land. She says she can't sleep since the incident.
Orthodox Jews take pause in nature, a break from the giant bonfires and fervent celebrations of Lag b' Omer. It is one of the largest Hassidic gatherings in the world, overtaking the Galilee.
“Hala” is 25 years old and a “closeted” lesbian and atheist. This hill on the cusp of Ramallah is one of the few spots that couples can sneak physical affection in public. She says she does not have a lot of space to be who she. Quiet nature spots like this one are rare to come by in Occupied West Bank.
A young Gazan teen is tied up in a first aid course demonstration as her classmates giggle. In the aftermath of the Israeli "Operation Cast Lead" war on Gaza, the trauma and loss of life were so vast that women associations began teaching first aid courses to children. This was to help the children feel they had agency, as a coping mechanism and also practical measure to save lives.
Palestinian couple poses for a portrait in the Occupied West Bank. They love to explore sex in all its faces, and are currently exploring bdsm. The couple says they believe sex is a natural extension of God and resent the taboo of sex in society. They prefer to keep their identity masked until society can catch up with "personal liberations", which they feel won't change as long as majority is suffering under occupation.
Tali (whose preferred pronoun is ‘they’) grew up in a Reform family in north London, seeing fluidity in gender and religious practice “ She" is gender queer and recently learned “ teffilin” reserved for men. Here, she binds her breasts and then binds her arm. “She" says she always thought of themselves as religious, but in teenage years, rebelled: the stereotypical notion of God did not make sense anymore, and there was a nagging sensation that Jewishness as a whole was somehow complicit in the oppression of Palestinians.
Sammy, the self-professed "last Christian of Sebastya" is the proud caretaker of the ruins of the Church of John the Baptist. Here he is, with his daughter, in the spot believed to have been were Salome performed her dance leading to the demise of John the Baptist.
Brother and sister, Ukrainian tourists submerge.At least three sites today, on either side of the Jordan, claim to be the place where Jesus himself was anointed to ministry by John the Baptist. One is in the occupied West Bank, surrounded by barbed wire and landmines, another - Yardenit - sits miles and miles upstream, chosen by Israeli authorities for its convenience of access than for any traditional association with the event.
Israeli couple pose as Adam and Eve at the Sea of Galilee for fun, hobbyist nudists.
Hasidic Breslov youth celebrates Jewish Purim in lush organic settlement of Bayt Ayn in Occupied West Bank.
Palestinian child plays outside of her house in the remnants of a previous Israeli demolition. The family have received new demolition orders to tear down their home again. In the distance, an Israeli settlement is seen.
“Counter-terrorism” training for sport and tourism is on rise. Here, about 20 American and French tourists participated in the "Shooting Adventure" workshop offered by Caliber 3, an Israeli ‘counter-terrorism’ training center in the Gush Etzion settlement in the Occupied Palestinian West bank. For a 100 euros, foreign visitors have two hours to learn how to defend themselves against “terrorists”.
Palestinian Family from Beit Sahour. Empty plot of land in Area C where they cannot build.
Practice balloons for shooting practice in the Occupied West Bank. Israeli “Counter-terrorism” training for sport and tourism is on rise.
Young Palestinian community volunteers set up safe play areas for the children in Zanba, in the Occupied West Bank. Here, they prepare a theatre backdrop, picturing the Dome of Rock, which they are not able to access despite close proximity.
The future "Alexander the Great" amphitheater being built by Greek Orthodox Church on outskirts of Dead Sea.
'Israeli National Park" in Palestinian ruins outside of Eli settlement in the Occupied West Bank.
A young boy cuddles his mother, exhausted as he is helping the men in village build a new well in Al Araqeeb Bedouin village since the last one was demolished. His village has been demolished over 100 times in five years. Despite the scarcity of water, one of the most common practices of Israeli demolition teams is choking off wells with rocks and sand. The only part of the village left standing in each successive demolition is the cemetery, which then serves as nucleus as the village is rebuilt, over and over again.
Elderly Palestinian man shows a rubber bullet wound he received at close range by Israeli soldiers in his home in Aidah refugee camp in Bethlehem.
Israeli controlled Baptism site, Yardenit. Barriers stop religious pilgrims from going deep.
A girl on cusp of teen years in her grandmother's home in Mazraa in the Galilee. Her grandmother Lily often recites proverbs from her lost father from the Nakba: "When the horses fought in the river, only the frogs got hurt.”
An Occupied West Bank road, on cusp between a Palestinian village and Israeli settlement.