Photo Exhibition Portrays Palestinian Bedouins' Struggle
A new traveling photography exhibition highlights the struggle of Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Naqab (Negev) desert, located in the south of present-day Israel.
The photos — taken by youth in Bedouin villages — document the poor conditions in these communities. Unrecognized or underserved by the state, the villages lack basic infrastructure such as water, electricity, health care, schools and other services.
Bedouin communities are traditionally semi-nomadic and since the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, the Bedouins in the Naqab, who now number an estimated 170,000, have been subjected to forced urbanization.
The photography project is part of the community organization Baladna’s Naqab Youth for Human Rights campaign, which “supports a new generation of Arab Bedouin youth in the Naqab to defend their human rights through photography and film,” according to the group.
Four youth groups, including fifty participants, from four different villages in the Naqab have so far participated in the program, and their work was displayed in the city of Nazareth last month.
Balada has made the photos available electronically with accompanying materials in Arabic and English so that groups around the world can organize their own exhibitions to raise awareness about the human rights struggle in Naqab Bedouin communities. (Those interested in hosting the exhibition can contact fund@baladnayouth.org or call +972(0)48 523 035 for more information.)
Source: electronicintifada.net