Turning the Clock Forward - (2013-14)
More than 60 years after their forced displacement from their home villages in the Galilee, two exiled Palestinian communities decided to launch direct action. Having tried court cases, protests, strikes, sit-ins and advocacy campaigns for many decades, members of the 'communities-in-exile' of Iqrit and Kufr Bir'im decided to go home.
The two villages were depopulated in 1948 during the Palestinian Nakba ('catastrophe'), with an Israeli promise that they must leave 'temporarily'. Despite a successful case in the Israeli Supreme Court which again promised to facilitate their return, these promises proved empty and never brought an end to exile.
The internally displaced villagers, officially Palestinian citizens of the State of Israel, have largely remained within a few kilometres of their homes ever since and have been permitted to visit their villages but prohibited from returning to live there.
In 2012, a group of young activists decided to implement their own 'return' to Iqrit and established a camp in the ruins of the village. The following year activists from nearby Kufr Bir'im followed suit. These 'return camps' faced regular raids by the Israeli authorities during which demolitions of any new constructions were carried out.
Although forced to remain in tents, the returnees established makeshift energy and water connections and hosted regular public events. Eviction orders were again delivered by the authorities who also launched legal cases against the villagers.
These communities were not trying to rewind history, rather they were attempting to turn the clock forward and initiate progressive steps towards the realisation of their rights within today's world.
Exhibitions:
P21 Gallery, London - 2014