Photo gallery: Israeli and Palestinian faces before the war
WASHINGTON – In January 2023, nine months before the war between Hamas and Israel began, I took a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories that was designed for student leaders by the University of Maryland’s Hillel.
The visit was called “Israel Discovered.” I traveled through Galilee, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Rawabi, Ramallah and near the Gaza Strip.
I heard from a wide variety of speakers, including a retired Israeli Supreme Court justice, a manager of a nonprofit for Jewish and Arab women and a Palestinian businessman and city developer.
Along the way, I took portrait photographs of the people I met. These photos serve as a glimpse into the once, more peaceful lives of the people of this troubled land. In a few cases, I did not get the names or full names of my photographic subjects but I wanted to be sure they were represented here.
Ashager Ararao, who helped establish Battea, Ethiopian Israeli Heritage Center, in Tel Aviv, Israel, spoke about the history of her family and other Ethiopian Jews on Jan. 10. According to Brandeis University, there are about 160,000 Israelis of Ethiopian descent. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Palestinian businessman Bashar Masri developed Rawabi, a new Palestinian city in the West Bank. He is pictured here on Jan. 8. The city is considered to be high-tech. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Eli Groner, managing director at Koch Disruptive Technologies, waits for the elevator in the Azrieli Sarona tower in Tel Aviv, Israel. He previously worked for the Embassy of Israel in Washington and the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Elyakim Rubinstein, the former vice president of the Supreme Court of Israel, spoke in the court in Jerusalem on Jan. 9. Rubinstein previously served as a judge on the Jerusalem District Court and as attorney general of Israel. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Elai, a rainbow tour guide from Rainbow Tour TLV, poses near some of the many LGBTQ+ flags in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Jan. 11. The company’s mission is to encourage diversity and acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Ihab Balha founded the Orchard of Abraham’s Children, which creates multicultural, interfaith schools, with his wife. He is pictured here on Jan. 10. Ihab, a Muslim man, and his wife, Ora, a Jewish woman, created a school for their interfaith and multicultural child and others to attend. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Molly Bernstein, a University of Maryland alumni who now lives in Israel, sits in the Grand Beach Hotel in Tel Aviv on Jan. 10. Bernstein works for IsraAID, a humanitarian aid organization in Israel. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Naji, a tour bus driver in Israel, parked at the Herodium Park in the West Bank on Jan. 5. During breaks in driving, Naji often drank coffee and smoked cigarettes. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Eslam Obeat stands near a car in Bethlehem, West Bank, on Jan. 5. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)A Druze sheikh stands on Jan. 3 in front of the Nabi Shu’ayb in Northern Israel, a holy site for Druze and Muslim people that is believed to be the burial location of prophet Shu’ayb. Druzism is a religion found in Syria, Lebanon and Israel that is founded on beliefs of reincarnation as well as many of the beliefs from other religions, including Islam and Christianity. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Islam Jameel works with the Noor Women’s Empowerment Group in Bethlehem, West Bank, and stands with food she helped prepare on Jan. 5. The group is run by women from the Aida and al-Azzeh refugee camps who provide for their families and teach cooking classes. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Eliana Rochwarger works as the coordinator for donations and projects for the Shalva National Center in Jerusalem, which provides services and care for people with disabilities. She is photographed here on Jan. 9. Shalva is currently working to receive hundreds of people evacuated from near the Gaza border to the Shalva National Crisis Response Center. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Nadia Giol, co-manager of the visitor center at Sindyanna of Galilee at Kafr Kanna (an Arab town) in Israel, stands beside some of the goods the business has for sale, including za’atar and honey, on Jan. 4. Sindyanna of Galilee is a non-profit organization run by both Jewish and Arab women that sells homemade goods. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Rabbi Seth Mandell sits in his home in Israel on Jan. 5, 2023. His son, Koby Mandell, was killed in the West Bank in 2001. The Mandell family has since created the Koby Mandell Foundation, which helps people cope with the death of a loved one. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Sharon Wagner-Zauder, a tour guide in Israel, poses in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv, Israel on Jan. 11. Sharon is from England but has lived in Israel for many years. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)Tal Shamir stands in his Israeli neighborhood near the Gaza border on Jan. 10. There are bomb shelters in homes, schools and outside as residents lived under near-constant threat of rockets even before the Oct. 7 attacks. His fate is currently unknown. (Josie Jack/Capital News Service)
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