Facts on the Ground, the title of an exhibition of photographs by Sasha Bezzubov and Jessica Sucher of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, is also the name of a policy that has resulted in construction of the villages and cities that appear in these images. The controversial practice of building on occupied lands is deemed illegal by the Geneva Convention but disputed by Israel, which contends that any Arab land that remains uncultivated is up for grabs.

Left: Lifta (pop 2,958), Israel. Right: Ma’ale Adumim (pop.34,324), Occupied Terratories. Photographs copyright the photographers, courtesy Daniel Cooney Fine Art.

Modern structures seem to grow out of desert terrain like satellites without a lifeline. Ma’ale Adumim (above right), one of the largest settlements, is seen from the distance in an image in which the scale of things is nearly impossible to decipher until a roadway can be discerned. What first seems like a village of clay houses turns out to be a city of high-rises surrounded by multi-story apartment buildings.

Har Homa (pop. 9,615) is a city expanding as fast as the cranes dotting the horizon can raise building materials aloft. The photographers’ viewpoint, looking up a hillside, emphasizes the overlapping layers of older and newer construction and the parched, almost treeless landscape. Here, as in many of the views of settlements, the photographers have created an unsettling mood that suggests timelessness and isolation. 

In Lifa (above left), a modern town is separated from an abandoned Arab village by a highway open only to Israelis. Lifa, which dates to biblical times, is the only depopulated Arab village that remains standing. Plans for a luxury apartment and hotel complex that would require destruction of the village are currently being contested by the former residents.

The exhibition also includes photographs of Israel’s national parks, many of which were built on top of Arab villages that were depopulated after the War of Independence and planted with fast-growing, non-native trees. In their essay, the photographers state that these carefully landscaped parks were designed to obscure the remnants of ancient sites, but once they started looking carefully, they found relics everywhere. “The Zionist expression, ‘Making the desert bloom,’” they write, “hides a dark history.”

Sasha Bezzubov & Jessica Sucher: Facts on the Ground remains on view through October 22^nd at Daniel Cooney Fine Art. 511 West 25^th Street, Suite 506, NY, NY.

In conjunction with Facts on the Ground, Daniel Cooney Fine Art will be hosting a series of discussions led by artists, activists, filmmakers, and historians working towards peace and reconciliation in Israel/Palestine. Information.

Saturday, September 17, 3 PM - 4 PM - Leena Dallasheh: On Settlements.

Saturday, September 24, 3 PM - 4 PM - Efrat Even-Tzur of Zochrot: On Villages.

Thursday, October 6, 6 PM - 7 PM - Nadav Greenberg of Just Vision: On Trees.

Saturday, October 15, 3 PM - 4 PM - Sasha Bezzubov + Jessica Sucher: Artist Talk.

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