25 May 2016 – 17 June 2016 at Studio One — Toi Tū 

Fringe exhibition – Auckland Festival of Photography 2016

“So I stood and questioned that site; yet how should we question rocks

set immovable, whose speech is nothing significant?

All is naked now, where once the people were all foregathered”

  A Desert Encampment, Labid (Bedouin poetry)

By the Jerusalem to Jericho Road in the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar stands a School, built in 2009, out of tyres and mud.

The School is located in Area C of the occupied West Bank and was constructed by the Bedouin community with the help of Italian NGO to provide the local children a much wished for opportunity to study in the safety of their village.

In Area C Palestinians are prohibited from building using permanent materials, such as cement. The School is facing demolition orders from the Israeli Authorities and petitions for demolition from the neighbouring Israeli settlements. The Bedouin community are disputing the demolition orders through the Courts.

These photographs document the School’s daily activities, over two months, in 2010. During this time the expansion of a highway to connect the near-by Israeli Settlements commenced.

As at April 2016 the School is still standing, with extra classrooms built out of bamboo.

Demolition orders are pending.

For further information and to contact the Bedouin Community: Bedouin Silver Tent Association FB Page