Jewish and Arab teenagers meet by means of images: ‘We aren’t so completely different’

Noor Darwish of Baqa al-Gharbiyye and Noga Peleg of Kibbutz Dalia grew up not removed from one another, however their paths seemingly by no means would have crossed — had been it not for “Through Others’s Eyes,” a program run by the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat Haviva.

Over the previous yr, about 20 Jewish and Arab youngsters have met as soon as every week as a part of a joint instructional and inventive course of combining images courses, dialogue and attending to know each other.

“This was the first time in my life that I really got to know Jews my age,” Noor says. “I had encountered them in public places, but we never actually sat down and talked. The program made that possible for me.”

For Noga, the connection started when this system was launched at her faculty. “It was important to me to get to know them in a genuine way,” she says. “I was very excited about it.”

Noor, how did you be part of this system?

“I heard about it from my mother and at school. I read about it and realized it was something special, so I joined.”

Through the digital camera lens, the contributors realized concerning the fears, hopes and customary floor shared by the 2 communities. They explored questions of identification, belonging, adolescence, boundaries, similarity and distinction and collectively created a bunch venture that’s being offered within the remaining exhibition, “Taken Out of Context,” which opened earlier this month on the heart’s gallery.

What shocked you concerning the youngsters from the opposite aspect?

Noga: “I was mainly surprised that our afternoons are quite different. For example, I dance almost every day after school, and I learned that they mostly sit and study. A lot of people do that on our side too, but for me it was different.”

Noor: “My opinion didn’t change, but it expanded. I discovered that although we come from different cultures, we have a lot in common. At the end of the day, we’re teenagers — I like the things Noga likes and I struggle with exactly the same dilemmas.”

And what are you taking away from this expertise?

“I learned that listening is no less important than speaking and that everyone has their own story, neither better nor worse — simply a human story. When you don’t know someone and rely on stereotypes, it creates fear of the other side. You can easily overcome that by trying to get to know one another and realizing that, in the end, we are all Israelis living next to each other and even interested in the same things.”

The story of Noor and Noga is only one chapter in a for much longer custom: This is the twenty sixth cohort of “Through Others’s Eyes,” carefully accompanied by Jinan Halabi, this system’s coordinator, photographer and exhibition curator.

“It’s a long-running program that has been gaining momentum over time,” she says.

How do you clarify the truth that this system is gaining momentum now?

“With everything happening around us — and precisely because of this tense security situation — Israeli youth feel they have to meet, learn about and get to know the other side.

“After Oct. 7, we felt that the desire to meet was coming from the teenagers themselves. They want answers, they want to understand, they want to feel closer — because ultimately they live in the same place. Usually, Jewish and Arab children and teenagers don’t meet at all at these ages. The first time they meet may be at university, and that’s already too late. Even there, it’s not a real encounter because they’re busy with their studies and getting ahead in life.”

The exhibition, which grew out of the method developed by means of this system, focuses this yr on the idea of freedom — and never by likelihood.

“Every year, the exhibition revolves around a different theme,” Jinan explains.

“Three years ago, it focused on Oct. 7. Last year, the participants searched for a lot of hope amid the situation we were living through as the war continued. This year, I felt they were searching for freedom. They want to break out of the framework we’ve been stuck in for far too long. For six or seven years now, we’ve all been experiencing one upheaval after another, from the coronavirus pandemic until today — and they simply want normal lives already.”

How was the exhibition’s identify chosen?

“The teenagers began photographing different situations and objects by taking them out of their usual context, and this came through clearly in the photographs. That’s where the name came from, as well as the message they are trying to convey through the exhibition: We take things out of context to find our freedom. In my view, that is a statement in itself.”

So what can guests see within the exhibition? There isn’t any single reply to the query of what freedom is. Some of the pictures doc actual moments whereas others are staged. In some, a physique seems clearly and prominently, whereas in others a determine turns into blurred till it disappears.

But basically, all of them do the identical factor: They take on a regular basis objects, acquainted locations and fleeting moments and {photograph} them exterior their regular context, till they change into photographs of hope, worry and belonging.

And the solutions that nonetheless emerge from the works level in reverse instructions: the will for liberation alongside the worry of shedding, the liberty to be alone alongside the liberty to be collectively.

Another moving story lies behind this year’s exhibition: It is being held thanks to a donation made in memory of Dr. Aharon Weiss, a historian, Holocaust researcher and Holocaust survivor who, as a young man, hid for many months in order to survive the horrors of the war.

After his death in September 2025, his wife, Pnina, and the extended family chose to commemorate his memory by supporting the “Through Different Eyes” program and exhibition.

Pnina, 97, has a story intertwined with those dark years. She was born in Romania, survived the years of World War II and later immigrated to Israel, completed her studies and became a civil engineer.

Throughout their life together, she and Aharon believed that remembering the past carries with it a responsibility to shape the future and that education and dialogue are the way to do so. When Pnina was asked why she chose to support the program, she answered simply: “If there is a way to fix something in this world, it is only through education.”

The spirit of those words can also be found in the philosophy behind the program as a whole — art as a shared language, even when the spoken language is not always shared.

Or, as Jinan places it: “In a year when the reality around them repeatedly sharpened fear and polarization, they chose to create together.

“Not to erase their differences, but to encounter them. Not to agree on everything, but to remain within the shared space. From that encounter came the possibility of seeing the other — and perhaps themselves — through different eyes.”

The “Taken Out of Context” exhibition by the “Through Other’s Eyes” program is on show on the gallery of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat Haviva and is open to the general public freed from cost.