Today (Wednesday 21 March) we discussed the mainly Liberal stance that everybody is entitled to her opinion. This stance, that each person can behave and believe in a certain manner even if it negates another person's rights and person-hood, rests on the premise that there is no such thing as a moral or ethical truth value.
This evening I attended a slide show and lecture by Tisch graduate Los Angeles-based photographer Naomi Solomon, who was sharing her work on Israeli settlers. This work was her first really personal work and she was deeply emotionally invested in it. I have an ongoing project on Palestinian daily life, especially girls' lives in refugee camps in the West Bank. Solomon's photography and stories opened me up to the idea that these people--from the hilltop youth to the religious Zionists to the suburban commuter-community-dwellers--almost all gun-toting--were humans. When I travel in the Occupied West Bank I am frightened of them first and foremost for that simple reason that they are armed and then because many are known to often attack and sometimes kill Palestinians. However, Naomi Solomon explained that they were scared of Palestinian violence so they carried guns.
What struck me was that she made me uncomfortable in an odd way. Her pictures made it impossible for me to view the settlers as I had before: as a grey, violent, racist mass. She was discussing people.
At the end of her presentation, the only thing that made me angry was that she stated blithely that she and those whose opinion differed from hers (I think she was referring to anti-Zionists here) could, "Agree to disagree."
Especially in light of today's discussion and in light of my feelings towards the Land of Palestine/Israel and the world in general, I refuse to agree to disagree. To me it seems like right now most people have reached this false agreement. To take the example of Naomi Solomon's beloved Gaza, right now, Palestinian militants continue to shoot crudely-made Qassam missiles over the wall that surrounds Gaza into Israel, just this summer Israeli bombs destroyed Gaza's only electricity generator and more Israeli bombs killed over 300 people in "Operation Summer Rain" to "search" for the kidnapped POW soldier Gilad Shalit, the Israeli military closed Gaza borders from the export of agricultural products further stagnating the economy and leaving tons of fruit and vegetables to rot, and the Israeli settlers that were evacuated in 2005 are still without jobs or permanent housing--in short, this is not a status quo that I want, and I do not think that it is the status quo that Naomi Solomon--or anyone--could want.
I want to acknowledge that each person has her own experience and feelings, her own hopes and fears. In any conflict it is necessary to listen to these and then to talk about why different points are right and others are wrong, to frame the discussion in an agreed moral framework, and work a vision for a better change from there.
My photography is now up in the Gallatin Lobby (I publish as Risaala Lys) and online at www.risaalalys.com.
Naomi Solomon's work can be seen here: http://www.lightstalkers.org/naomisolomon
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