Us/Them II
Qedar Settlement, West Bank, Palestine 2008
Qalandia (rubbish dump), West Bank 2008
Container Checkpoint, West Bank, Palestine 2008
Qalandia/Psagot-Settlement expansion, West Bank, Palestine 2008
Atarot/A-Ram (Wall), West Bank, Palestine 2008
Har Homa Settlement on Jebel Abu Ghnaim, West Bank, Palestine 2008
Upcycling, Damascus Gate, Jerusalem 2008
The Complete World, Abu Dis, Jerusalem 2008
El-Bireh Playground, West Bank, Palestine 2008
Ma'ale Adumim Settlement, West Bank, Palestine 2001
Qalandia Checkpoint, West Bank, Palestine 2001
Roadblock, Bir Nabala, Palestine 2001
Har Homa Settlement Construction, Palestine 2001
Qedar Settlement, West Bank, Palestine 2003
Playground, Abu Dis, Jerusalem 2001
Har Homa Settlement / Jabel Abu Ghnaim. Palestine 2001
Mizpe Jericho Settlement, Palestine 2003
Maids with a Palestinian child, East Jerusalem 2001
Rimonim Settlement, West Bank, Palestine 2001
Al-Tira Olive Grove, Palestine 2001
Playground / Army Camp, Abu Dis, Palestine 2001
Maids with a Palestinian child, East Jerusalem 2001
The Grove, Beit Sahur, Palestine 2001
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«Us/Them II» 2001-2008
Us/Them II is a body of photographs that negotiates the massive and accelerated changes in urban and rural space and landscape in the environs of East-Jerusalem. An initial set of images was created in 2001 with the beginning of the gradual isolation of Palestinian Jerusalem from its natural environment the West Bank, which provided in many ways essential quality of life for the city. In a long-term, sustainable observation effort this initial work serves as a basis for more and new photographs from 2008 that are put in comparison. The present and near future of a reality of pure apartheid dictated with all military might and economic power seems evident if one sees the segregated Israeli settlements and the Wall surrounding the city on the one hand, and the Palestinian part that is kept to its lowest development on the other. The uniqueness of Jerusalem as a place of universal values and spiritual importance is rapidly eroding. Urban planning and the insane conquest of more and more Palestinian resources have done enormous physical and psychological damage that hardly leaves room for hope in the Holy Land.
Us/Them II was commissioned by Al-Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art Jerusalem and extended for the Jerusalem Show 2008. The project was published in Camera Austria (Shaheen Merali: Peter Riedlinger, us/them II, in: CAMERA AUSTRIA, # 90/2005, S. 50-55)