“One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”
—Omar El Akkad, Journalist
Why We Record: Defying Fragmentation and Erasure in Palestine is a joint exhibit curated by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Visualizing Palestine (VP). The exhibit includes a collection of VP’s visuals, AFSC’s photos, and excerpts from published stories on the themes of fragmentation, displacement, return, and future visioning.
The exhibit commits to recording injustices that Palestinians face daily. Even though recording the truth has made Palestinian journalists into targets for retribution, this exhibit amplifies their voices, refusing to contribute to the silence.
The exhibit is divided into three themes of the Palestinian experience:
- Displacement
- Fragmentation
- Return and future visioning
The exhibitor’s note:
As the viewer looks at photographs from Palestine right after the Nakba, or “catastrophe” of 1948, and learns, or relearns, from VP’s visuals the truths of Israeli military occupation, settler colonialism, apartheid, and genocide, we invite them to consider what they might do to hold accountable those responsible before it is too late.
