Wikimedia Israel
Wikimedia Israel Palestine
In 2018, Wikimedia Israel gathered archival images from the early 20th century with expired copyrights and published about 28,000 images to Wikipedia’s platform for free, public access. The photos give insight into life of Palestinian families in the region—Muslim, Christian, and Jewish— before the creation of the Israeli state. Learn more about life in historic Palestine at the Promised Land Museum.

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 1: The old city of Jerusalem, 1945. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 2: Jewish children of Yemeni descent during religious study, 1925. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 3: Druze women baking pita bread, 1920. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 4: The refugee ship “Gina” in the port of Haifa, 1944. From a collection of photographs by photographer Zoltan Kluger. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Images 5+6: The 14th Regiment Coast Battery of the British Royal Army in Haifa, Palestine, 1941. From a collection of photographs by photographer Zoltan Kluger. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 7: “Forty trees”, a holy place for Arabs in Haifa, Palestine, 1925. Photographed by Yosif Shoyig. From the Jewish National Fund photo archive. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 8: On November 19, 1947, Arabs in the desert surprised to see a new Jewish settlement was constructed overnight. Photographed by Melvski Avraham. From the Jewish National Fund photo archive.
(Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 9: Photographed in Jerusalem on January 1, 1930 by Ze’ev Vilnail with the caption “Living water.” Men are seen wearing the Ottoman tarboosh. From the Jewish National Fund photo archive.
(Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Images 10+11+12+13+14: On March 1, 1947, photographer known as Ms. Shortz documents guests arriving to a Jewish wedding and celebrating together. The photographer notes that the Arab guests brought cooked rice. From the Jewish National Fund photo archive. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 15: On May 9, 1929, photographer Yosef Shoyig photographs signs of honor “Herzl” (possibly referring to Theodor Herzl) received from the Turkish Sultan during his visit. From the Jewish National Fund photo archive.
(Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 16: Photograph of an Arab farmer, 1930. From the Jewish National Fund photo archive. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 17: View of Jaffa, Palestine, 1900. From the Moshe Sharett archives. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 18: Meeting with Arab leaders and Moshe Sharett, Itzhak Ben-Tzvi, Chaim Arlozorov, and Avraham Shapira at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, 1933. From the Moshe Sharett archives. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 19: A meeting at the United Nations with Eliyahu Epstein, secretary of the agency’s (unclear) management in Washington, and Andrey Gromyko, the Minister of Affairs of the USSR, 1947. From the Moshe Sharett archives. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 20: Jewish-Palestinian cadets in the Turkish Army, 1916. From the Moshe Sharett archives. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 21: 1944 poster in Mandate Palestine advocating for Jewish enlistment to the British Army, likely to the Jewish Brigade. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 22: 1940 poster calling for contributions to Keren Hayesod. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 23: A 1940 poster calling on the Jewish public to encourage immigration to Palestine. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 24: A Bedouin family passing through what is now Tel Aviv, 1933. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 25: A Bedouin family walking along the road near Kibbutz “Gal On” in 1946. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 26: A Bedouin Sheikh visiting a member of Kibbutz Maoz Haim in the Beit Shean Valley in 1938. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Wikimedia Israel Palestine

Image 27: A family of new immigrants from Aden, Yemen in Haifa, Palestine, 1943. (Public domain/Wikimedia Israel)

Latest Posts

A Burglary Motivated by Racism

A Burglary Motivated by Racism

Haaaretz journalists Gideon Levy and Alex Levac reported on a West Bank burglary case in 2020 in which a small Palestinian business was repeatedly burglarized by Jewish settlers. Was this burglary motivated by racism? Mohammed Mahmadi, 29, left his restaurant job in...

read more
Curt’s Hebron

Curt’s Hebron

Curtis Bell, President of Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East, spoke to the First Unitarian Church’s Department of Social Justice about his two months in Hebron and what he learned about the Palestinian experience under Israeli occupation. Video...

read more
Virginia Tech GPSS

Virginia Tech GPSS

The Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) at Virginia Tech passed a resolution in October 2021 demanding that the University’s administration enact an academic boycott of Israel and institutions “complicit in maintaining the Israeli occupation.” The...

read more
Jerusalem