Distinctive AP photo project depicts Israelis, Palestinians sharing summer on distant shores
By Oded Balilty and Khalil Hamra
For years, AP’s Khalil Hamra and Oded Balilty have captured the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through their award-winning photography. This summer they turned their lenses away from the violence and onto a place of refuge for both sides: the stretch of beaches along the Mediterranean Sea.
With Balilty making images from Tel Aviv and Hamra from Gaza, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers produced an evocative essay showing Palestinians basking in the sun, free of the fences and guard towers that define their lives, and Israelis relaxing in the sand some 70 kilometers (40 miles) away, free from fear of the next eruption of fighting.
Lifeguard stations stand on the beach of Gaza City, left, Sept. 27, 2021, and at right, early in the morning on the Mediterranean Sea beachfront in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug. 17, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Israeli kids, left, snorkel at Tel Aviv’s beach, June 26, 2021, and at right, Palestinians enjoy a summer day swimming in the Mediterranean Sea on Gaza’s beach, June 26, 2021. – AP Photos / Oded Balilty, left; Khalil Hamra
Palestinians spend a summer day on the beach as the sun sets over the Mediterranean Sea in Gaza City, Aug. 20, 2021, left, and at right, Israelis foot-volley a ball on the beach in Tel Aviv, June 12, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
A Palestinian man, left, wears a necklace with a map of Palestine as he poses for a photo on the beach of Gaza City, Sept. 10, 2021, and at right, an Israeli beach worker wears a necklace with the Star of David pendant while posing early in the morning on the beach in Tel Aviv, July 2, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Palestinians cover a boy with sand on the beach at Gaza City, Sept. 24, 2021, left, and at right, Israeli youth do the same on the beach in Tel Aviv, June 20, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
People enjoy a day the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 12, 2021, left, and at right, Palestinians exercise on the beach in Gaza City, July 16, 2021. – AP Photos / Oded Balilty, left; Khalil Hamra
Palestinians, left, enjoy a summer day on the beach of Gaza City, July 10, 2020, and at right, two Israeli women take a selfie on the beach in Tel Aviv, Aug. 13, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Palestinians listen to music and smoke a hookah on the beach of Gaza City, Aug. 12, 2021, left, and at right, two Israelis smoke a hookah on a dog-friendly beach in Tel Aviv, July 10, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Israeli kids jump into the Mediterranean Sea at Tel Aviv’s beach, July 4, 2020, left, and at right, Palestinians jump into the water at the beach in Gaza City, Aug. 6, 2021. – AP Photos / Oded Balilty, left; Khalil Hamra
Palestinians play cards on a summer day at the beach in Gaza City, July 9, 2021, left, and at right, Israelis play chess on Tel Aviv’s beach, July 4, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Israelis play with their pets on a dog-friendly beach in Tel Aviv, Sept. 25, 2021, left, and at right, Palestinians ride horses while others swim on the beach at Gaza City, Sept. 17, 2021. – AP Photos / Oded Balilty, left; Khalil Hamra
Palestinian children ride a camel on the beach of Gaza City, Aug. 20, 2021, left, and at right, Israeli man Moshe Nehoshtan walks with his four pet rats around his neck on Tel Aviv’s beach, June 11, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Beachgoers enjoy a summer day on the Mediterranean Sea beachfront in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug. 7, 2021, left, and at right, Palestinians spend a day on the beach of Gaza City, Aug. 12, 2021. – AP Photos / Oded Balilty, left; Khalil Hamra
Palestinians hold evening prayers on the beach of Gaza City, Aug 20, 2021, left, and at right, Israelis play under a light pole early in the evening on Tel Aviv’s beach, June 26, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Two Palestinians, left, prepare their nets before fishing from the beach of Gaza City, July 4, 2021, and at right, two Israelis on Tel Aviv’s beach prepare to throw their fishing nets into the Mediterranean Sea, Aug. 31, 2020. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Israeli youths rest after digging a hole in the sand on the Mediterranean Sea beachfront in Tel Aviv, June 18, 2021, left, and at right, Palestinian children play with water on a summer day at the beach of Gaza City, June 24, 2021. – AP Photos / Oded Balilty, left; Khalil Hamra
An Israeli family, left, spends the day on a dog-friendly beach in Tel Aviv, July 10, 2021, and at right, Palestinians give a bath to a donkey on the beach of Gaza City, July 16, 2021. – AP Photos / Oded Balilty, left; Khalil Hamra
Beachgoers enjoy a summer day on the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug. 14, 2021, left, and at right, Palestinians spend a day on the beachfront of Gaza City, Aug. 6, 2021. – AP Photos / Oded Balilty, left; Khalil Hamra
Palestinian children play in the surf as the sun sets over the beach of Gaza City, June 4, 2021, left, and at right, Israeli youths play in the water as the sun sets over Tel Aviv’s beach, June 18, 2021. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Heart shapes, left, drawn in sand as the sun sets over the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 12, 2021, and at right, a Palestinian man works on a sand sculpture of a heart on the beach of Gaza City, July 2, 2021. – AP Photos / Oded Balilty, left; Khalil Hamra
Hamra, like most Palestinians from Gaza, has never been to Tel Aviv. Balilty, like most Israelis, has not been to Gaza since Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers in 2005. While they’ve covered the conflict for decades, they met in person just once, at a photo exhibition in Europe in 2003. Communicating via Zoom, they talked about what they were seeing, made pictures, shared them and then set out to find similar ones from the their respective sides.
The pair, collaborating with global enterprise photo editor Enric Marti and Mideast photo director Dusan Vranic, aimed to capture a shared reality — the humanity of the people on both sides — as well as the differences.
“On the same day that I was standing with my feet in the water in Tel Aviv, Khalil was standing with his feet in the water in Gaza, and it was the same water,” says Balilty. “I was seeing Gaza through Khalil’s eyes.”
Three Palestinians men, left, pose for a photograph while enjoying a summer day on the beach of Gaza City, July 30, 2021, and at right, three Israelis spend a day on the beach in Tel Aviv, Aug. 8, 2021, right. – AP Photos / Khalil Hamra, left; Oded Balilty
Hamra was particularly moved by a set of nearly identical pictures from Tel Aviv and Gaza, each showing three young men in their teens or early 20s reclining on the beach. Men that age in Israel are usually doing their compulsory military service. Men that age in Gaza often risk their lives in violent protests along the heavily guarded frontier. “But these guys, they were relaxing, they were swimming, they were having fun,” Hamra said. ”At the end of the day there is life,” he added.
The powerful presentation,built by immersive storytelling producer Nat Castañeda,began with a Wes Anderson-esque combo of lifeguard towers — symmetrical and minimal — from each side,their condition revealing the difference in wealth. While building the presentation,Castañeda also created the moving, insightful video accompanying the piece,revealing more about the photographers and how they applied their craft.
For a strikingly unique,creative collaboration that brought,in Balilty’s words,“something positive” from a part of the world beset by conflict, Hamra and Balilty win this week’s Best of the Week award.
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