Getting Sabrine To Scotland

“The Occupation of Childhood”

“Every year, hundreds of Palestinian children are detained by Israeli authorities. They are the only children in the world who are systematically prosecuted through military, rather than civilian, courts.The most common charge is throwing stones – for which the maximum sentence is 20 years in prison.” (Save the Children - Palestine)

Our photographic portrayals of childhood often involve notions of “sweetness” and “innocence”. But can these qualities persist in a childhood under Occupation ?

Sabrine Mukarker- Zeidan spends her life photographing children. The families that visit her studio usually like to preserve memories of their children untainted by the daily harassments of an occupying power.

In this exhibition, however, she portrays the lives of Palestinian children beyond the confines of the studio, and poses the question: can innocence survive in a country where children are systematically oppressed by a brutal occupying power?

The Network of Photographers for Palestine is proud to sponsor this outstanding young photographer on a tour of Scotland in August this year. We will be accompanying Sabrine around the Scottish cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, as well as the Isle of Arran, where she will exhibit her work and talk about her experiences as a photographer and mother of two in the Occupied West Bank.

As you may know, this tour was originally planned for last summer. Sabrine received her travel visa two days after she was due to travel to Scotland! This year we can confirm that Sabrine has already received her visa and is looking forward to her visit to Scotland.

This is one of the 12 monthly events we are producing this year to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Nakba.

Many Thanks for supporting our project.