I’ve been a pretty vocal critic of Jodi Rudoren, the New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem for the last few years. This weekend’s New York Times caries an article she’s written from Gaza about an artist (photographer) whose work is currently on display in Jerusalem. I still can’t believe she wrote this whole article about a woman’s 14 self portraits without mentioning the word “selfie” even once! This is how she shared her piece on Facebook:
A lot of people who live in the Gaza Strip see it as an open-air prison because of Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on travel. But Nidaa Badwan, a young artist, imprisoned herself in her own room to escape Gaza, and created a world where she feels free. She also created a striking set of self-portraits now on display in a Jerusalem gallery.
Jodi tells the story of how Ms. Badwan consigned herself to solitude in her room after the following took place:
On Nov. 18, 2013, Ms. Badwan said, she was harassed by Hamas officers while helping with a youth arts program. They questioned why she was standing with men. They chastised her for wearing those jean overalls and made her sign a paper promising not to go outside without loosely fitting, traditional Islamic garb.
“I told them I’m an artist; they said, ‘What does this mean?’ ” she recalled. “I said, ‘I make films and videos.’ They said, ‘We don’t know what you are talking about, and what do you wear? Why do you look so different?’ They hit me.”
The next day, Ms. Badwan retreated to her room.
It’s interesting to note the three word sentence: “They hit me.” They being Hamas’s “officers” enforcing Islamic sharia dress codes. Remember, sharia dress codes were never enforced in Gaza when it was “occupied” by Israel. We also don’t know how severely they hit her: enough to make her lock herself away for over a year though.
The woman has taken some amazing portraits in her self imposed solitude and, without once blaming Israel for pretty much anything, Jodi tells her story sympathetically. It’s clear throughout the piece that artistic self expression is largely impossible in Gaza and that is the fault of the Islamic dictates of the Hamas rulers.
“I used to knock on many doors in Gaza to enter the world I want to live in, but there is no door,” she explained. “I love cinema; there is no cinema in Gaza. I paint; there are no galleries to show what I paint. A woman and an artist at the same time — this is a catastrophe.”
The comment about Hamas hitting her is also matched by another subtle expression of displeasure toward Hamas:
Ms. Badwan speaks in poetry and moves, in rainbow-striped socks, like a dancer. When a truck rolled by outside blaring Hamas slogans, she made a sour face and yanked the window shut.
Obviously Israel is so packed full of art, photography, dance and a myriad of other forms of self expression that you could throw a brick in parts of Tel Aviv and hit three stories like this. They just wouldn’t be interesting because they would struggle to be unique.
Those of us cast on one side of this struggle certainly don’t see everyone on the other side as inhuman terrorists. Again and again I note how the first victims of terrorists like Hamas are those they conquer and rule internally.
I hope Jodi has not said anything that will cause this woman harm in Gaza and I hope, one day, she and the rest of the good people in Gaza can free themselves from their bondage and return to the liberal kind of society we have over on this side of the fence.
