Maree Makom

Anger
In the first visit to the mourning house in Al-Khalil,
an Arab girl reciting words of rage was videotaped
without sound, her round open face filling the
entire picture. What remained outside the frame,
and beyond the screeching stillness of the sight of
the full lips moving incessant and fast, and the
strained neck upright and stiff in the childish collar
of the black and white uniform, was the automatic
hand gesture of the visiting Israeli delegation’s
leader, towards the shoulder of a crying father,
grasping it with five dry and narrow fingers,
suspending the moment for a photograph that was
never taken, and in some internal undetectable
slap, shoving the grieving man’s pain to his lips,
which are now waking up-contorted, recognizing
the metal eye staring from the room’s other end.
And yet the eye is concentrated on the silence of
the orphan’s voice that is emerging still, and that
will emerge ever since, from the video screen.
Video Recording Site
Al-Khalil. A house in mourning
The home-owners’ son has been stabbed to
death by an Israeli settler several days prior
to the recorded visit.
Video Recording Occasion
1998. Initial production days of a video piece
by L. and R.
Participants
Young girl - daughter of the deceased
A delegation from Israel consisting of
representatives from various peace
movements
A delegation from Palestine, among which is
present H., a resident of Al-Khalil and an
Al-Khalil municipality engineer, who will soon
begin aiding the two women in the making of
their piece
Family members
L. - An Israeli videographer residing in Tel Aviv
R. - An Israeli writer living in Jerusalem