New Photo Exhibit in South Kensington Documents Twenty Years Behind Israel’s Apartheid Wall
Yaqeen Yamani
In their new photo exhibit, “La La Lil Jidar: 20 Years Behind the Apartheid Wall in Palestine,” Philadelphia-based photographer Aisha Mershani (they/them) documents the devastating impact that Israel’s apartheid wall has had on Palestinian life since Israel began construction in 2002. The apartheid wall is a 440-mile long concrete wall which extends 30-feet high in some areas. While Israel claimed to build the wall to secure its borders, the wall in fact extends more than double the length of the Green Line, with 15% of its length running along the Green Line, and the remaining 85% running as much as 11 miles inside the West Bank. It separates Palestinian neighborhoods from one another, and even runs right through the middle of individuals’ property—making it impossible for some homeowners to reach their own farmland only a few yards away.
Artist Aisha Mershani stands with two of her photographs at InLiquid Gallery. (Image courtesy of Aisha Mershani.)
“La La Lil Jidar” (Arabic, meaning “No to The Wall”) opened on September 14 at InLiquid Gallery in Philadelphia’s South Kensington neighborhood. Mershani’s images document the wall over the past 20 years, as well as individual Palestinians who’ve been impacted by it. Still others, depict Palestinian protests against the wall and the violence of the Israeli army against the unarmed Palestinian resistance movement.
Gallery visitors are also invited to hear Palestinians tell their stories directly. A QR code is placed beside each photo, linking visitors to audio clips of interviews Mershani conducted in Palestine. “We live in hell,” says Alaa of Abu Dis. “In Europe, everything is easy to access. Cities that are five hours away are easily accessed by transportation. Here, I can’t access my city which is [located only] a few minutes away.”
Born in Las Vegas to an American Jewish mother and a Moroccan Muslim father, Mershani, 45, has been engaged in activism for almost 20 years. When they traveled to Palestine for the first time in 2004, they connected with Palestinians in Budrus, a village near Ramallah and learned more about Palestinian popular uprisings against Israeli occupation. “I wasn't a photographer, but I had a digital and a film camera and instinctively started photographing,” Mershani tells Al-Bustan. “I have never been in a protest. The people were peaceful, but the army wasn't. And I was scared.”
Mershani says they realized that Americans lack awareness about the violent situation in Palestine was due to a lack of media coverage.
“Tell your people.” That's what every Palestinian Mershani encountered asked of them. That request motivated them to go back to Palestine in 2007, 2013, and 2022 to collect testimonies and build the project.
A group of artists, trauma consultants, and college students based in Palestine and Philadelphia who form the La La Lil Jidar Collective, have helped Mershani with the project – from image selection and curation to website development and graphic design. Mershani stresses the importance of collaborative work in activism. It's not just one individual’s work, but a collective effort, they say. “We want to bring [the show] to any community that wants us,” Mershani said.
Today, an assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies at Gettysburg College, Mershani says they hope that by visiting the gallery, and listening to the audio recordings, visitors will learn how Palestinians are affected by Israel’s Apartheid Wall. “Visit the gallery, go slow, make it through the experience,” they said. “Take time to sit, listen to the person and their story, and ask yourself: ‘What can I do with this?’”
“La La Lil Jidar: 20 Years Behind the Apartheid Wall in Palestine” is on view through November 11.
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Yaqeen Yamani is a Palestinian photographer based in Philadelphia. She holds a BA in Media Studies from Al-Quds Bard College, and currently is pursuing her MFA in photography at Tyler School of Art and Architecture. She interned at InLiquid Gallery in 2023 and is a member of La La Lil Jidar Collective.