Postales de la Tierra Santa

El 19 de Agosto presente en Montevideo, Uruguay mi libro Postales de la Tierra Santa, ganador del llamado a Libro de Autor por Publicaciones CdF 2015.  

Rodeado de muchos amigos y colegas que se acercaron al Centro de Fotografía de Montevideo fue un momento especial. 

Aquí dejo parte de mis palabras durante la presentación: 

Cuando un periodista cubre un conflicto, la historia que importa es la de las partes en cuestión, las victimas, los perpetradores, la destrucción, los cambios políticos, la manipulación, el miedo, los heridos, el uso de poder desmedido, los famosos daños colaterales, la muerte, las violaciones de Derechos Humanos y la crisis en la población civil que todo conflicto genera. Para eso estamos en el terreno, para documentar y no dejar que estos males pasen desapercibidos, para obligarlos a Uds. a mirar de forma directa lo que pasa.  Cuando además pertenecemos a una de las partes del conflicto, como periodistas, tenemos la doble obligación de no olvidar "el dolor de los demás" como lo llamo Susan Sontag

Los que tenemos la posibilidad de ver, oír, oler, sentir, y tocar los sucesos por estar en el terreno, hemos perdido la inocencia, hemos sido testigos directos y nuestros trabajos documentan lo que vimos y vivimos. Nosotros tenemos la tarea de humanizar en un lugar donde buscan deshumanizar.

Nuestra vivencia personal no es la historia.  Las dificultades, los miedos y los peligros son parte de esta profesión, son parte de nuestra experiencia personal. Nosotros no somos la historia.

Pero estar tan cerca del conflicto te cambia. Afecta tu día a día, te deja cicatrices, algunas que se cierran rápidamente y otras que ni el tiempo logra cerrar.  La vida diaria se mezcla todo el tiempo con la realidad, dejando poco espacio entre el trabajo y lo personal. Desde el nivel de visión que tenemos, quienes estamos en el terreno, nos es imposible ser ajeno a lo que ocurre a tu alrededor.

Este libro, es justamente un tipo de diario personal, qe a diferencia del trabajo diario como periodista, se concentra en esas experiencias personales. En este libro cuento las experiencias de la persona detrás de la cámara. Cuenta mi conflicto. La foto que permiten ver momentos del conflicto junto al texto que refleja momentos de mi vida.

No busco ser objetivo y no quiero ser políticamente correcto. Mi anhelo es que la gente vea en mi obra la parte humana del conflicto, su complejidad y también como éste afecta a mi vida y a mi trabajo. Quiero que cuando el lector observe y lea se cuestione, se incomode, se moleste. En un mundo global como el que vivimos, todos podemos hacer algo para cambiar la realidad; la realidad cercana y la lejana. 

Comparto con Uds. parte de la difusión del libro en medios uruguayos. 

Enlaces a entrevistas:

Entrevista en 7 Mil Millones

Entrevista en Codigo Pais:  

Hora Pico - Jorge Traverso

Entrevista en Por Amor al Arte

La Mañana en Casa - Mano a Mano

Sábado Sarandí

El Espectador - ROMPKBZAS

Radio Uruguay - Efecto Mariposa

La Diaria

Brecha

EL Observador

Revista Bla

Kaparot en Mea Shearim

Judíos ultra ortodoxos cumplen con el rito de "Kaparot" antes del 'Dia del Perdon' o Yom Kipur en el barrio Mea Shearim en Jerusalen. Según la tradición se pasa el ave por sobre la cabeza 3 veces para transferirle en forma simbólica los pecados, luego se la faena y se la obsequia a los pobres como caridad.

El pueblo unido, el shaab yurid, ha'am doresh..... time to take the streets of Israel

"The people demand social justice" shouted 150 000 Israelis in different parts of the country, In Jerusalem 10 000 marched to the PM residence. A strong evening reminded  me the days in Bs As, not there yet, not even close, but the conscience is building up.

Shakira visits "Hand in Hand" School in Jerusalem

“My visit to Max Rayne School today here in Jerusalem – an inspirational school where students learn together, across all divides, speaking both Arabic and Hebrew, learning and playing together without difference— only reminded me, once again, that the most crucial decisions we can make for a better tomorrow concern how to raise and educate our children.”

Shakira during her visit to Hand in Hand School in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Boxing Club - The Guardian

Gallery

Jerusalem boxing club brings Arabs and Jews together

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem

 guardian.co.uk, Sunday 26 June 2011 17.03 BST

Gym in converted bomb shelter opens doors to all comers, with one rule – politics is left outside

The two men – one a Palestinian, the other an Israeli Jew – square up, the muscles in their faces clenched as they prepare to hit each other. They circle each other, fists raised. Then it begins: punches aimed at the head, accompanied by sharp grunts.
It's over quickly. Panting and dripping with sweat, they pull apart. They grin at each another, and the Palestinian truck driver claps a comradely hand on the shoulder of the Israeli soldier.
The pair are not fighting as enemies, but training as friends in an unusual subterranean boxing club, based in a converted bomb shelter in a rundown area of west Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Boxing Club opens its doors to everyone: Jews, Arabs, Russians, boys and girls. Its youngest member is eight years old; the oldest is in his mid-60s.
Gershon Luxemburg, an immigrant from Uzbekistan who has run the club with his brother for 30 years, firmly believes sport can overcome political, religious, nationalist and cultural differences and act as a bridge across a 63-year conflict. "This is not war, this is sport," Luxemburg, 66, says. "There is never any trouble, never any abuse here between the kids."
Later this week, Luxemburg will take eight of his young boxers to compete in the Israeli junior championships. Russian clubs and Arab clubs compete alongside Israeli Jewish clubs; the Jerusalem Boxing Club is the only one which, most years, presents a mixed team.
The walls are covered with posters of Muhammad Ali, photographs of club members and other boxing memorabilia. Shelves are crowded with trophies and medals. On a warm Sunday evening, around 20 of the club's 200 members turn up for training, including three teenage girls. Luxemburg barks out orders in Russian-accented Hebrew.
"The ones who can, pay – and the ones who can't, don't," he says. "Kids with money go to play tennis. Most of the kids here are coming from difficult families, sometimes no mother or father."
The Palestinian members sometimes struggle to attend training regularly, he says. "They are hard workers, often they are coming after a long day of working, supporting their families. They are not as free as the Jewish kids."
Asked if the Palestinian and Israeli members get on, Luxemburg laughs. "You will see. Some of the Jewish members live in settlements built across the "green line" in East Jerusalem. "When they come in cars, they give a lift to the Arab kids," says Luxemburg.
He hasn't always been such a strong advocate for coexistence. He arrived in Israel from Uzbekistan ("there was a lot of antisemitism") at the age of 28, and served in the Israeli army during the Yom Kippur and first Lebanon wars. "I was fighting Arabs in my tanks," he says.
In the late 1980s he spent six months in prison and two years under house arrest for his involvement in an underground Jewish cell, including stockpiling weapons.
A building superintendent by day and the author of three books of poetry, Luxemburg says it became clear to him that Jews and Arabs had to learn to live together. "I understood we can't fight each other forever. They won't expel us and we won't expel them. We need to work together and understand each other in order to change things."
He began handing his boxing club card to Palestinians he met. "Every time I saw someone who could be a boxer – like when filling up my car at a gas station – I gave them my card and said come and train with me."
Back at the training session, Ismail Jafrei, 37, the Palestinian truck driver from East Jerusalem, says he and his Jewish fellow boxers are "like brothers".
"There is one condition: we leave politics outside. I was here in the worst times, when there were suicide attacks, and no one ever said anything bad to me."
His sparring partner, Israeli soldier Yehuda Luxemburg, 23, says there is "no relation between me defending my country and boxing with Arabs. They are my friends.
"There is a difference between the Palestinians we fight, the terrorists, and the people we live with. For us it's very clear. Maybe you get the impression that it's all the Jews against all the Arabs, but this is not the case."

Jerusalem Boxing Club - long term project

Remembering the victims of the Armenian Genocide, asking for recognition II

The Armenian community in Jerusalem gather to mark the remembrance day for the victims of the Genocide of the Armenians by the Turks, calling for recognition they"ve marched to the Armenian cemetery and then demonstrate in front of the Turkish consulate in Jerusalem. It's time for all the world to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Passover I - a deep cleaning - Jerusalem - Ultra Orthodox Mea Shearim

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man immerses cooking pots into boiling water to remove remains of leaven in preparation for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover(Pesach) in Mea Shearim an Ultra Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. Passover commemorates the flight of Jews from Ancient Egypt as described in Exodus from the Bible.
Jews throughout the world celebrate the eight-day Passover holiday, which begins next week on April 18, to commemorate the Israelite' exodus from Egypt some 3,500 years ago.