James Lukoski

APF Fellow James Lukoski has made several trips to the Middle East, focusing on Israeli-Palestinian issues. These photographs illustrate some of the tensions in the West Bank and Jerusalem and were taken before the U.S. declared war on Iraq. The funerals of two local villagers killed by the Israeli army prompted a political rally at Kufr Neimeh in the West Bank. Palestinians hold a memorial service and political rally during a week to commemorate the founding of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the second most popular faction of the PLO. The five-pointed star is a symbol of the D.F.L.P. The founder and leader of the group, Naef Hawatme, is pictured in the star’s center. A four-year-old Palestinian boy is comforted by his mother after being burned by a stun grenade he found in his yard at the Bureij Refugee Camp on the Gaza Strip. The grenade exploded when he picked it up to play with it, giving him second-degree burns on his face, hands and arms. On International WomenxD5s day, about 100

WEST BANK–Well into its third year, the most recent Israel/Palestinian conflict continues to grind along unrelentingly. Israel’s control of the 1.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is maintained through military occupation, provoking an internal political and moral debate and strong policy questions from their international allies. The Palestinian revolution has put thousands of their young people in political prison camps and hospitals and hundreds in their graves. Statistics do not reflect the misery and financial ruin that affects all Palestinians. Their pain cannot be offset by their few political victories. The Intifada (“throwing off”) has given the Palestinians a new sense of pride and nationalistic resolve–a feeling that the young people can accomplish what their parents failed. They once again believe that they can stop the might of Zionism from taking their land and making it part of Israel. Dogged determination and their “David vs. Goliath” tactics have brought their situation to the world’s attention, forcing Israel to justify its domestic behavior to the world. There would be no rumblings