The Happiest of All Arabs | 2016
Installation | Documents taken from IDF archives describing the martial-law period in Jaffa
Dimensions | A4 size papers
Installation | Documents taken from IDF archives describing the martial-law period in Jaffa
Dimensions | A4 size papers
As part of an extensive research about the IDF's involvement in the real-estate market in my area of residence, I scanned documents of the Israeli Military Governance of Jaffa from the years 1948-1952. I used documents containing correspondence regarding two significant issues: the take-over of deported Palestinians' houses by the newly-created Israeli army in order to use them as military facilities, and inquiries about the original owners of those houses and their value estimates – with the prospect of selling them in the future.
In my work "The Happiest of all Arabs" I exhibit framed scans of chosen documents, bringing to light the army's capitalisation on those "Absentees' property"– the houses abandoned by their Palestinian owners in 1948.
*the title is a quote from a report referring to the condition of the Palestinian population that remained in Jaffa after the establishment of the state of Israel.
In my work "The Happiest of all Arabs" I exhibit framed scans of chosen documents, bringing to light the army's capitalisation on those "Absentees' property"– the houses abandoned by their Palestinian owners in 1948.
*the title is a quote from a report referring to the condition of the Palestinian population that remained in Jaffa after the establishment of the state of Israel.
