MachsomWatch, 25 Years of Activism in Photos
Curator: Alex Levac
This is a digital exhibition to be viewed in the comfort of your home. It invites you to join our group of deeply committed women—extraordinary women, given the current political atmosphere in Israel. Each day–winter, summer, and the seasons in between–we travel to the checkpoints, the occupied territories, and the military courts to observe, document, and thereby expose the sights that only very few want to acknowledge.
A photograph makes accessible, proves, depicts, paints, confirms, tells. It is a witness; it is an eye. It is the horror; it is the memory. It enters your home. Without a photo, it is as if the event never happened.
By the time one takes out the camera, it is often too late; the moment has passed. Either the person refuses to be photographed or a woman signals that photographiong her is forbidden. Too often we failed to appreciate the power of photography, so many events remain only in our unreliable memory.
“About six years ago, when I curated the previous photography exhibition for MachsomWatch, I wrote that it is difficult to capture evil through photography, yet it is important to document the evil of the Occupation.
Naively, I thought that the activists would continue documenting what we had seen during the 19 years up to 2020. But the routine of the Occupation has become more horrific day by day. Even in our worst nightmares, we could not have imagined what happened here on that black October 7, and in the days that followed.
The photographs before us do not tell the whole story. Still, through them one can glimpse the daily suffering of the weak and persecuted populations, who are tryint to continue their lives despite the violent harassment directed at them – both by the army and now by the settlers as well. The images do not show the almost unimaginable dedication of the activists, many of whom are over the age of 70. Their unwavering commitment in the almost hopeless struggle against injustice shows all of us that it is possible to support and strengthen the Palestinian residents”.
Exhibition curator, Alex Levac, 2026
This is our organization. This is MachsomWatch.
- Witnessing injustice, distress, and pain, we cry out for those who have no voice:
- The shepherds in the Jordan Valley and those in the South Hebron Hills whose homes are destroyed, again and again, leaving their families without shelter.
- The workers who get up before dawn to pass through overcrowded checkpoints that are indifferent to their hardships.
- The farmers of the Seam Zone who have not been able to reach their lands since the construction of the Separation Barrier.
- Palestinians who are denied a permit to work in Israel and have no other means to support their families.
- Traumatized Palestinian men, women and children who are woken in the middle of the night by soldiers breaking into their homes to conduct searches and inflict physical and mental chaos.
- Detainees, including minors, whose trials we follow in military courts.
- People deprived of the ability to move from place to place, living behind fences and barriers.
- And all those men, women, and children whose future is being jeopardized and whose human and civil rights are being trampled on by the occupying state.
We, as Israelis, are responsible for all this injustice. We, as a people, whose history has been full of wrongs and denial of rights. We, as a nation, who were commanded to love our neighbor and the stranger amongst us. We, as women, must not be silent. We, as women, cannot be indifferent to the pain inflicted by the occupation. We must make our voices heard in the face of public silence. As women activists, we invite all women, Jewish and Arab, to join us and work toward a society of equality for all, offering a future for our children.