Photos courtesy of 'Oriented' | Above: Khader Abu-Seif (left), Naeem Jiryes, Fadi Daeem
Within the wider discourse of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that there are Israeli-Palestinians is a fact that often goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Here in America, we like to think of ourselves as a melting pot. But nowhere is that term more apropos, more tangible, than in the Middle Eastern country barely the size of New Jersey. For religious and political reasons, the narrow strip of land has always attracted a disparate array of visitors, but especially since the nation's founding in 1948, nobody's identity can be taken for granted in Israel. Israeli citizens can be Jewish or Arab; the Jews can be from Argentina, Spain, Russia, or Iraq; the Arabs can be Muslim or Christian, Palestinian, Bedouin, or Druze. In a society where so many cultures coexist in such close proximity, the questioning of one's own place, of how one fits in, or where one doesn't, is natural. It is the confusion that such probing elicits, arising from the confluences and conflicts of self-identity, that lies at the heart of Jake Witzenfeld’s debut documentary, Oriented.
Jaffa, Israel
Over the course of 15 months, Witzenfeld, a straight, British Jew, followed a group of three gay Palestinians living in Tel Aviv: Khader Abu-Seif, Fadi Daeem, and Naeem Jiryes—a handful of the 1.7 million Arabs that make up roughly 20% of Israel’s population. They hold Israeli passports, vote in Israeli elections, speak primarily in Hebrew, and yet they can’t and won't call themselves Israeli, because they are Palestinian. Identifying with their stateless people, who live scattered mostly across the Occupied Territories, Syria, and Lebanon, theirs is a confused position, straddling societies, lying both within and without.
>>>CLICK FOR MORE IMAGES & INTERVIEW
Khader Abu-Seif with the key symbol (a symbol of Palestine)
Ahead of the New York City premiere of Oriented at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Out sat down with Wiztenfeld and Abu-Seif. Over iced teas-turned-G&Ts, we discussed life as outsiders, rising tolerance within the Arab world, and what needs to be done to end the interminable stagnation of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
READ THE INTERVIEW | In Conversation With Jake Witzenfeld and Khader Abu-Seif of Oriented
Qambuta Productions, a queer Palestinian social activist group
Naeem Jiryes (left) and Khader Abu-Seif with Fadi Daeem's mother
Khader Abu-Seif (left) and Naeem Jiryes
Khader Abu-Seif in Amman, Jordan
Fadi Daeem in Amman, Jordan
Khader Abu-Seif and his then-Jewish Israeli boyfriend, David
From Qambuta Production's second video
Nagham (left) and Fadi Daeem in Jaffa, Israel
READ THE INTERVIEW | In Conversation With Jake Witzenfeld and Khader Abu-Seif of Oriented
