Families Interrupted

The "Families Interrupted" photo series captures the reality of the many thousands of Palestinian families who are forced to live in the shadows by the Israeli Citizenship Law. This law prevents Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) who marry citizens of Israel from obtaining legal status in Israel. It stops Palestinian citizens of Israel—the overwhelmingly majority of Israeli citizens who marry Palestinians from the OPT—from realizing their right to a family life in Israel, based solely on their spouses’ national belonging. People living under the ban on family unification exist among us, often anonymously, their status frequently unknown even to close friends and relatives. Beneath the surface, however, the ban intrudes on every aspect of their lives, violating their most basic human rights, to family life, privacy, dignity, personal autonomy and equality. It encroaches on their most personal decisions: who to marry and where to raise a family. By lifting the thin veil of anonymity that envelops them, the images give insights into how the ban turns them into families interrupted, struggling to lead a normal life together. By photographing them in their personal spaces, it offers glimpses of their day-to-day human existence as families.