Present Absentees.
“Present Absentees” is a term for Palestinians who left, fled or were expelled from their homes during the War of Independence (the 1948 war). Their property was appropriated via the Absentee Property Law, and they remain as displaced persons within the borders of the state of Israel. The subjects of the photographs, former residents of the village of Lajjun, on whose remains today stand Kibbutz Megiddo
and a JNF forest, appear against a background of archival pictures of the village and its surroundings, taken before 1948.
The project was carried out during a period as artist in residence in the Umm al-Fahm Gallery.