Last fall Sahar Abbasi, Deputy Director of the Madaa Silwan Creative Center, traveled to the U.S. for the first time for a speaking tour, organized by MECA. She visited eight cities, along with the photo exhibit “Room #4.” Madaa is MECA’s partner in the Silwan area of East Jerusalem.

Last fall Sahar Abbasi, Deputy Director of the Madaa Silwan Creative Center, traveled to the U.S. for the first time for a speaking tour, organized by MECA. She visited eight cities, along with the photo exhibit “Room #4.” Madaa is MECA’s partner in the Silwan area of East Jerusalem. We have helped them build a playing field, buy a small building, hire a librarian and a social worker, and provide recreation for children and youth.

Sahar is deeply dedicated to improving life for children and women. Her work with children who are arrested and their families, her interviews, and research are the basis for “ROOM NO. 4,” an exhibit of staged photos and real testimonies illustrating the experiences of Palestinian children who have been arrested.

Life in occupied East Jerusalem is very hard because of encroaching settlers and the Israeli government’s plan to “Judaize” the whole city. “Administrative demolitions” leave families homeless; violent attacks by Israeli settlers are common; and people are often arrested, beaten and tortured by Israeli authorities.

A Human Rights Watch report states, “Israeli security forces have used unnecessary force to arrest or detain Palestinian children. Security forces have choked children, thrown stun grenades at them, beaten them in custody, threatened and interrogated them without the presence of parents or lawyers, and failed to let their parents know their whereabouts.”

At the time Sahar left for the U.S., Palestinians were being subjected to greater Israeli violence and repression than usual, which is still going on now. Sahar spoke about how much she worried about her teenage son back home and about one of his friends, an outstanding student headed for medical school, who had been shot and killed by Israeli police just a few weeks earlier.

In a recent interview by the Progressive magazine interviewed Sahar said:

There are different reasons why children are picked up. It can be for throwing stones, gathering information or simply to intimidate other family members. Israeli security knows the impact of targeting children. Keep in mind that seventy percent of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem live below the poverty line. Palestinian children are released from custody often only after their parents pay a huge fine. Who can afford it?

Sometimes I don’t know if my children will come home alive or not. Kids are being killed on the spot by Israeli security as criminals. This can’t last. It is getting worse and worse. The Israeli government [is] blaming the Palestinians for everything and feeding the violence.

ROOM NO. 4

ROOM NO. 4 is an infamous interrogation room in the Russian Compound—the main Israeli police office in Jerusalem—where Palestinian children are interrogated. ROOM NO. 4 photography campaign illustrates the reality the children face when arrested and detained, and is based on children’s testimonies collected by Madaa Silwan Creative Center.

The photos are by Ashraf Dowani, a Palestinian photographer from Jerusalem. Ashraf credits a child from Silwan who said, “The first thing you see when you go to Room Number 4 are hands beating your face,” with giving him the artistic inspiration for these photos. The idea was to use unknown hands in the frame, a black background, and dramatic lighting to “create the perfect mood for the viewer to feel the fear and loneliness of the children when they go to Room Number 4.”

No Food, Water, or Toilets

“I was thirsty and hungry. When I asked to go to the toilet they told me to pee in my jeans.”

 —An 8-year-old child.

Learn more about ROOM NO. 4 photo exhibit and how to bring it to your community