Middle East - Not about politics

Well, it's hard not to get involved one way or another. There are strong opinions involved on both sides and the whole area are infected by conflicts for years, decennials and centuries.
To make thing clear, I'm not a reporter nor a writer, just a plain tourist. (Who like to take photos).

Thing is, my wife and I decided to take a trip to Ramallah while in Jerusalem for a couple of days. That involved entering through Qalandia checkpoint, a wired constructed terminal area in between the wall. Someone will say the wall is a new apartheid regime. Maybe it's wrong, but for sure it affects and limits the mobility of a population. The Israelis will say it's a protection fence against violense and suicide bombers. The term "terminal" indicates it is like a border pass. Problem with the latest is that the wall is not between Israel and Palestine territories, the wall is way inside the West Bank geographically and arab cities and population also on the outside.

All pictures are taken with e-pl5 and Panasonic 25mm. The first four are taken from inside a bus which probably affects the quality. The other pictures are taken from inside the terminal area waiting in line for control. The e-pl5 is really good for this purpose. Nobody seemed to react on me photographing, but I tried to do it as discretely as possible. One elder even asked me to take photos to document the terminal. (He didn't speak english, but he had a very articulated body language).

When photographing the children, I shot from the hip using touchscreen. Not all photos where spot on, but the point was not to interrupt in their play and to capture the moment as natural as possible.

And by using apperture at 1.6, DOF is limited. But it's a compromise in order to get the shutter speed up. ISO auto up to 3200.

It's not unusual to see kids playing with guns. But the circumstances made us stop and think. It's an area infected with conflicts and hate on both sides are passed from adults to children.

So how can the evel circle be stopped?

Thanks for looking.

Surveillence tower outside the wall

In line for control

Grafitti on the Palestinian side of the wall

Scream

Inside the "Terminal"

Showing off his new toy

Waiting for the gate to open

Getting the posture right

Accurate replica