Fashion models sashayed beside the controversial barrier Israel is building inside the West Bank Wednesday to encourage Israeli and Palestinian women to work together for peace. "As women, we are trying to cross boundaries many times a day," said CEO Sybil Goldfiner, CEO of the feminist Israeli fashion house Comme-il-faut, which turned the construction site for the wall on Jerusalem’s fringes into a catwalk. "We offer a suggestion, or the hope, that women from both sides who bring life into this world will unify to stop this killing that has gone on for too long."
| "Mahmoud, I just saw the loveliest outfit at the fashion show at the security fence. I've decided not to blow myself up on a bus!" |
The models, garbed in vivid summer outfits, were from Slovenia, Russia, Poland, France and Israel. Goldfiner said she tried in vain to recruit Palestinian models. Israel restricts entry of Palestinians, citing security.
| "Fatimah wears a sequined boom belt with a matching headscarf..." |
Goldfiner said the stark juxtaposition of the gray eight-meter-(27-foot) barrier and the orange, blue and pink frocks worn by the models aimed to shock 15,000 catalog customers into reflecting on the current reality. "We wanted to bring the picture of normality -- fashion, color, optimism -- and put it next to the abnormality of the wall with its despair and grayness. This combination of normal and abnormal is the picture of reality in Israel."
| Perhaps they could use the aisle of a burned-out bus as a runway? |
Israel says that the wire-and-concrete network of barriers that loops into the West Bank is necessary to keep out suicide bombers, who have killed scores of Israelis in its cities and towns in the past three years of violence. Palestinians call the barrier a grab of occupied land to deny them a viable state because it often diverges well into the West Bank to take in Jewish settlements. The legality of the barrier is currently under the scrutiny of the World Court in The Hague.
As make-up artists sprayed and primped models and photographers snapped away, Palestinian carpenter Ibrahim Karesh’s wife was preparing lunch for them on the other side of the barrier, in the West Bank village of al-Ayzariah. "This is very important so that the whole world sees how Israelis and Palestinians can live together and it is governments that put up fences," said Karesh of the project.
| The fact that Paleos don't have a government could be part of the problem... |
He said the barrier, under construction 50 meters (165 feet) from his yard, posed difficulties for his house-run carpentry business, which depends on Jerusalem clientele. "I see the fence and I get angry. Why, why on earth did they put this here? It isn’t going to help anyway." |