The families are subjected to a continuous cocktail of violence, harassments, arbitrary arrests for indefinite time, physical and verbal abuse and always impunity for the settler-perpetrators. I got to know the almost 50 participating women in this hood in the course of several weeks-long visits in February and May 2023. The women photographed their homes, loved ones and surroundings then during the month of September 2023, because merely staying here constitutes their ultimate act of resistance against the occupation. We photographed with small analogue cameras, to convey a more blurry ambiguous feeling in contrast with the digital press images we usually see coming from this region. ‘OM/Mother is a feminist work of love.

We have made a beautiful book on ‘Om/Mother together with publishing house The Eriskay Connection (NL) and the designer Carel Fransen. We did several book presentations, in the company of two participating Hebron photographers Aysha and Sundus Al Azza, in April 24 in Ghent (viernulvier with Yalla Worldwide/Bader Shashit), Brussels, Zaventem, Leuven, Liege and Antwerp (Fotomuseum). The 8 mothers, ‘Om Abed, ‘Om Ahmad, ‘Om Emad, ‘Om Hazem, ‘Om Muntasser, ‘Om Tamer, ‘Om Wisam and ‘Om Yusuf, are the driving force of their families. They are on the cover of the book as a gesture of respect. In Boeks Gent we did a book performance with the Palestinian sound artist Kamel Badarneh/SAWT and Brigitte Herremans. The book was picked up on several book platforms and book shops around the world, like at Bildband Berlin or in Moom Bookshop in Tokyo but also for instance in Fotomuseum, Antwerp, in Tipi Bookshop, Brussels and in Copyright and Paard van Troje, Ghent. The book was nominated for the Aperture Paris Photo Book Award 2024, for the Book Award 2024 category photo+text at les Rencontres d’Arles Photo Festival 2024, for the Book Award APhF Pick 2024 at the Athens Photo Festival and shortlisted for the Oslo Fotobokfestival 2024. Recently it was also on the list of the Best Photobooks of the Year at Photo Espana 2025. The first edition of the book sold out quickly and now the sale of the second edition is going hard.

‘OM/Mother has been published in DS Weekblad (De Standaard, BE) in October 2023, in The Union Magazine, in Musee Magazine, in ZOUT magazine, it featured on De Donkere Kamer, Rektoverso and on culture program Pompidou on radio KLARA (VRT, BE). ‘Om/Mother was on television in the Sunday show of the VRT in De Zevende Dag. I was interviewed on the podcast De Donkere Kamer, by FishEye Magazine, on by Marc Feustel on the artist talks at Paris Photo 24, I did several talks together with Adam Broomberg and Rafael Gonzales, like at Le Bal in Paris and at Double Dummy Studio in Arles and in March 2025 Tom Viaene interviewed me at Foundation A in Brussels. In 2024 there were exhibitions in Liege in Galerie Satelite (Archipel Programma BIP Liege), in Zaventem in De Factorij, and in Blanco, Ghent ( ‘I am the Smasher of Idols’ together with Firas El Hallak, Sirien Salameh and Sam Eggermont). In April and May 2025 we have organized a beautiful exhibition in the West Bank, in Bethlehem, in The Wonder Cabinet, so the women photographers participating and their families also got a chance to see their images displayed on the wall. 120 women and children came from Hebron in buses, some 30 kilometers, they defied checkpoints to see and experience the images of our project. It was an incredible special day, with workshops for kids, singing, play and even a food market for Hebron products. Tameem Tamimi from Hebron made a beautiful video of this day, that you can watch here below. In June 2025 I participated, together with human rights defender Issa Amro from Tel Rumeida, in a symposium in Berlin on the power of art as resistance, organized by Arts of the Working Class. From June till September 2025, there was an exhibition in FOMU, Antwerp, exhibiting the images of the project, video, sound and contextual info. The eyecatcher here was probably our newly made video installation of 3 screens with excerpts of interviews of 16 women participating in the ‘Om/Mother project, talking on their lives, on Gaza, on photography and on the beauty and their companionship through the project.From October 2025 till February 2026 Spazio Labo in Bologna and curator Laura de Marco hosted the ‘Om/Mother exhibition, built in cooperation with the students of the Spazio Labo photography school.

Two women from Tel Rumeida, Sundus and Aisha, came to Belgium in April 2024 for the book launches and two openings. Two other participating photographers from Tel Rumeida, ‘Om Wisam and Nidaa, of 2 different generations, came to Belgium in September 2025, for a full week of lectures and events, closing off the FOMU exhibition.

The book is sold out but can still be available at a few book stores. We still sell prints, framed (artist print 20*30 cm cm on hahnemuehle fine art paper 305g, aluminium frame, limited edition of 20 each) and unframed (artist print 16*24 cm on hahnemuehle fine art paper 320g, limited edition of 30 each), of 8 different images, here on my website.

I am very available for a lecture and/or book presentation, alone or together with another woman photographer from Hebron, by zoom.

Important to note: all author’s profits from the book/special edition prints go to the women’s activities of Youth Against Settlements in Tel Rumeida, the area of Hebron/H2 where all women and girls in this project live with their families. The women of Tel Rumeida and I thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for your support.

In 2025, the FOMU book shop sold hundreds of books of the second edition of ‘Om/Mother, and especially this provided the funding to help the 8 families in doing small renovations on their houses. It is very difficult to bring in the necessary materials but soon there will be more information on how the renovations are going. We already paid for Iftar in Tel Rumeida and renewed the water tanks on the houses of 2 participating families in Tel Rumeida. Every family put forward their most urgent needs and the money will go to supporting their wishes. Very important since the economy in Hebron has almost collapsed after October 7th and poverty has risen even more. This money, although not a huge amount, supports the families in taking care of their house and land and in staying put. As they are doing already for decades.

We are all Palestinians. Arms embargo. Stop the starvation. BDS. Sanctions. End the occupation. Free Palestine. No one is free till all are.