NIF grantee Ir Amim, which works to make Jerusalem a more equitable and sustainable city for the Israelis and Palestinians who share it, recently opened an exhibit in the Barbur art gallery in Jerusalem. The exhibition of photographs and stories showcases the lives of East-Jerusalem like Hanan Abu Delu, the director of a school in Beit Safafa, and Mahmoud Abu Armila, who drives a truck in the Silwan neighbourhood.

The show is called “37%”, named for the percentage of Jerusalem residents who are Palestinian. Jerusalem is in many ways a divided city, in which Jews and Arabs live in close proximity to each other but rarely interact. In many ways, the gaps between Jewish and Arab Jerusalem have grown in the year since the Gaza war. By telling the stories of the day-to-day lives of Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents, Ir Amim provides an opening for Jewish Israelis to empathise with the 37%.

In response to this exhibit, the extremist Im Tirzu organisation called on the mayor of Jerusalem to cut off all public funding to the Barbur gallery claiming that it glorified terrorists and disputing the reference to Pisgat Ze’ev as a “settlement.”

NIF called on Jerusalem residents to visit the gallery and vote with their feet. You can view the project online (in Hebrew) here.