Closing event of the exhibition Barricades
A discussion concerning human rights during wartime; with the participation of Ohad Amar, Executive Director of Kav La’oved; Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, Director of the Community and Planning department at Bimkom; and artists Saher Miari and Gaston Zvi Ickowicz.
Ohad Amar, residing in Jaffa, Amar is a human rights lawyer and social activist committed to advancing social rights. Amar serves as the Executive Director of Kav La’oved, a non-profit organization which aims to uphold full and equal labor rights for all workers in the Israeli labor market regardless of religion, nationality, gender, or legal status. The organization advocates on behalf of the most marginalized workers, namely low-income Israeli citizens, refugees and asylum-seekers, Palestinians, and migrant workers, through grassroots individual assistance efforts as well as policy and legal advocacy to promote systemic change.
Alon Cohen-Lifshitz is an architect and director of the planning and community department at Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights. For the last 20 years, Cohen-Lifshitz has been leading Bimkom activities in the West Bank while assisting hundreds of communities, villages and towns in their struggle against discriminatory Israeli planning policies. Bimkom is an Israeli non-profit organization formed in 1999 by a group of planners and architects, in order to strengthen democracy and human rights in the field of planning. Spatial planning plays a crucial role in determining the quality of our life and environment, as well as the prospects for socio-economic development and well-being of individuals and communities alike. Cohen-Lifshitz holds an M.A. in International Community Development from the Hebrew University and a B.Arch from Bezalael Academy for Art and Design.
Gaston Zvi Ickowicz graduated from Musrara School of Photography, Jerusalem, and the Continuing Education Unit in the Arts, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. He is a photography lecturer at Bezalel and at the Kibbutzim College, Tel Aviv. Through photography and video, his works focus on the Israeli-Palestinian landscape and the interaction between man and landscape in a socio-political context. Ickowicz’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Israel and abroad.
Saher Miari acquired his BFA from the Faculty of Arts, Hamidrasha at Beit Berl Academic College, and his MFA from the University of Haifa. He is a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Hamidrasha, and initiates artistic projects in Arab communities in the north of Israel. Miari’s work focuses on issues that concern him as an artist-builder, such as home and masonry, construction and destruction, dismantling and assembly, wandering and migration, interior and exterior, as well as harsh working conditions referred to as “black labor.” His works reflect the identity and complexity of the Palestinian Arab society living in Israel, as well as his own identity. Through his art he expresses his worldview and criticizes the local reality, aspiring to change and build a new reality based on a stable and reliable foundation. Miari’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Israel.
