BY LYDIA AISENBERG

Seeing you seeing me - Arab and Jewish youth focus on each other at Givat Haviva British photo-journalist Lynne Coates is championing the cause of Israeli co-existence projects in Britain with an exhibition of powerful images showing that some Jews and Arabs do see eye to eye – through a camera lens and far beyond. Amongst the co-existence projects that Lynne chose to document and write about during a one month Art Council England funded 'shoot' in Israel was the Givat Haviva Art Centre's Through Other Eyes project. She also visited the Jewish-Arab bi-lingual school of Bridge Over the Wadi in Kfar Kara, the Peres Centre for Peace, the Israel National Therapeutic Riding Association and the Save A Child's Heart Foundation. A selection of the hundreds of photographs taken by Lynne and entitled The Other Side were exhibited at London's prestigious Ben Uri Gallery at the end of last year and in recent months successfully shown at the Dean Clough Gallery in Halifax, Yorkshire in northern England. The ABSOLUTELEEDS journal chose and reproduced one of Lynne's images depicting Arab and Jewish youth at Givat Haviva focusing on each other as their Picture of the Month in March 2006, and her exhibition was well received by the print and electronic media. A review in the February edition of the Leeds Guide focused mainly on the Givat Haviva Through Other Eyes images exhibited at Dean Clough, a magnificent former Victorian carpet mill transformed into a popular art and business complex which attracts people from far and wide. An exhibition visitor's book attests to the impact Lynne Coates The Other Side exhibition had on many of those who came to see the images and read explanatory texts under each one portraying a very different picture of Israel to that presented in the media in general. The photographs generated many positive and supportive thoughts and comments from visitors.

Lynne, who lives near Leeds, chose to visit the Givat Haviva Centre for Peace and other venues after discovering there were so many peace initiatives in Israel whose activities went almost unreported in the media. The Yorkshire photo-journalist decided to highlight those efforts, to focus on people trying to find a way to live together in a conflict zone, struggling to get to know 'the other' by concentrating on what they share in common and in doing so break down the strong stereotypes they have of each other, leading to more understanding and tolerance of their differences. "The problems tend to be with politicians and people with their own agendas. But people on the ground are working hard towards peace. Both communities are making huge efforts," Lynne was quoted as telling the publication Leeds Today, who published four images from the exhibition, three of whom from the Givat Haviva teens and women's photography project. "I hope that my exhibition shows that Arabs and Jews can live and work together when they leave their prejudices behind," said Lynne. Jean Evans, director of the Israel Peace Forum in Britain and who has led delegations of journalists and politicians from the UK to Givat Haviva in the past, is hoping to arrange for Lynne Coates exhibition to be shown in a number of galleries in England and Wales later on this year. "This exhibition is an excellent way of really showing another side of Israel to that which most people have become accustomed," said Jean Evans who is based in Cardiff, Wales.

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