This is Israel

c. 1950

Brasch DS108.5 KV9

Oxford: Bruno Cassirer

Israel was established as a state for the Jewish people after WWII, on 14th May 1948. It is bordered on respective sides by Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. In the past, the area was conquered and occupied by Romans, Crusaders from the West, and Turks; it continues to have a vibrant – some say turbulent – modern history. Although highly urbanised, with cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa, the countryside offers contrast: the hills of Galilee, the many Kibbutzim, those collective settlements where all property except intimate personal belongings are owned in common, or the desert of the Negev in the ‘Deep South’. The language and content in this ‘Photo Book’ is distinctly that of the 1950s.