I first saw this in the news last year. But just recently tripped across it again. And thought I’d share it. Face 2 Face is the project of a French photographer hoping to foster greater understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.

The took up close pictures of both Israelis and Palestinians from the same walks of life. A Jewish teacher and an Arab teacher, a Jewish Rabbi and a Muslim Arab Imam all making funny faces. Then they posted these images in huge format on both sides of the wall that devides Israel proper from the West Bank.

With such a sensitive topic, the authors of the project are clear in the fact that they aren’t chosing sides. This is from their website:

“We are in favor of a solution for which two countries, Israel and Palestine would live peacefully within safe and internationally recognized borders.All the bilateral peace projects (Clinton/Taba, Ayalon/Nussibeh, Geneva Accords) are converging in the same direction. We can be optimistic.We hope that this project will contribute to a better understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Now, I don’t know these guys, so I obviously can’t vouch for them, but when I look at what they’re doing I can’t help but hear Jesus words: Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God.

If you’d like to support their cause they’ve turned the project into a book and made it available for purchase. You can bet it’ll be on my coffee table.