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In a new project, the photographer Karim Ben Khelifa challenges his viewers to identify with both sides of intractable violent conflicts. M presents his portraits of Israelis and Palestinians, who explain why they fight.
Karim Ben Khelifa, the son of a Tunisian father and Belgian mother, is an accomplished photographer who, since 9/11, has covered the wars and political conflicts smouldering in the Muslim world. Among other places, Ben Khelifa spent two years in Iraq during the beginning of the occupation, and was embedded with the Taliban in Afghanistan, documenting their resurgence.
The 36-year-old's latest project, Portraits of the Enemies, attempts to overturn the conventional assumptions surrounding a number of ongoing ethnic and civil conflicts by asking fighters from the opposing sides three simple questions: who they are; who their enemy is and why they are fighting. By allowing them to explain their motives, he challenges the one-dimensional views held by all sides. The combatants are humanised and their reasons for fighting taken seriously. The travelling exhibition of portraits will feature soldiers and guerrillas fighting one another in Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Colombia and the Congo.
In the following pages, M presents a series of photos from Portraits of the Enemies in which Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli soldiers and are presented together, both groups explaining why they fight.
Of all the world's recent troubles, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict seems to exemplify the fundamental inability of both sides to identify with the other on the level of essential humanity. Though there was outrage at the carnage wreaked by the Israelis in its war on Gaza earlier this year, many in the West feel that Palestinians are fundamentally different - culturally, religiously, racially - from them, while viewing the Israelis as fellow members of western civilisation. Such prejudiced attitudes apply equally to both sides: the same logic is at work when suicide attacks kill Jewish children and are celebrated by people in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.
The causes of war, especially decades-long ethnic conflicts such as this one, are many and complex, determined by grand geopolitical strategies and chains of events stretching back into history. The position taken by observers depends on their own politics, history and geography and can easily obscure the realities of what it is like to be involved in violent conflict, or cause them to turn a blind eye to obvious evils. In this way, Ben Khelifa asks us to question our own assumptions as we question those of the subjects of his images.
The glib dismissal of the humanity of the "enemy" is not so much about the limits of empathy as it is the limits of imagination. The ultimate goal of Ben Khelifa's project is to expand the moral imagination.
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
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F1 drivers' standings
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes 281
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari 247
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes 222
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull 177
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari 138
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull 93
7. Sergio Perez, Force India 86
8. Esteban Ocon, Force India 56
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
India squad for fourth and fifth Tests
Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Shaw, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur, Vihari
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh, University of Chicago Press
