STATEMENT
This installation sheds light on the plight of Palestinian “Prisoners” especially children whose offence is most often throwing stones. Like the land, their stories are ravaged by the forces of genocide. The installation’s title alludes to the geographic proximity of Gaza to Israel which inevitably heightens tensions. The Gaza Envelope houses approximately 55,000 Israeli settlers within 7km of the Gaza border
As of summer 2025, there are over 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and detention centres. This includes thousands under administrative detention without charge or trial, a figure that surged after October 2023. Among them, over 50 journalists and 300 healthcare workers face detention for their vital roles in bearing witness and saving lives.
Notable among them is Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Indonesian Hospital and detained in November 2024 amid hospital raids and accused of “terrorism” for providing care.
Despite inclusion on initial release lists for the January and October 2025 ceasefires and prisoner exchanges, Israeli authorities arbitrarily removed him; on October 16, 2025, a court extended his administrative detention for six more months.
The late Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital, was arrested in December 2023 and died in custody in April 2024. He endured torture including reports of rape, and when his body was returned it bore marks of unimaginable cruelty.
While inhumane behaviour toward adults in Israeli prisons is common, this installation focuses on children. Over 200 children, some as young as 12, are tried in military courts annually with 99% conviction rates, based on coerced confessions. Ceasefire exchanges brought partial relief: January 2025 freed ~23 child detainees (including two aged 15); October 2025 released six teenagers under 18 among ~2,000 total Palestinians. For those who remain the situation continues to be dire.
As Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, declared in 2024:
“Palestinian children are routinely detained, beaten, and interrogated in Israeli jails for acts as simple as throwing stones—acts of resistance against an illegal occupation that steals their childhood and their future.”
This injustice is highlighted by cases such as that of Ahmad Manasra, arrested at 13 in 2015 and subjected to years of isolation, and Abdullah al-Sharif, a 14-year-old detained for stone-throwing. These children endure solitary confinement, beatings, sleep deprivation, and psychological torment in facilities like Ofer and Megiddo, designed to break their spirits.
They belong not in cages but on skateboards riding on free parks and streets. Skateboarding was introduced into Gaza in the 2010s by the Gaza Skate Club and UN programs and has been a therapeutic lifeline for a population where over half are under 18. It offers joy, physical therapy, and mental resilience amid blockade and rubble.
Enough is enough!
“A Stone’s Throw Away” calls for a world where stones build houses and hospitals and Palestinian youth are simply allowed to be children having fun on skateboards.
Christine Dawson
2025
INSTALLATION/PHOTOGRAPHS
The installation states simply that if justice prevailed Palestinian children would be out of prison and on the streets, free and having fun. The skateboards are symbolic of the tragic reality that the opposite is true for many Palestinian children. The three skateboards, adorning Palestinian colours, are lined up like prison bars with statistics reflecting the plight of Palestinian child “prisoners”.
The stones and pebbles which surround them have text highlighting significant historical events and statistics of genocide bearing witness to the real reasons that lie behind the “illegal” act of stone throwing.
In a Save the Children Report (November ‘24) its noted.
“Palestinian children in Gaza are growing up in a landscape of loss and destruction, carrying the scars of decades of dispossession and a genocide that has killed thousands of their peers. Their acts of defiance, born from trauma and a lack of hope, are a cry against a world that has abandoned them.”
Photographs:
These have been donated by: Activestills (activestills.org)
Activestills collective was established in 2005 by a group of documentary photographers out of a strong conviction that photography is a vehicle for social and political change. The collective views itself as part of the international and local struggle against all forms of oppression, racism and discrimination. It is composed of Israeli, Palestinian and international photographers, operating locally in Palestine/Israel and abroad.
A message of support from a member of Activestills:
Dear Christine,
We are all of us together in solidarity with Palestine, and trying our best.
It’s really great what you are doing.
Best of luck for the event!
Anne