A Soldier's Eyes

I was struck by this soldier's eyes.  It was late November 2006 and I was photographing a protest in the West Bank village of Bil'in, where Palestinians, along with Israeli and international activists, were protesting the route of Israel's Separation Barrier.  The barrier had separated the Palestinian village from more than half of its land, and the protest, carried out each Friday afternoon, was a largely nonviolent response to this confiscation.  During these demonstrations (which continue still today) a palpable and sometimes frightening tension filled the air.  The stress, of course, is handled differently by each person.

The soldier pictured here is an Israeli who had likely been tasked many times before with keeping the protestors from crossing the barrier, and in the three hours I saw him he never seemed fully present.  As much as one can know another through mere observation, I thought he was gentle and kind.  His watering eyes, his forced smile, his entire body language  indicated that he didn't like what was happening to this village.  And so the conflict this day was not only taking place in the fields of Bil'in; it was also occurring in the heart and mind of a soldier.