Published: 13 January 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
ITTAY FLESCHER considers how a photo of a Muslim and a Jew snapped at Ben Gurion airport captured the politics and yearnings of hundreds of thousands of people.
Adi Scheffer didn’t set out to create the first viral picture of 2023. She was just waiting for a flight at Ben Gurion airport when she noticed two women praying in opposite directions.
The peaceful image of a Muslim and Jew at prayer was so appealing she snapped a picture and sent it to her friends.
Within 24 hours, close to half a million people had seen the picture across Israel and the world as it went viral on social media.
The enthusiasm with which it was received showed the deep longing many people feel for positive images of Israeli and Palestinian coexistence.
In Israel, popular author and comedian Hanoch Daum introduced it with the words: “I was sent this lovely picture from Ben Gurion airport this morning. I wish our lives would be this simple.” The post had 17,000 likes. The most liked comment from the thousands posted was by Hasbara activist Yoseph Hadad, who simply wrote, “This is Israel.”
Jerusalem author Sarah Tuttle-Singer also shared the photo with the English caption (quoting me) that read, “In between Mecca and Jerusalem, this happened today.” This post had 811 likes.
It wouldn’t be Jewish if everyone agreed on the beauty of the image. Some Orthodox Jews suggested the photo was impossible because Mecca and Jerusalem are both south-east from the airport. Others responded that perhaps the Jewish woman was saying tehillim (psalms), for which one isn’t required to face Jerusalem.
Some raised concerns about privacy, contending that taking photos of people in conversation with their maker without their consent is not something that should be celebrated.
