Photojournalist Chen Schimmel, speaking at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference held at the Friends of Zion Media Center in Jerusalem, recounted her journey to Kibbutz Be’eri after the Hamas massacres on October 7, and her photographic testimony of the atrocities that took place.
“Since that day,” she shared, “I haven’t stopped documenting. I have traveled up and down the country, photographed inside Gaza, on the Lebanese border, with hostage families, injured soldiers, evacuees, Nova survivors, and ZAKA members. Amidst the pain and the darkness, I was surprised to discover a quiet hope, an unshakable resilience of our people, a nation that refuses to be defined by what tried to break it.”
A selection of Schimmel’s photos will be featured in her upcoming book, “October 7: Bearing Witness.” Schimmel described several of the images in the book, including “Holy Work,” which was taken a few weeks after the massacre in Kibbutz Be’eri.
“It shows a Zaka volunteer on his hands and knees,” Schimmel explained, “carefully collecting blood from the floor of a home where an elderly man was bludgeoned to death. Gathering it with such care, with reverence, in an act of ultimate respect.
“Holy Work” is one of the most profound and heartbreaking photographs I’ve captured, because it doesn’t just show the horror of what happened. It shows what we do in response. It shows the humanity and the strength, the sacredness of this work.”