My Enemy, Myself

Who's your enemy? Why fight? Over the course of three years, Belgian-Tunisian photojournalist Karim Ben Khelifa has traveled to both sides of the world's longest-simmering conflicts to ask these pointed questions. What he heard from combatants in the Gaza Strip, the disputed Kashmir region along the India-Pakistan border, and tribally divided South Sudan captures the futility of wars that never end -- and can't be won. Tragically, bitter rivals are often fighting for the very same reasons.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KARIM BEN KHELIFA | JANUARY 2, 2013

GAZA 

"My name is Amram Shpigel. I'm 23 years old, and I'm a staff sergeant in the Israeli army. It doesn't matter if my enemy is here in the state or this enemy is outside the state in Iran or in remote countries. Anyone who wants bad for the state of Israel is my enemy. My reasons to engage with my enemy are to ensure that people in this country will be able to survive and maintain normal way of life, without fear, without worry; people will be able to walk down the street knowing and being sure that by the end of the day they will come home to their wives and children when nothing [bad] happen[s] to them on their way by an enemy of any kind. In the last Gaza war, Operation Cast Lead, we met the enemy several times. A fighter going to war against an enemy must not think about what will happen; he must concentrate and accomplish his mission, the one he was sent for by his nation. It is very natural that a fighter has worries. I also get married a week before the operation, so I had a wife waiting for me at home, so of course that makes it hard to fight in the sense that you know there is a woman you just wed, and she cares and wait for you.

I didn't kill an enemy. As long as we, as a nation, are unite[d] and strong, I don't fear anything, because I know we will overcome any enemy. When I saw the draft of the reservists, when the guys came back from overseas to fight, there was a feeling of unity, that everyone [was] participating in defending the country. Freedom for me is that a family could grow in this country like any normal family in the world is raising children. In this country there still isn't freedom. As long as the enemy has power, the residents of the state of Israel cannot live peaceful life. I don't distinguish terror against civilians from terror against soldiers. Any strike against a resident of the state of Israel, no matter if they are soldiers or civilians, any strike that doesn't follow an offensive action, but is a strike of a terror organization, is terrorism. The member[s] of my family are teaching me and brought me up to love this country even when things are not good."

Karim Ben Khelifa

 

Karim Ben Khelifa is a freelance photojournalist, CEO of emphas.is, and a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He tweets as @KBenK. You can see more of his work at instagram.com/karimbenkhelifa.