Photographer Leeor Kaufman is trying to change your mental image of the Palestinian territories with his portrait of the village Wadi Fuqin, a traditionally agricultural community.

Mahmud, at his vineyard in Wadi Fuqin, Palestinian territories

Leeor Kaufman

Taha (right), photographed in 2010, was planning to start studying at Bethlehem University next year, but most of the young who graduate are unemployed.

Leeor Kaufman

Beitar Illit is being built in order to provide housing for the orthodox community that is experiencing a housing shortage in Jerusalem.

Leeor Kaufman

Adnan picking sabras at his fields at Wadi Fuqin.

Leeor Kaufman

A Palestinian boy from Wadi Fuqin aims a toy gun at the Beitar Illit settlement.

Leeor Kaufman

The ongoing construction of Beitar Illit above the ancient farming terraces of Wadi Fuqin.

Leeor Kaufman

Hamad, cleaning his radishes before taking them to the market.

Leeor Kaufman

Muhamad, 18, wants to work and study but is unemployed — and studying is too expensive if he can't find work.

Leeor Kaufman

Families from the village pick fruit for the evening dinner during Ramadan.

Leeor Kaufman

Some of the village fields still get sufficient water from the springs and are still fruitful.

Leeor Kaufman

A Palestinian teenager bathes in the ancient farming pools of Wadi Fuqin.

Leeor Kaufman

Jamil takes cabbages to the market in Bethlehem.

Leeor Kaufman

Jamil is treating the ancient canal, letting the water flow to his fields. The ruined landscape in the background is a result of quarrying stones for the settlement construction.

Leeor Kaufman

An agriculture field at Wadi Fuqin is covered with waste spilled from the construction sites of the Beiter Ililit settlement.

Leeor Kaufman

Mahmud, at his vineyard in Wadi Fuqin, Palestinian territories

Leeor Kaufman

The word "Palestine" often conjures up mental images informed by the news: bombings, riots, protests, etc. Israeli photographer Leeor Kaufman, though, "would be glad if people would get a deeper and different perspective these days," he says.

Now based in Brooklyn, Kaufman grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel, and often ventured into Arab villages in the West Bank. As a student in film school, he began documenting those villages, and one in particular, Wadi Fuqin.

In 2010, UNESCO recognized Wadi Fuqin as a potential World Heritage Site, describing it as "the best preserved and continuously managed cultural landscape of its type in all the West Bank."

Kaufman describes it as "a well-preserved model of a traditional agricultural way of life developed thousands of years ago."

But the Palestinian Authority, because it is not a sovereign state, cannot register a site under the World Heritage Convention. A state, such as Israel, would have to do it.

Wadi Fuqin lies in a valley and relies on mountain spring water for irrigation. On a hillside east of the village is one of the fastest-growing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Beitar Illit, which threatens Wadi Fuqin's water supply with its sewage, according to Palestinians.

And to the west of the village, Israel's West Bank separation barrier has also created difficulties and complicated the water supply system.

Kaufman's poetic photos of life in Wadi Fuqin are not about conflict, though. They are informed by his personal desire for harmony, and his quest to simply document a place as it evolves.

"So many Arab villages are gone and can only be visualized through the refugees' memories," he explains. "I wanted to make pictures of the villagers in their fields with their produce — trying to make ... the image they would have in their memory."

In this video, a teenager in Wadi Fuqin explains life in his village.

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