The YMCA and Brigadier General Allan opened a military swimming pool at an organised celebration in Beit Nabala on May 21, 1944. ISRAEL: COLOURISED images reveal Israel?s idyllic and peaceful past ? a far cry from today?s conflict. In one image, American colonist Mr Radford posed with his home?s workforce in the garden of his Galilean seaside home in the city of Tiberias. In another, a European woman was photographed picking violets as she attended the Girls? Agricultural Training School in Nahalal after immigrating to the country. Others showed young boys carrying large crates of oranges in Jaffa, an ancient port city, in the early 1900s, and hundreds of beach goers enjoying a summer?s day in Tel-Aviv. The images, originally released by the American Colony Photo Department, have been painstakingly colourised for the first time. The department was based in Jerusalem, Israel, during the early part of the 1900s and was one of the only photo agencies in the Middle East during this time period. Israel?s utopian American colony was set up by Anna and Horatio Spafford in 1881. Many Christians flocked to join them and the group carried out philanthropic work in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. In the early 1900s, the colony began documenting their work. A photographer by the name of G. Eric Matson played a key role in expanding the group?s photographic output and the American Colony Photo Department was later renamed the Matson Photographic Service. By the 1940s, the colony ceased to exist but individual members stayed on. The group?s residence was converted into The American Colony Hotel which still stands today. Whilst the group may have flocked to Israel to pursue their utopian ideals, today the country faces a more turbulent reality as Palestinian protestors continue to clash with Israeli police forces over Israel?s ongoing military occupation of Palestine. Tensions have been rising since April with many Palestinians claiming that Israeli forces have prevented them