play videoplay video

Video duration: 04 minutes 13 seconds 04:13

Art and heritage works from the Gaza Strip are displayed in a museum in Birzeit in the West Bank, in an initiative intended to respond to the destruction of cultural and archaeological sites, as Israel has been waging the most violent war ever against the Palestinian Strip for more than 4 months.

Ihab Bseiso, a member of the Board of Directors of the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, told Agence France-Presse that the museum, which opened in 2016, decided to undertake an initiative aimed at “preserving the Palestinian heritage work in Gaza, which is being destroyed as a result of the war.”

The former Palestinian Minister of Culture adds, "We were surprised when we received hundreds of works by male and female artists that were present in universities, cultural centers, and by Palestinian figures in the West Bank," which are paintings, old traditional costumes, and artifacts.

At the entrance to the exhibition, a sign was hung that read, “This is not an exhibition,” indicating that it is “a continuous artistic demonstration,” as Bseiso says.

The “This is not an exhibition” section at the Birzeit Museum in the West Bank displays paintings by artists from Gaza (French)

Bseiso adds, "This artistic demonstration is a kind of presentation of the Gazan artistic scene in a different way, and a kind of stand in the face of the challenges and difficulties faced by artists and culture in Gaza in light of the destruction and siege."

He continues, "It is a space that expresses the extension of those centers and museums that were demolished."

The Palestinian Ministry of Culture announced in a report published last January that “24 cultural centers in the Gaza Strip were completely or partially destroyed” during the war that has been ongoing in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Among these sites are the Arab Orthodox Social Cultural Center, the Rashad Al-Shawwa Cultural Center, which includes a theatre, library and printing presses, and the Sununu Foundation for Arts and Culture in Gaza City.

Historical buildings were also damaged, including churches, mosques, the port of Phenicia, and the Al-Qarara Museum.

Bseiso says about the exhibition, “This is a journey into Palestinian Gazan art, especially after the martyrdom of dozens of artists, writers, poets, and journalists, and this journey is to confirm the cohesion between the Palestinian people that the occupation is trying to destroy.”

The names of 115 artists were written at the entrance to the main exhibition, with the following phrase above them: “From these, the genocidal war stole their homes, their dreams, their memories, their loves, and their entire lives.”

Signs in black were placed around some names to indicate those who were killed during the war, including the visual artist Heba Zaqout and the painter Muhammad Sami Quraqi.

A demonstration, not an exhibition

The museum administration said, in a statement, about the “demonstration” that it is “an alternative space to the space that was once in Gaza before it was destroyed by the fires of war,” adding that the initiative seeks to be “an alternative platform for the voices of Gazans who are prevented from being denied communication.” .

The museum's curators deliberately placed rubble of bricks and iron in the middle of the main exhibition hall, in reference to the devastation that the Gaza Strip is being exposed to, against the background of the sound of the reconnaissance plane known as the "Zanana" that never leaves the skies of Gaza, and video clips of ambulances transporting injured people.

All of this is to put the visitor in the atmosphere of what the people of Gaza are experiencing.

Visual artist Muhammad Al-Hawajna, who is in Rafah, said via video call to Agence France-Presse, “This demonstration is a reminder and solidarity between the West Bank and Gaza, and to confirm our continued presence.”

Since the opening of the exhibition in mid-February, dozens of visitors have flocked to the museum.

Alma Abdel-Ghani, in her thirties, says, “It is a beautiful thing to see artwork by male and female artists from Gaza here in the West Bank, especially since they no longer have a place to display them in Gaza after the destruction there.”

At the main entrance to the museum, old women's traditional costumes made of cotton, linen and silk were displayed, alongside necklaces and bracelets from the British era, and old bridal dresses from Khan Yunis, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City.

Paintings by Gaza artists depicting the effects of war at the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit (French)

Not far away, paintings by the visual artist Tayseer Barakat, who was born in Jabalia in the Gaza Strip, but has lived in the West Bank since 1984, were displayed.

One of the paintings is called “The Lost,” and it contains a drawing of military vehicles and vehicles, in addition to more than 16 acrylic and canvas drawings, each of which carries phrases chosen by the artist to express what is happening in Gaza.

Among the phrases: “How do you lose more than 7,000 people?... Rain them with raids one after another, and prevent them from being pulled out from under the rubble,” or “How do we lose a people of two and a half million people?... Cut off communications, electricity, water, and life from them.”

Barakat told Agence France-Presse, "This group is a message and an expression of what I saw and heard about the crazy war our people are experiencing in Gaza."

Source: French