Lest We Forget (1948-2024), An Ode to Palestine

Tea-wash, watercolour, gold shimmer paint, gold ink & black ink on wasli paper, 22.9 x 20.5 cm, 650 USD
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This painting is about the atrocities that have been happening in Palestine since before 1948, the year of the first naqba (catastrophe). The second began in 2023, and still continues.

I used many symbols to depict Gaza and Palestine: centuries-old olive trees that have been nearly completely chopped down, poppy flowers, the wall separating the West Bank from Israel, a golden dome. The barbed wire surrounding Palestine shows this to be a huge modern-day detention camp.

The people are painted as if they’re unreal—surrounded by quick, rough white brush strokes. The white surrounding them represents the shared fate of Muslims and Christians: the kaffan (Muslim burial shroud), and Christian coffins. The red is the colour of dried blood. The banana trees of Jericho, a city in the West Bank, inspired the few growing trees.

I kept the outer area less busy so that the eye could easily travel to the middle with its schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, and apartment buildings. Three missiles point towards the civilians. They’re inscribed with words, showing who supplied most of the weapons and who is using them. (These missiles actually carry messages of destruction and signatures before being dropped on Palestinian civilians.)

At the very top is the golden dome of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque—again not too detailed so viewers can focus more on the middle of the artwork. Instead of patterns on the border, I copied the poem I’m Not from Palestine (author unknown).