Another Day in Gaza

I spent the day with the children and coordinators at the Afaq Jadeela Association in Mukhaim El Jadeed as part of the Maia Mural Project.

They were sooo gracious and joyous.

You must watch the dance they performed for Melissa and me.



"We are the children of Palestine. We are living, sometimes we are not. We demand our rights. We have the right to play and have recreation. We have the right to education. It is good for man to go any place, we cannot. We have the right to express our thoughts. We are the makers of the new future. We have the right to protection. We have the right to live in peace. We have a right to clean environment. We have the right to healthcare and medications. By our talents and our skills...we can do miracles for our homeland.

Break the Silence Mural in Beit Hanoun

Break the Silence is an arts/activist group committed to using creative projects to facilitate social change and a greater awareness of the complexities of the conflict in Occupied Palestine.

In 2003, the Israeli army imposed a 24 hour curfew on the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza strip and then destroyed thousands of acres of orange groves as collective punishment. In response, Break the Silence and the Beit Hanoun community painted a 10' x 25' mural on the Youth Center commemorating the loss of the towns economic livelihood, the orange.



Break the Silence began 12 years ago when four Jewish American women artists traveled to the West Bank city of Ramallah and worked on a series of community mural projects with Palestinian community members and artists. Upon returning from that first trip in 1989 the artists presented their work and reflections on their experiences to approximately 100 audiences in high schools, universities, art galleries and community centers across the United States.

The children were particularly excited about a Mural being painted on their center.

Healing Mural

In 2004-2005 the group, Breaking The Silence, worked with the Amer family, including five children, to paint a 8' x 40' mural on the Aparthied Wall built by Israel, that surrounds the family's home on four sides.

The father of the family told Breaking The Silence (BTS) that after the Mural was completed his children played outside for the first time in a year.

He said: “When you come here and paint with the children it makes them feel like they can live.”

Testimony to the power of art!

The children had a fantastic time
working on the mural.



This is the Palestinian and North American crew that worked on the Amer Mural. At one point during the project, the Israeli settlers living illegally next door, complained to the Israeli military that the mural was an act of incitement towards them.




This is Munira Amer standing in her doorway.

Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project (ORSMP)

The Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural is an inter-disciplinary, interactive, multi-site public art project that will innovatively make use of new media and social networking technologies to increase the strength and visibility of movements organizing for social change in Palestine, Israel, the US and the world.

ORSMP crosses borders, recognizing and exploring the relationship that exists between the people Olympia, Washington, the people of Rafah, Occupied Palestine and all people who struggle and work for justice. ORSMP will move from the local to the global by bringing people together across social justice movements. The images in the mural will articulate how the social and political struggles in Palestine and Israel connect to local and national and international issues that include environmental justice, racism, colonialism, rights of indigenous people, and anti-war movements, to name a few.

ORSMP uses creativity in public space to cope with and mourn traumatic losses in resilient and transformative ways. Inspired by Rachel Corrie, an Olympian killed in the Gaza Strip in 2003 in a non-violent act of civil disobedience, the mural serves as a reminder of the thousands in Gaza and elsewhere lost in struggle, and, also, as inspiration for those who carry on quests for justice and for the unity and peace that the olive tree represents.

For more information about the project