“Olympia~Rafah Solidarity Mural Project,” Phase One of “A Tale of Two Cities~Legacy of Rachel Corrie”
Posted in Uncategorized.
– January 1, 2010
Bil’in Mural
The miracle of the mural in a day… Check out the fotos in the Bil’in Mural link on the side bar!
Posted in Home Page.
– June 4, 2008
Finally on the Wall
Our fourth companion arrived late last night and we are bringing him up to speed. He is impressed with the size of our canvas and the headway we’ve made with our design, but we still had a lot of work to do and we were anxious about gridding the wall and getting some of the designs laid out on the building.
Thankfully we had support from Zeina, one of the Conservatory director’s daughters. More photos will be posted in Edward Said National Conservatory of Music photo album.
Posted in Uncategorized.
– June 2, 2008
The Mural Design
The plan is for different Palestinian artists to fill in the silhouettes and international artists or those not able to participate on the ground, will contribute designs for the notes on the musical staffs which will be the musical notation for Biladi (”My Country“) the National Anthem of Palestine and Mawtini (”My Homeland”), another unofficial national ballad of Palestine.
Posted in Home Page.
– June 1, 2008
Scaffolding and Design in Progress
The plastering has dried and we have scaffolding! Amazing!
Our dear comrade Amjad, the groundskeeper at the Conservatory, is busy priming the building while we continue to adjust the design and meet with various Palestinian artists who we’ve invited to participate in the painting of the mural.
Also, after visiting and meeting more than one handful of paint store owners and having many cups of coffee while discussing the paint options we finally succeeded in finding one that carries acrylic paint and will bring it from Jerusalem. Nearly a week into the project, we are more than relieved to have found the paint! John arrives tomorrow! So exciting.
Posted in Uncategorized.
– May 31, 2008
Visit to Bil’in
We visited the village of Bil’in today and met with Mohammed Khatib and Eyad Bornat from the Popular Committee against the Wall. Since 2005, the people of Bil’in have been protesting the construction of the Wall in their village with participation from Israeli and international activists as well as Palestinians from around Palestine. The construction of the Wall has resulted in the de-facto annexation of 2,400 dunums of land
(600 acres) – over 50% of the land belonging to the village facilitating massive Israeli settlement expansion east of the Green Line.
Next week will be the 3rd Annual International Conference on the Joint Popular Struggle. The image chosen for the Conference is a cartoon by Palestinian cartoonist Naser Al Jafari that appeared in Al Quds newspaper after an action in which the people of Bil’in chained themselves to the olive trees, that were slated to be uprooted (for a video of this action click here).
While our original idea was to paint something on the ‘outpost’ the villagers built on their land which lies on the other side of the Wall in protest of the illegal Israeli settlements being built on their land, the Palestinians in Bil’in preferred that we paint in a more visible building in the village. So we will paint next week before the beginning of the Conference on the majlis or the Village Council.
We’re looking forward to it!
Posted in Uncategorized.
– May 29, 2008
Break the Silence arrives in Bir Zeit
We arrived Sunday evening to the town of Bir Zeit, just north of Ramallah. Our kind and generous hosts at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music have done an amazing job at preparing for our mural work on the 100 ft. by 35 ft. facade of the building which once housed the women’s dormitories of Bir Zeit University. The building has more than 50 rooms with 2-4 beds in each one and serves as a retreat for the music institute as well as other cultural educational and organizational use.
The wall itself will be perfect once the diligent workers (Zeiad and Abbas) finish plastering and we get the primer laid down in the coming days. Today we are off to find paint and supplies and get our bearings.
More to come soon! Check out our pictures on the side in the “Edward Said National Conservatory of Music” folder!
Posted in Home Page.
– May 27, 2008
BTS 2008 Solidarity Campaign
60 Years is enough!
Take Handala to the Streets!!
“Handala was
born to survive… I will continue within him even after I die.”- Naji Al-Ali
On May 15, the international community will take to the streets to mark Al-Nakba
or the the defining moment in 1948, when two thirds of the
indigenous population of Palestine was ethnically Catastrophe, cleansed for the
establishment of the Jewish state of Israel. This day will be an
important opportunity to demand that the legally recognized Right to
Return for Palestinian refugees is upheld and that all Palestinians are
allowed to return to their homes, land and families from which they have been
exiled for 60 years.
Art has always accompanied political struggle and revolution. In the
face of oppression, and seemingly insurmountable odds, art and culture holds
communities together, often at great sacrifice. Handala, Naji Al-Ali’s iconic little cartoon boy, a Palestinian refugee, stands as
a testament to the incredible ability of the Palestinian people to resist the
daily assaults by Israel on their ability to live a viable life and stand firm
in their steadfast demand for self determination. Handala beautifully
and powerfully reminds the world that the Palestinian people will never give up
their right to return
Throughout 2008, we envision
a sea of Handalas taking to the
streets and taking over global television screens as the international community stands with the Palestinian people. To enable this to happen we
have created easy to use downloadable images of Handala in a variety
formats including:
- A small pdf for hand held Handalas or face masks, widow posters or posters that kids can carry,
- Medium and large pdfs for stick posters, cutouts, and banners.
- Stencil templates
- And instructions for building a large scale and lightweight Handala puppet.
The website www.handala.org will also have background information on Naji Al
Ali’s and his Handala image, 100 cartoons, a fact sheet on the Right
of Return and links to international and national solidarity efforts that
are aligned with the calls of the Palestinian Popular Conference and the
Palestine call for Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions.
Key Follow up: All we ask in return is that anyone using the image at
the protests on May 15 or throughout the year, drop us an email afterward, commenting
(250 words max) on your experience using the images along with two or three
images of your action with Handala to put up on the website!!
To send photos,
comments, for more information about this project, or if you have any problems
with downloads, get in touch with us! handala6040@yahoo.com
Endorsed by:
the US Palestinian Popular Conference, the International Jewish
Solidarity Network and the Local Nakba Committee
Posted in Home Page.
– March 28, 2008