Palestinian artists show their way to fight against the accupation through
their paintings
Art has become a very important form of resistance in the last years. For this reason,
people from different generations show through their paintings the history from
Palestine, the suffering and the personal stories that they have lived since the Nakba.
When you go in the Kataló artistic studio, you can appreciate his ideas and how this
space is part of his refuge. The desire for a homeland in freedom and to recover a land
that belongs to them appear in the paintings he develops under the technique of oil on
canvas. Linked to drawing since he was a child, his main objective is to make known
the situation suffered by the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. The freedom to
express himself, to speak, to be able to express his ideology without any pressure that
forces you to be silent, is one of his main dreams: "this is soft work for how to fight the
occupation, it's how to fight to occupation under the others".
The censorship he suffers today hardly compares to what he experienced during the
years before the Oslo peace accords of 1993, when the control of the Israeli authority
was present day after day in his gallery: "The army would enter my gallery and leave
everything destroyed. It damaged my paintings and even took them away." "No one can
forget the Apartheid that the Palestinian people are suffering, so when I make
international trips to exhibit my paintings, I try to make this idea last in the minds of
people who do not live in Palestine and that they also feel what our people have been
suffering for decades and decades," he adds.
However, it is on those trips abroad with his works, where he encounters numerous
obstacles. "Many times they don't let me take the paintings out, so I try to spread their
content through social networks."
Many Palestinian artists have managed to open a window abroad thanks to networks
like Instagram, this is the case of Malik Abusalameh, a 23-year-old artist who uses his
canvases as a way of thinking and conveying his emotions.
His room has become his personal gallery and at the same time his studio. The new
generations also have in mind the idea of maintaining this peaceful resistance through
art, so that the memory of the Palestinians remains present: "At the age of 12 I started
drawing in the school playgrounds, I painted with just a pen and no paper and that's
when they started to tell me I had talent. Since then I haven't stopped drawing and
painting," he says.
“The occupation actually attacked and fight against the art and artists . the occupation
targeted the art and artist as other kind of palestinians means of struggle. they arrested
many of Artists and confiscated their work and they attacked the many art exhibitions”,
said Kataló in his gallerie plenty of portraits with a lot of stories. Malik finds in his
Instagram his own social media. He uses a catalog and portfolio to send his messages of
resistance internationally through his art.

The country of Palestine is not only Gaza Strip or Cisjordania, so is Jerusalén East,
Yafo and many villages occupies by israelie settler, that is why Katalo captures in many
of his works the of the dream land, where we can observe the Palestinian people under
the Dome of the Rock, one of the most emblematic religious places in the Muslim
world, known as the “Esplanade of the Mosques”, also a hot spot where there have been
several conflicts and where the second Intifida began: “we need to fight against this
Apartheid, we need to express the humility of our people, of my people”.
“In my paintings I usually express my family’s desire to return, for example my father
is from Jenin but works in Bethlehem, my mother is from Bethlehem but is a refugee.
All my grandparents were forced to leave their villages after 1948. We all live here”.
Malik tells that all his family live in Bethlehem, but his roots are not here. The wish of
return appears in all generations, the wish of to be able to return to your roots is always
present, that is why Malik tries to capture the ideas that his family has given him, in his
paintings he captures his roots, the land that saw the birth of both his parents and his
grandparents, mysticism, rural cultural beliefs and country life, but above all, the desire
to be able to return to your roots is always present, that is why Malik tries to capture the
ideas that his family has given him, in his paintings he captures his roots, the land that
was the birth of both his parents and his grandparents, mysticism, rural cultural beliefs
and country life, but above all, the desire to return to their origins.
With the arrival of the British mandate and after the Israeli occupation, everything
changed. Israel was appropriating its culture, its food and even its natural landscapes
and its most important monuments. The Dome of the Rock is a cultural identity symbol
for all Palestinians Many of them have not been able to cross to the other side for years
and observe this emblematic esplanade, Kataló in his many workds transmits it in this
way. You can always see in some hidden corner of his works the golden Dome of the
Rock, whic at sunset, its colors become bright, mixing with the limestone color of the
Palestinian land.
Like Kataló, Malik also has his own Palestinian symbols in his workds. The mysticity
and the beliefs of the myths of the goat for the Palestinians have always been closely
linked to their ancestors. In addition, not only this, Malik also wants the embroideries
that Palestinian women have been doing all their lives to last forever, which is why he
participed in a project in the Beith Sahour neighborhood, where many of tis doors are
designed with the typical Palestinian embroidery, imitating the dress that the Palestinian
woman wore 100 years ago. “The symbol of women is a symbol of resistance, strenght
and courage, many of my workds are inspired by doctors, farmers, teachers and
housewives' ', Katalo also points out. All Palestinian women have stories to tell, they
too have been participant in this Palestinian resistance. Palestinian embroidery has been
one of the weapons of Palestinian identification, which is why Malik has also wanted
that eapon to last in the neighbohood of Beith Lehem and also in many of his digital
works.
“Art is a form of resistance like many other forms”, Malik points out confidently.
“When you have a situation like this, any form of struggle is valid”, confirms Kataló.
The artistic world has already started with the revolution, the right of return, directly or
indirectly, is its main force to continue fighting.

Writers : Belen López, Sandra Martínez and Judith E. Castaneda