As the fighting in Gaza continues, the news – and particularly our social media channels – continue to be filled with images of war, destruction and suffering. As the death toll rises every day and the blame game continues to rally back and forth between Hamas and Israel, it seems there is no ray of hope for the innocent civilians whose lives are being torn apart by this massacre.
With no where else to turn to, a group of Palestinian artists have taken matters into their own hands. In the hope of restoring their people with some faith and in the hope of giving them a new burst of energy to get through this tragedy, this group have taken photographs of rocket explosions and transformed them into symbols of hope and resistance.
The three artists are Tawfik Gabreel, Bushra Shanan and Belal Khaled. Using the horrific images of destruction that we see everyday in our newspapers, they have transformed their smoke filled neighbourhoods into images of peace signs, clenched fists and parents playing with their children.
“I have the ambition to do several exhibitions in several countries and publish my depictions of the suffering of the Palestinian people through graphic art and so the world knows the Strip,” Gabreel, a Palestinian architect based in Gaza, told design website inhabit.com.
He said he turned to drawing because he wanted to send the world a message in the “universal humanitarian language understood by all peoples of the world.”
About the Author
