The Pope’s visit to the Holy Land (today’s Jordan, Palestine and Israel) has been the focus of many activists hoping to get the Catholic pontiff to speak out in favor of the Palestinian cause.
One such symbolic act was done through an artistic lens. The Palestinian Museum, a new museum set to open in the spring of 2015, hung banners in Bethlehem’s Manger Square as part of an exhibition entitled “In The Presence of the Holy See” predominantly showing Catholic imagery contrasted with Palestinian suffering.
The museum featured 12 of the banners on their Facebook page:
Artwork: Ecce Homo (c. 1605) by Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio, depicting Pontius Pilate present Jesus before a hostile crowd. Photo: Palestinians crossing the Qalandiya checkpoint on their way to Jerusalem. 20 April, 2002, by Alexandra Boulat.
Artwork: Madonna of the Rosary (c. 1607) by Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio.
Photo: The sun shines through what was once the roof of a Palestinian refugee shelter in the Burj el-Barajneh camp, Lebanon, in 1993. By M. Nasr, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) photo archive.
Black-and-white photo: A beach refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. From the UNRWA photo archive.
Color photo: An Israeli soldier at the Qalandiya checkpoint. 20 April, 2002, by Alexandra Boulat.
Black-and-white photo: Clothes distribution at the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, 1972. By Kay Brennan, from the UNRWA photo archive.
Color photo: An Israeli soldier searches a Palestinian boy at a checkpoint in Hebron.
20 Nov., 2005, by Nayef Hashlamoun.
Black-and-white photo: Dheisheh refugee camp after the 1948 partition. From the UNRWA photo archive.
Color photo: A segment of the Israeli separation wall near Beit Hanina in Jerusalem, 2012. By Tanya Habjouqa.
Black-and-white photo: One of the few remaining refugees after the civil strife in Jisr el-Basha camp spends a quiet moment in the partly damaged Pontifical Mission Church in Lebanon, 1976. From the UNRWA photo archive.
Color photo: Palestinian Presidential Headquarters (al-Muqat’a) in Ramallah, 2002. By Jamal Arouri.
Artwork: Abraham’s Sacrifice (c. 1635) by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.
Photo: Israeli soldiers overwhelmed by the smell of dead bodies at Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. 16 April, 2002, by Alexandra Boulat.
Artwork: The Deposition (c. 1507) by Raphaello Sanzio da Urbino.
“In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem,“ Zechariah 12:11.
Photo: Israeli soldiers kill a Palestinian and detain others in downtown Ramallah. 31 March, 2002, by Alexandra Boulat.
Artwork: Christ Healing the Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda (c. 1670) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. “Rise, take up your bed and walk,” John 5:8.
Photo: A Palestinian passes into Gaza via the Erez checkpoint. 24 May, 2006, by Alexandra Boulat.
Black-and-white photo: Palestinian refugees walking across Allenby Bridge on their way to Jordan in July 1967. By Myrtle Winter, from the UNRWA photo archive.
Color photo: A woman runs terrified from her house in Bint Jbail during a “temporary ceasefire“ in southern Lebanon during the Israeli-led war of 2006. By Tanya Habjouqa.
Artwork: Lamentation of Christ (c. 1606) by Annibale Carracci.
Photo: First lifting of the curfew at the Jenin refugee camp following an Israeli raid. 15 April, 2002, by Alexandra Boulat.
This article was originally published on Global Voices.
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