Palestine: Art and culture against oppression

The resistance and preservation of the identity of the Palestinian people through art and culture is the theme of this edition of Jornal de Letras. The following article highlights the way in which several artistic events, organized this year in Portugal, transcended creativity and supported Palestine's struggle, becoming political acts against its “cultural erasure”.

“Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.” After uttering this sentence, while receiving the medal that the National Book Foundation decided to give her due to her exceptional contribution to American letters, Ursula K. Le Guin hastened to add: “Resistance and change often begin in art”.

The year was 2014. The day, November 20th. An autumn morning five months and many kilometers away from the June night during which three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered by two members of Hamas, triggering the famous Operation Protective Edge, a military campaign launched by the Israeli Armed Forces against Gaza Strip, which, over 49 days, caused the death of two thousand Palestinians (697 civilians, 256 women or children) and 60 Israeli soldiers.

On October 7, 2023, a frightening “copy paste” of events, elevated to a much greater power than the 2014 version, would irremediably take the World by storm. And suddenly, ten years after Ursula Guin's acceptance speech, her words echoed with even more strength and intensity. “Resistance and change often begin in art.”

It is good that we do not forget this idea, as several leaders of oppressive states, over the centuries, have never stopped keeping it in mind.

In fact, destroying the cultural and artistic heritage of a people as a way of “erasing” them from History has been a historically recurring practice in armed conflicts, which, over the last few decades, seems to have gained increasing momentum.

Just think of the monuments destroyed and the houses looted by Adolf Hitler's armies, the murder of writer and activist Ghassan Kanafani, author of short stories and novels that explore the Palestinian experience and the struggle for the return of refugees, by the Israeli secret service, in 1972, in the bombing of the ancient sculptures of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, in Afghanistan, carried out, in 2001, by the Taliban, or in the actions of Daesh, in 2005, which range from the destruction of the city of Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site, in Syria, to the theft of century-old manuscripts from the universities of Mosul, in Iraq, and the destruction, with hammers, of artifacts from the city's museum.

Every time a monument falls, under the hands of oppressors, part of a people falls with it. Every time an artist is prohibited from expressing himself, silenced or prevented from traveling around the world and spreading his message, with him democracy and human freedom and dignity are silenced.

Every time a newspaper editor receives an email similar to the one that arrived in JL's inboxes on November 4th this year, it's time to write a cover story about what's happening.
TIME TO (RE)ACT

The message in question was sent by the organization of the Vale Perdido musical programming cycle. In a press release, Joaquim Quadros, Sérgio Hydalgo, Gustavo Blanco and Ricardo Lemos announced “with enormous sadness” that vocalist and composer Maya Al Khaldi and producer and sound artist Sarouna, both Palestinians, were scheduled to perform on November 13 at the Ismaili Center in Lisbon, unfortunately they had found themselves “unable to be present in Lisbon”.

In moments like these we know, not only that things have gone too far, but also that the time has come to remember that “resistance and change often begin in art.”

This is what the organizers of the event did, who, in order to maintain the show on November 13th, “an essential moment for the programmatic narrative of Lost Valley 2024”, invited Dirar Kalash, one of the pioneers of Palestinian improvised music, and Ãssia Ghendir, an artist from Algeria, to “occupy” the void left by artists unable to travel.
Do you intend to share this text? Use the sharing tools you find on the article page. All VISÃO contents are protected by Copyright under Portuguese legislation. Support quality journalism, do not share in violation of Copyright.

That night, Kalash gave the soul to the public: His and his people's. Whoever, on November 13th, entered the Ismaili Center in Lisbon, did not leave the same. He will never forget the crying song of Ãssia Ghendir being swallowed by the silence and darkness of the room.

You'll never forget the notes bending into moans, stretching into screams, and finally falling silent under the deafening noise of bombs, air raids, alarms, and crumbling walls.

You will never forget the man – looking like us, dressed like us, in front of a laptop like the one many have at home – bent over himself as he listens, and invites us to listen, to the sound of his dignity being bombarded. “I spent my entire life searching for the sound of my homeland. This is it. I see that they don’t consider it a pleasant sound… but it is a sound that has to be heard”.

I spent my entire life searching for the sound of my homeland. This is it. I see that they don't consider it a pleasant sound... but it is a sound that needs to be heard
dirar kalash – musician

Above all, whoever entered the Ismaili Center in Lisbon on November 13th will never doubt that “resistance and change often begin in art”.
CINEMA THAT YOU CAN SEE

Just like the Lost Valley, many other cultural events that took place in our country this year were seen as symbols of resistance in the fight against the oppression of the Palestinian people.

In May, Kamal Aljafari, a Palestinian director who has worked tirelessly to defend Palestine, preserving its stories and denouncing the oppressive policies of the state of Israel, occupied a prominent place in the 21st edition of IndieLisboa, which presented a retrospective of his work.

At that time, in an interview with JL, he revealed that, after the start of the war, although there were many places where the interest and visibility given to work linked to Palestine increased, doing his work “became more difficult in some places, like in Germany”, where he currently lives.

“I think cinema and the arts can change people and mobilize them. That’s what I try to do, but I know there is a blockade from the mainstream media”, commented the director.

I think cinema and the arts can change people and mobilize them. That's what I try to do
Kamal Aljafari – director

At the end of October, it was DocLisboa's turn to give importance to the theme, presenting, within the Risks section, Some Strings, an almost infinite poetic work but with a pragmatic scope.

Poet and professor Refaat Alareer and seven family members were hit by Israeli strikes. In his last poem, If I Have to Die, published five weeks before he was murdered, Alareer appeals to those who should live to create a paper kite – a long-standing object of resistance – from pieces of thread.

Launched in March 2024, Some Strings had brought together, by October, more than 100 artists and six hours of short films.

As JL reported in its issue no. 1399, dated May 15, the genocide of the Palestinian people did not go unharmed in the 18th edition of Leffest either. The festival directed by Paulo Branco had a special multidisciplinary program, which included a cinema cycle, with films from different eras, including, for example, Mahmoud Darwish: As the land is the Language, by Simone Bitton and Elias Sanbar (and other films by Bitton), or Junction 48, by Udi Aloni, with the presence of the directors.
Do you intend to share this text? Use the sharing tools you find on the article page. All VISÃO contents are protected by Copyright under Portuguese legislation. Support quality journalism, do not share in violation of Copyright.

Furthermore, the exhibition was on display: In-Between, by Khaled Jarada, a visual artist from Gaza; the Make Freedom Ring classical music benefit concert, raising funds for Doctors Without Borders – Regional Fund for the Occupied Palestinian Territories and neighboring countries, took place in Tivoli; and also a poetry session, at Teatro do Bairro.

The 11th edition of Olhares do Mediterraneo – Women’s Film Festival, which promotes cinema made by women from Mediterranean countries, also reserved, this year, a special section, dedicated to directors from the Palestinian diaspora, in addition to programming, for the session Opening, on October 31st, the film The Teacher, by Farah Nabulsi, a Palestinian born and raised in the United Kingdom, Bafta winner and Oscar nominee for best Short Film.

read more