The colors of the Palestinian flag

Painting Palestine, an artist's commitment to claim peace from Lebanon
Tripoli (EFE).- The colors of the Palestinian flag permeate the paintings of Tania Naboulsi, a Palestinian-Lebanese artist who uses art as a form of struggle and vindication for a free, independent and peaceful Palestine.

Naboulsi was born in a small Lebanese village, but her Palestinian roots extend to the town of Nablus, from where her family went into exile during the 'Nakba' - the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands committed by Israel in 1948 - she tells EFE in her studio in Tripoli, in northern Lebanon.

In her paintings she recreates Palestinian landscapes and places, such as the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem; also traditional motifs such as the characteristic pattern of Palestinian embroidery, women with their children, flowers "red with the blood of the martyrs", and weapons that recall the war that must end. Art as a loudspeaker
This painter, who works surrounded by paint cans, brushes and her five cats, graduated in Fine Arts in 2008 and since then has not stopped painting and exhibiting her works in different art centres in Lebanon to demand the end of the occupation of Palestine and, now also, the cessation of attacks against the country where she was born.

“I have never been to Palestine and I will not go until it is liberated,” she says while giving a few brushstrokes to her latest painting, in which a woman with a baby in her arms can be seen in front of a setting yet to be defined.
Art, a weapon to fight for her land

She speaks slowly due to a facial disability that has left part of her face paralysed and is critical of people who travel to occupied Palestine because it represents a “normalisation” and “recognition” of the occupier, without mentioning the name of Israel at any time.

“I decided to paint Palestine because my family is Palestine, because I am Palestine. “My mother always talked to me about our land,” she explains, sitting on a stool in front of a wall full of bookshelves and a large old key to her family home in Nablus hanging on the wall.
For her, art is a weapon to fight for her land: “If I don’t use art for and by my country, then I’m not an artist. I don’t deserve to be an artist.”

“Painting Palestine is my duty, but not only that, it’s also because it’s in my heart, it runs through the blood of my veins,” she adds about her paintings, which will soon include Lebanese motifs, after the Israeli Army began a massive bombing campaign against different parts of the country a month ago.
Raise awareness and generate debate

With her work she wants to mobilize the public and open the eyes of the international community to a conflict that has shattered any international agreement on the rules of war and humanitarian law: “We have an enemy that doesn’t respect any law, so you have to defend yourself,” she says.

In addition to the paintings she presents in temporary exhibitions in Tripoli and other cities, she paints colorful murals in the streets to decorate and also remember the history of her land, both Palestinian and Lebanese.
She is now in contact with an organization in the United States that has proposed that she make murals about Palestine and the Arab world in the streets of another neighborhood of the city, a project that will take her a little more time and effort.

Naboulsi is clear that “you are not useless as long as you do something” for the cause, referring to the small motor disability that makes her limp slightly and makes it difficult for her to be more physically active, but it encourages her to continue painting.

Her next projects will also include Lebanese landscapes and scenes as part of an exercise in historical memory that reflects the Israeli attacks in Lebanon, her second homeland.
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