So far this year one of the biggest issues I have faced was the lack of education the peers around me have on Palestine. This surprised me. thousands of children and civilians have either been killed or forced to flee the country because of the harsh conditions they have been living in. The Israeli Army has been killing innocent children while the international community stands silent, especially in the US as they don’t want to offend the big jewish population. I wanted to create a way to document and inform people about the monstrous acts that the IDF soldiers get away with and the horrible displacement,lack of respect and the violence that the Palestinian people witnessed. I wanted to inform people through visuals even though I am restricted from the place I am making art about myself because of my nationality as a Saudi and as a Muslim. But I realized that there was a way to tell stories by recreating the scenes that I see on different Palestinian update channels, by interviewing Palestinian friends about the situation there and watching documentaries and collecting these stories with a common theme and drawing them into these long comic strips that I made. These comic strips also help me as an artist to stop having as much control on my pieces. By doing these strips frame by frame whenever a new issue arises in Palestine made the process of making these strips more emotional as I got to draw these scenes as I reacted to them the instant I saw anything online that bothered my about the settlement policies or Palestine in general.
The main issues I tackled in my video piece was just to represent to erasing of the Palestinian culture and how the Israeli settlements wiped out their access to resources and shelter. I used the original 1946 Palestinian flag and illustrated 200+ frames onto the map digitally to replicate the first map of 1946 and how the map has changed since then. I then also elated the Israeli flag on top of the video towards the end to symbolize how the Israeli army is constantly trying to erase the Palestinian and Arab culture.
When creating the coming strips, I collected scenes and screenshots from footage I found from the West Bank and I wanted my first comic strip to address the effects of the settlements in the West Bank. In the comic strip, I decided to focus specifically on the issue of water and how approximately 80% of the water that exists in the West Bank is used and controlled by the Israeli government, which leaves the Palestinians who have already been displaced and live in already rough conditions in the West Bank much harder. For my second comic I wanted to focus on scenes that displayed mistreatment due to race and most importantly the violence and fear that the IDF causes in a place that is supposed to be the most holy place on earth for people from all the three Abrahamic religions. I wanted to also illustrate an alternate future where all religions are all praying and worshiping in peace in Jerusalem to illustrate the hope I have for the two communities. An important element to showcasing the issue of race was comparing the different everyday living situations of people in Palestine with ones in Israel and I used the Arabic language and the Hebrew language to show that this is also a race issue. I also really enjoyed that my peers were involved and made it a safe place to talk about the issue and I wanted them to find out ways to help or stay informed. So I added cards that accompanied the comics and the video that offered lists of organizations that help with the Issue of Water in Palestine or just how to help the situation by donating or by being informed.
