Parallel Exhibitions Connect Young Artists in Gaza and the West Bank

At the Bethlehem Peace Center in the West Bank, artists gathered with family and friends to watch a live video link to a small gathering at an artist's studio in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The two exhibitions mark the opening of Anamel Falasteen, the first competition organized by the Falasteen Collective. The cultural initiative was launched in 2025 by Palestinian artists, filmmakers, designers and cultural workers. The parallel exhibitions ran for three days earlier this week, bringing together young Palestinian artists whose work and chances to meet are separated by Israeli travel restrictions.

"In the competition, we have Palestinian artists from Jerusalem, from historic Palestine, from the Gaza Strip and from the West Bank," juror Osama Nazzal said in Bethlehem. "I don't like these divisions. I want to speak of all of Palestine."

From a studio at Gallery Paleta in the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, as Israel's war there continued, artist and juror Ghanem Al Den sent greetings over the video link.

"Greetings and peace from soul to soul, from Gaza to the sister cities of Palestine across this beloved homeland," he said. "In this competition, many lost things have come back together. The most important is hope."

After the speeches, visitors took a closer look at the paintings, photographs and drawings covering the walls. They moved among the works, paused to study them, pointed and exchanged impressions.

"The artists decided to come from Hebron, from Ramallah, from Jerusalem, from Jaffa, from Nablus, despite the risks," said Mohamed Abusrour, one of the founders of the Falasteen Collective. "They have a voice, they want to contribute, and they want to show the world that we still exist."

Not every work shown in Bethlehem was an original. Because of the blockade and travel restrictions, the organizers said there was no way to bring original pieces out of Gaza. Instead, they printed copies of the Gaza works and hung them alongside the originals.

For one audience member in Bethlehem, the selection stood out. She initially assumed some pieces sharing a theme were by the same artist. It turned out they belonged to different artists, some in Gaza and others in the West Bank.

"I sat longer with some of the paintings, and it made me cry," she said. "The live broadcast and the presence of everyone's paintings were a gateway that brought all of our spirits together."

Young artists capture loss and everyday life

The works on display reflect different ways of documenting Palestinian life, from the loss of family and homes in Gaza to the traditions and everyday experiences the artists want to preserve.

Abusrour said the idea for the competition grew out of listening to artist friends describe being unable to take part or express themselves freely. He said the goal was to create a platform for young Palestinians to present their work at home and abroad "without limits."

The competition was open to artists aged 15 to 30. About 170 applied, nearly 60 percent of them from Gaza, according to the organizers. A jury split between the West Bank and Gaza selected 120 works in three categories: memory and place, land and return, and everyday heritage.

The jury met daily by video, working around power and network outages in Gaza.

"Despite the lack of resources, they decided to take part, and once they decided, they took part with everything they had," Abusrour said of the artists in Gaza.

Among the works shown in Gaza was "The Vine Bears Witness" by Arwa Mukhaimer, a 20-year-old university student. It depicts the entrance to her family home, shaded by a grape arbor. That was where, on March 30, 2024, she learned her father had died. She said he had been unable to reach medical treatment during Israel's war in Gaza. Five months later, she said, the house was destroyed.

"This painting is a memorial to what we lost, a double loss, a father and a place," she told Al Jazeera. Two days before he died, her father told her: "My dear, may God be pleased with you." She wrote those words into the painting.

When she was displaced by the war, she said: "The first thing I thought about was my tools." She said art supplies are very hard to find in Gaza, and some materials never make it into the Strip.

The challenge for artists is not only access to materials. Gaza's main art spaces, including Eltiqa and Shababeek, have been destroyed in Israeli attacks. Mukhaimer said her painting "has hope and joy, but its meaning is painful and emotional."

In Bethlehem, Hanan Barghouthi, a 24-year-old visual artist from Ramallah, also chose to paint joy, but from a different angle. Her painting of a Palestinian wedding is full of bright colors, traditional symbols and movement.

"Every artwork becomes a way for people to express sadness, so I wanted to reflect happiness, because I like to be joyful," she said.

Travel restrictions divide Gaza and the West Bank

Bringing the two exhibitions together forced the organizers to work around the restrictions that keep Palestinians in the two territories apart. Artists in Gaza and the West Bank live under different Israeli occupation conditions, but face the same barriers to meeting, collaborating and exhibiting together.

Israel has imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the Gaza Strip since June 2007. In the occupied West Bank, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded 925 obstacles restricting the movement of 3.4 million Palestinians, including in East Jerusalem, as of December 2025.

That separation is not accidental, according to Rehab Nazzal, an artist and educator on the competition's advisory committee.

"It is a product of the settler-colonial project," she said. "By strangling Palestinians with every kind of travel restriction, it wants to push Palestinians to leave."

Abusrour said spaces like the exhibition give young Palestinians a reason to stay and keep creating.

"You cannot live in a place, and be called resilient, without a reason to live," he said.

Watching the Gaza artists on screen, Barghouthi said she felt "very sad" and asked herself: "Where are we and where are they?"

"I feel we are close to them, but at the same time very far," she said. "But emotionally, I feel they are right beside me, because our work hangs side by side."