Palestine – Exhibition opens in Gaza to commemorate lives of family members

Date: 26/05/2022

Location: Gaza- Palestine

Language: Arabic

Duration: 00:05:20

Sound: Natural

Source: A24 Gaza

Restrictions: A24 Subscribers

Storyline:

An exhibition has opened in the Gaza Strip to commemorate the lives of 22 Palestinian family members killed during Israel’s last year bombings on the enclave.

The exhibition called “I am 22 and I lost 22 people” showed nine paintings made by Zainab al-Qolaq, a fine artist and survivor of the strikes that claimed lives of her family members.

The paintings, with depictions of ruined homes, ambulances, corpses and skeletons, have been created to show the visitors her trauma from the military attacks.

The display was organized by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor in cooperation with the UN Women Palestine.

Zainab told A24 News Agency that the display aims to spotlight her family story, calling for respecting and protecting human rights from any violations.

Researcher at the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Anas Al-Jerjawi, hailed Zainab as strong victim who conveyed her message through paintings adding war stirs painful memories for a long time.

Shot list:

Soundbite (Zainab Al-Qolaq – Palestinian painter):

“The exhibition shows the impact of the last Israeli war on Gaza, during which I lost my house, my family, and my neighbors. The exhibition displays nine paintings, each one embodies a specific tragic story that I lived as a consequence of the war. For example, I represented in a painting the civil defense and the paramedic, whom I spoke with while I was under the rubble. In another one, I drew my family. The exhibition is entitled “I am 22, I lost 22 people,” because I was 22years old at the time of the war, and I lost 22 people in my family. They are not just a number, but people with names, identity, ambitions, and dreams, all of which have been destroyed by the war.”

Soundbite (Anas Al-Jerjawi – Researcher at the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor):

“The exhibition carries important messages, the first of which is that the impact of wars doesn’t end as victims will be accompanied by painful memories for a long time. Today, Zainab’s paintings express her suffering and the suffering of thousands of victims whose cases were not shed light on. What distinguishes this exhibition is that we see a new model of victims, the strong victim who rose from the rubble, as Zainab remained under the rubble for 12 hours before she went out to gather her strength and paint to convey her message to the world.”

Soundbite (Hind Al-Wahidi- Visitor):

“The paintings I saw today are very expressive, and their details convey the scenes that Zainab and her family experienced during the last aggression on Gaza. Art is a way of expressing everything that a person can experience; joy or sadness, therefore art was the best way for Zainab to express and convey to the world, what she experienced in the Al Wahda Street massacre.”