Life Onboard LAST UPDATE  September 19, 2006
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August 25, 2006 Art and Resistance in Palestine – Basel Nasr
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Basel Nasr with Spanish teacher Maria Perez and Communication Coordinator Mai Ono at the 'Beyond Windows' workshop they organized together.
The international community was shocked to hear that Israel would construct a wall around Palestinians in 2002. Images of the brooding grey cement filled the news all over the world for some time. Activists went to Palestine or continued solidarity activities in their own communities to show their support for the Palestinian people. NGOs like Peace Boat organized campaigns and encouraged dialogue. But most of us cannot really understand what it is like to be walled in, as a homeland once free becomes a place of checkpoints and soldiers, emigrating family members and curfews.

Peace Boat’s 54th voyage has been privileged to have Basel Nasr, 25 years old, from Rammallah in Palestine, who joined us from Cochin to Barcelona as a member of the International Student group. For a month, he gave a number of lectures on the history of the Palestine-Israel issue, and introduced the activities that an art studio he founded in Rammallah together with friends has organized to initiate a nonviolent cultural movement of expression-cum-empowerment, especially for children.

One of the most memorable of his activities onboard Peace Boat was an art workshop during which participants were asked to fill two large banners with messages and windows that depicted what they felt the children of Palestine would like to see on the other side of the wall. Basel will take these banners back to Palestine and hang them on the wall.
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Following are excerpts from a conversation that I had with him. . .

What is the general mood in Palestine after Israel began construction of the wall?
There was a place in the mountains that my friends and I used to like to go to. We would hike up there and have a barbecue. That was the first place that was taken from me when the wall started to go up. Then it started to cut other things out of our lives; schools are on the other side of the wall so children have to travel hours to get to a checkpoint, two-way streets now have the wall in the middle. It took fields from farmers, robbing them of their source of income. For others it has cut through relations with their neighbours and families.

Everyone feels they are being imprisoned. The international court said the wall was illegal and it was still built. People are becoming tired, so even the most extreme parties are starting to accept having Israel as a neighbouring country. We are not surrendering, every day there is a demonstration in Palestine and people are fighting in courts to get their land back. The problem is that Israel refuses to give anything back. 22% is left of Palestine and the wall is taking more. They won’t give us control of the borders, the right for people to return, all these issues are making it difficult. If we had a real country with an airport and everything, and we were independent, Palestinians might be satisfied but at the same time I don’t think Palestinians who lived the whole story can adjust to the fact that Palestine is no longer Palestine.

How does the wall look from the Palestinian side?
 People reject it by drawing on it. Everywhere you go the wall is covered with graffiti; the names of martyrs, messages from the first intifada (resistance movement), drawings of keys which are significant because they symbolize refugees’ keys to their homes, or the Palestinian people’s key to the homeland that is being taken from us. The wall also acts as a newspaper. If something happens, the next day there is news of it on the wall. All the political groups write their statements on the wall. There are many maps of Palestine, always drawn in the shape it was before Israel started their occupation.

What is resistance?
 For Palestinians resistance is fighting against Israel’s desire to make us think we are defeated. The feeling that we can still do something and that we haven’t surrendered, this is the most important thing.

How does art help the resistance?
 First, children in Palestine don’t have a normal childhood. They don’t have playgrounds, toys, games; it’s not a normal life. Art can help to show them how to act like a child, how to play, draw and create. We are using art as a tool to make them express themselves and play. Art also helps Palestinians communicate with people on the outside through images, which are more powerful than words. It is important to try to get the message out to people who have a certain awareness or interest in global issues and will help us spread the word so that some action can be taken.

How did you feel when you were doing the workshop on the Peace Boat?
 It was interesting to see the difference in awareness about the issue. Some people were drawing happy faces, which made me feel like these people really don’t understand the situation. The best message was 'Cool Kids Can’t Fly,' by Vladimir (international student from Serbia). His message hurts, it's offensive, but it expresses truth. I had this dreamy idea that we could go beyond the wall with this project, but that's being too idealistic. Reality is that the wall exists and we can’t avoid it, it’s not going to go away and we’re not going to grow wings. Over all it was really nice to see so many people showing support.

What will you do with the mural when you go back to Palestine?
 There’s a children’s school in a village near Jerusalem where the wall cuts the playground in half. I will hang it on the wall there. We will probably do a small workshop with the children of this school and hang their banners up as well. I’m hoping that when people see these murals it will motivate them to become more active. When they see that people from Japan and other countries care and are doing something to resist the wall it will move them. It will also make Palestinians more interested in other countries, which is great because you are making an interaction between two cultures. Maybe this is a starting point for people in Palestine to meet people from all over the world.

What are your personal goals for the next five years?
 I would also like to get a master’s degree related to multimedia. But mainly I want to continue to develop the art studio with my friends and network with other groups who are doing similar things. I hope we can start a movement.

What did you learn during your month on Peace Boat?
 I learned about other cultures, other conflicts. It was an experience of meeting people who are from different backgrounds and different cultures but share this feeling of change, of being active. A great lesson for me was meeting Ilil (IS from Israel).

She is the first Israeli that I ever personally met. In meeting her I understand the 'other.' For me the 'other' was the soldier. I imagined Israelis going to school by tank and playing with guns. I’m joking, but this is how I was dealing with them. In my mind they were simply people who want to kill us, who want to take everything from us. Learning that she is fighting for the same goal as me, which is to change the whole system of occupation and to undo all the injustice, and how committed she is to this fight was inspiring, and she’s still so young. Her fight is more difficult than mine. By meeting Ilil, it has been easier to accept having an Israeli neighbor.

How do you feel about getting off the ship?
I don’t know how I’m going to feel when I get back to Rammallah. It will be very hard to tell my friends and family about this experience. It’s painful to leave because I’m not sure if I will see the friends that I made onboard again. This experience made me so much stronger. I’m looking forward to going back because I have this energy and potential now. I want to go back so I can do something with my new ideas. I want to go and talk to people. All these questions that people have been asking me, this third party that is not involved with the conflict, I want to ask my friends these questions and see how they would respond.