"lesbians for a free Palestine"

downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

17 (recorded) martyrs in Gaza since dawn

Bayan Abu Nahla is a Palestinian visual artist born in 2001. Originally from the ethnically cleansed village of Yibna in the Ramla subdistrict of Lydd, Bayan spent her childhood in the Yibna refugee camp in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. She has been drawing since childhood, and most of her artworks are ink on paper. The Rachel Corrie Children’s Center in Rafah played a major role in fostering an artistic culture in drawing, theater, and singing for her and the other children of Rafah before it closed down. In 2019, she enrolled in a diploma program in graphic design at the UNRWA Vocational College.

Her works function as diary-keeping to process spontaneous ephemeral feelings and thoughts through pen and paper. She does not care much for other mediums, although she has painted on canvas and created video art. Paper scenes in ink and watercolors remain closest to her heart.

[...]

After living through multiple wars, Abu Nahla’s obsession with losing her artwork in the ensuing destruction was one of her biggest fears — a fear that eventually came true. During this genocide, Abu Nahla lost her home, her artworks, and her mementos. Notably, this included the precious childhood photo album so close to her heart from which she drew inspiration for one of her more distinguished art projects, created in the Shababek for Contemporary Art studio.

[...]

It was emotionally fraught for Abu Nahla to talk about Muhammad Sami, her martyred friend and colleague. She shared how they were one team:

“We were young, and getting to know art and the art world together. His soul departed during a ruthless and unfathomable massacre, the Baptist al-Ahli Hospital massacre. No one expected that such a death awaited Muhammad. The video of the bombing is frightening and shocking. Did he feel that he was martyred? On the morning of the massacre, Muhammad posted a video on his Instagram account in the hospital courtyard leading activities for children; by the evening, he and hundreds of other innocent people had become body parts!

Abu Nahla once drew “Welcome to Gaza,” an artwork she made during the best moments of her life before the war. After the war had begun and the accompanying experiences of loss, displacement, fear, and death, and before she was finally able to seek refuge in another country, she modified the drawing and scribbled “Goodbye Gaza” on top of it. A work full of farewells and sorrow, it is something out of the final scene of a movie before the characters part ways. She longs for the beautiful beachside, for the al-Baqa Café that she would visit throughout the year, and where she drew so many of her artworks. 

To put it most simply, her works belong to the state of love and longing that we call Palestine.

— This Gaza artist drew portraits depicting a lifetime of wars (Mondoweiss.com)

I think some of you should feel more shame for the way you talk about Palestinians, especially Palestinian evacuees, because what the fuck is “attractive Arabic-looking people”

@ to block: pyrrhiccomedy