Gaza rubble transformed into art

World Today

It’s been a long and difficult road to recovery in Gaza since last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas. In the midst of the effort to rebuild, Palestinian artists are doing their part to brighten things up.

CCTV’s Noor Harazeen reported this story from the Gaza Strip.

In the Gaza Strip, a number of young Palestinian painters with artistic impressive touches have started their own distinctive art project turning the remains of Gaza’s homes, destroyed during last summer’s conflict with Israel, into memorable pieces of art.

The youth group chose the title “Memories” to represent their project, sponsored by a local Palestinian youth institution.

We were really blessed to be sponsored, because this will help us much, much more to achieve what we have in mind. Our project is all about memorializing those who got killed during the Israeli Protective Edge operation on Gaza, by using elements from their destroyed homes, something that they used to use or share with their siblings, something that their family members will remember them with, but in a good cheerful way, not a sad one,” said artist Mohammed Handam.

Mohammed, Elham and Khazim spend about six hours a day working in a simple workshop inside Mohammed’s house, located in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip where their inspiration mostly comes from: the ruins and rubble of Rafah’s destroyed neighborhoods.

The artists of the “Memories” project have been collecting segments during the past two months. They will publish their artistic achievement on March first in one of Gaza’s local art galleries.