Media coverage
Donia Al-Watan · 2013-01-26
PAL Think, the Youth Forum for Tolerance, and the Working Woman Society in Gaza organized an art exhibition and poetry evening to promote tolerance, human rights, national reconciliation, and an end to Palestinian division, with particular emphasis on youth. Speakers stressed the unity of the Palestinian people and rejection of division, while artistic and poetic contributions embodied the values of tolerance and national unity; the event concluded with honoring the participating poets, artists, and painters.
PAL Think, the Youth Forum for Tolerance, and the Working Woman Society in Gaza organized an art exhibition and poetry evening to promote tolerance, human rights, national reconciliation, and an end to Palestinian division, with particular emphasis on youth. Speakers stressed the unity of the Pales…
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This evening, PalThink and the Youth Forum for Tolerance, in cooperation with the Working Woman Society in Gaza, organized an art photo exhibition and a poetry evening on promoting the concept of tolerance and human rights within Palestinian society through artistic drawings reflecting the future of the social reality, in a clear indication of pushing forward the wheel of reconciliation, ending the state of Palestinian division, and entrenching a culture of tolerance among all segments of Palestinian society, especially the youth.
The meeting was opened by Dr. Omar Shaban, Director of PalThink for Strategic, Social and Intellectual Studies. Shaban explained that the institution always seeks to enhance the spirit of tolerance, end the division, and push forward the wheel of reconciliation. He pointed to the establishment of the Youth Forum for Tolerance, which implemented many programs to spread the culture of tolerance among youth through a number of activities, the latest of which was a photo exhibition and a poetry seminar.
He also focused on their effective role in communication aimed at bringing religious concepts closer together through several visits carried out by the institution in cooperation with the Youth Forum, such as visits to religious and archaeological sites. At the end of his speech, he thanked everyone and particularly mentioned the Working Woman Society, which had participated in many of the center’s and the forum’s activities.
Regarding the concept of participation and promoting tolerance in society, Wijdan Al-Bayoumi, Coordinator of the Gaza Office of the Working Woman Society, said that the main goal is to highlight youth efforts to urge Palestinian society to return to the path of tolerance and national unity. She added that the meeting carries within it a message to Palestinian society composed of two parts. The first is the necessity for all of society to move toward formulating a unified position on what is happening as a result of the political and social conditions regarding the issue of division, and to exert effective pressure on the leadership within society toward changing the direction of the Palestinian cause, because it is one cause and does not accept division or fragmentation.
As for the second part, it is a clear message to the political leadership that this people is one people in the West Bank and Gaza and does not accept geographical or historical division with regard to the cause, and that the negotiating basis must be present in the reconciliation committees, and agreement on the coming plans must embody these fixed principles of the Palestinian people. She considered that the Palestinian cause is not a war booty and the homeland is not offered in a public auction to whoever pays more; rather, it is one homeland and one cause.
Regarding the participation in the exhibition, Ismat Shabat stated that she participated for the second time in the exhibition with two paintings about societal reconciliation and tolerance through an image she painted with her brush of a girl and her sister wrapped in a covering drawn in green and yellow, to embody the spirit of tolerance between the parties to the Palestinian conflict.
As for the artist and writer Hanaa Hamsh, she participated with a beautiful painting in which she embodied the spirit of tolerance through the meeting of the sun and the moon drawing near. She explained that the sun and the moon do not draw near to one another except through cosmic events such as eclipses, but in her view they drew near for the sake of tolerance and national reconciliation. She concluded her remarks to Donia Al-Watan with indicative literary words: “I revolt so that the original Palestinian souls may return to us. I still watch my existence in death in a compulsory way, and I intend to practice life in a serious way. I am here and proud of the colors and letters that carried a message whose meaning was closeness, unity, and ending the division.”
The poetry evening also began with a number of participating poets, Saed Al-Suwerki and Salim Al-Naffar, and the artist Ayman Abu Abdo, under the title “The Homeland Sings Most Beautifully” during the segments of the ceremony. The meeting concluded with honoring all the poets, artists, and painters who participated in the event.
Text © Donia Al-Watan — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source