If everything had gone according to plan, Mohammed Almadhoun would have spent the last month painting landscapes in blue and green and portraits in brown and red somewhere thousands of miles from home.
The 44-year-old visual artist from the Gaza Strip was due to fly to the Burren College of Art in Ireland for a month-long artist residency. Instead, he finds himself languishing in a war zone, stuck on a border at the behest of an occupying state.
His flight was scheduled for October 7 – the same day Hamas launched its surprise incursion into Israel, which immediately triggered a retaliatory bombing of Gaza.
Today, Almadhoun has been at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt – the only way out of the besieged enclave – for almost as long as the war itself.
For 45 days, the artist, who obtained his visa to go to Ireland in September, has been waiting to know if he will be able to leave. But foreign nationals and seriously injured Palestinians remain the majority of those allowed out.
“So tired. We are facing an indescribable humanitarian catastrophe,” Almadhoun told Tel Aviv Tribune wearily.
A visa as a lifeline
Ireland is one of the few Western countries to criticize the Israeli attack, due to a long history of solidarity for Palestinian rights due to a shared history of occupation.
Officials at Burren College of Art have been trying to help the artist for weeks, contacting several embassies in Egypt, Israel and Ireland, according to its director of admissions, Lisa Newman.
“We have become an important lifeline for him through our connection to his Irish visa and we are doing everything in our power to help him,” Newman told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Almadhoun is well aware of this solidarity, with his time at the Irish college aimed at connecting “heritage and culture between the two countries”, he said.
“The (Irish) people, the Irish government, are among the first to support and show solidarity with the Palestinian cause, materially and morally,” Almadhoun added.
“A Tragic Life Inside”
The artist, from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, left for the Rafah border crossing on October 9, paying a large sum to rent a car to take him south on roads made dangerous by Israeli bombings, he said.
He left his family behind. He can’t return with them and they can’t leave either because of the incessant bombing.
His studio, with all his paintings dating back 25 years, was also destroyed in the bombings and is now reduced to ruins, he said.
“It’s a siege from everywhere, planes and tanks, bombing and destruction 24 hours a day,” Almadhoun said.
The internationally renowned artist, who was also scheduled to participate in an international art festival and another artistic residency in Portugal, remains in limbo.
Almadhoun took refuge in a United Nations school on the border, which he describes as “a tragic life” with thousands of people sleeping in stairwells, corridors and even toilets.
Access to food and water is both scarce and expensive, he said, adding: “The tragic situation is unimaginable.”
Artists as ambassadors
Still, Almadhoun remains hopeful that he will soon be able to travel and represent Palestinians through his art, which is why he became an artist.
“I decided to become an artist to convey to the world a message through art about the painful events, about the suffering of our Palestinian people in the face of persecution, injustice, killings, displacement and siege during many years,” he said.
Artists are their countries’ ambassadors, Almadhoun said, and he hopes they can be one voice to pressure authorities to end the Israeli attack on Gaza.
“My future hopes are that the unjust siege will be lifted and (our) people will have sovereignty over their land and have the freedom to travel…and to convey the message of Palestine’s love for life and beauty,” he said.