TUCKED away on the ground floor of a terraced house in Dundas Street in Edinburgh lies a small museum representing the long and largely unheard story of the resilience of the Palestinian people.
The Palestine Museum celebrated its first birthday last week.
Marking its first year of telling Palestine’s story through art, historical exhibits and events, Faisal Salah, its founder, told The National why he decided to create this small piece of Palestine in the bustling city of Edinburgh.
“Palestine had no artistic representation at the institutional level in the entire Western Hemisphere,” he said. “There wasn’t a single museum in the US at the time.
“And even in Europe, after we opened this museum, this is the only contemporary art Palestinian museum in Europe.”
Saleh is a Palestinian born in Ramallah, the largest city in the West Bank, whose family were displaced from their village outside of Jaffa in the 1948 Nakba. He got the idea for a Palestine museum eight years ago, with the first iteration built in Connecticut in the United States. Shortly after, his vision expanded towards Europe.
The idea was to create a haven for Palestinians to tell their stories – stories which often are twisted, misrepresented or forgotten by the mainstream press – through the powerful medium of art.
“Art is a means to communicate to people. There’s no better way to communicate than art because art stirs up emotions in people and makes them react, understand and empathise”
The museum is packed with artworks of many different forms telling many different stories. The current main exhibit is a memorial patchwork quilt project called “Every Child a Light”, made in partnership with the group Mothers Against Genocide.
Each square is individually decorated by local people from communities across the UK to tell the story of a child killed in Gaza. So far they have made around 1000 squares, which tragically represents only a fraction of the estimated 17,000 children killed during the genocide.
One of the exhibits Faisal is proudest of is called “Gaza: No Words” and was displayed at the prestigious Venice Biennale Awards. It is a tapestry of 100 pieces of Palestinian embroidery. Called “Tatriz” in Arabic, embroidery is a tradition renowned for being a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance.
Each of the 100 embroidered pieces depict a poignant scene from the genocide in Gaza. From that of a girl trapped in the fire from an explosion, or Palestinian men being lined up before a tank, or even elderly people being arrested in a pro-Palestine demonstration, the collection aimed to cover all angles of the Gaza genocide.
“These scenes ask for accountability and for justice,” Saleh said.
Saleh and his team at Palestine Museum US commissioned Palestinian women in Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank to embroider these scenes. The process is painstakingly completed by hand, stitch by stitch. Each scene takes two and a half months to complete.
“It does something to you when you go through that process. So what comes out is a very credible product and that’s what gets presented to the world,” he explained.
“We wanted to bring the world face to face with what they allowed to unfold in Gaza. Through their silence, through their complicity, they allowed this to happen.”
But Saleh was clear to differentiate between the response of the people and their governments. He emphasised that the Scottish people had been very welcoming and hospitable.
“We appreciate all the empathy and all the good feelings that they express towards Palestinians or towards us,” he said.
“I’ve had so many people cry on my shoulder here. And this is really very heartwarming.”
Most of the volunteers at the museum are Scottish, with only one of them being of Palestinian origin. Although the museum generally looks for artwork from a Palestinian heritage, they also collaborate with local artists when they are compelling pieces connected to Palestine.
Since its opening a year ago, Faisal said that many people have become aware of the museum and it has got a lot of exposure. Locals, high school and university students and tourists enter the museum curious and have a chance to learn about the history and people of Palestine.
Saleh continued: “We’re disseminating the Palestinian narrative, telling people who the Palestinians are, what Palestine is about, and what the issues in Gaza are.
“Not so much in a political sense, but more using the art to really humanise the Palestinians and present them in a different light than the media presents them.”
After celebrating the museum’s first birthday, Saleh hopes for many more.
“We definitely hope to grow and to keep doing what we’re doing. The museum is functioning properly the way it was intended to, and we’re very happy about that. We credit a lot of that to the volunteers, to the great group of people that we have.”
While Saleh felt that the Scottish people had been incredibly receptive to the Palestinian cause, his message for the UK Government called for change.
“It’s a real genocide out there. There’s no question about that. And the British government has a long history of betraying the Palestinians and feeding them to the dogs,” he said.
“Of all people, the British government needs to atone for its prior sins and needs to look at the Palestinians and see how they can help the Palestinians, because the history of Palestine was molded and formed by British actions that they took, and a lot of those actions were detrimental to Palestinians.
“This is the time to take another look and see how Britain can help Palestinians, how it can reduce their suffering and help them reach the point where there’s self-determination and freedom for them.”
Despite the UK Government’s failures on Gaza, the success of the Palestinian Museum in Edinburgh gives some hope that – at least – the people share a common humanity and belief in justice which goes beyond any border.
