[Web] [IWPS Press Statement] Artists Break the Siege on Gaza Town

[iwps at palnet.com]

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Susan Greene, (011-972)(0)54-783-7104

ARTISTS BREAK THE SIEGE ON GAZA TOWN

Break The Silence Mural Project is completing a large-scale mural in Beit
Hanoun, a town in the Gaza Strip which has been under Israeli military siege
for the last month and a half.  The center of Beit Hanoun bustles with activity
while the Israeli army sits at all entrances, not allowing any cars to enter or
leave.  Soldiers shoot at anything that moves, having already destroyed all of
the citrus groves that Beit Hanoun was famous for, leaving an unemployment rate
of 80% and a humanitarian crisis as food and water become scarce.

Break The Silence, having entered on donkeys, is completing a mural on the
town's Popular Art Center.  The mural features a 24-foot orange tree in memory
of the thousands of recently uprooted trees.  The children attending summer
camp at the center have watched the process with amazement.  The center's
director stated, "We want the children to remember the trees, to remember what
we are fighting for."  The mural also features a portrait of Taghreed, a
student killed in a demonstration at Bethlehem University several years ago,
for whom the popular art center is named.

Break The Silence has been in Palestine for the last month.  The artists have
completed several projects including a mural on the infamous Segregation Wall
painted with the A'amer family of Mas'ha.  The concrete Wall was built nine
months ago in the A'amers' front yard, to block their view of their village. 
Break The Silence also completed portraits of twelve youths killed in Qadura
Refugee Camp in Ramallah.  The portraits emerge from a large, brilliantly
orange sun.

Break The Silence Mural Project has been working on collaborative arts projects
in Palestine since 1989, with the aim of using culture to raise awareness in
the US of Palestinian daily life under Israeli occupation.  Break The Silence
2004 comprises Dr. Susan Greene, artist and clinical psychologist and Eric
Drucker, artist and published graphic novelist who exhibits his work
internationally.

Photos are available.  Contact Susan susangreene at mindspring.com,
(011-972)(0)54-783-7104.

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