Gaza artists blocked from travelling to Ireland, Pat Kenny radio show hears

TWO PALESTINIAN artists have been blocked by Israeli and Egyptian authorities from travelling to Dublin for an exhibition of their own work, the show’s curator told Pat Kenny of NewsTalk radio today.

The artists were trying to travel from their homes in Gaza, the territory that, under Israel’s blockade, has often been called “the world’s largest open-air prison”.

Felim Egan, curator of the Windows Into Gaza exhibition, told Kenny: “Two of the artists were meant to be here today. They have their papers, their Irish visas, letters, everything.”

Painter and photographer Shareef Sarhan was prevented from leaving Gaza at the Erez border crossing with Israel. “Shareef was stopped three days ago and every day since by the Israelis and told he wasn’t going to leave Gaza,” Egan said.

Sarhan was not given security clearance to cross Israeli land en route to Amman, Jordan, where he has worked teaching in an art school and is legally entitled to visit. He planned to fly from Amman to Dublin.

The Windows Into Gaza exhibition features work by 11 Gaza-based artists. It is being launched by actor Stephen Rea at the RHA Gallery in Dublin on Friday night before touring Ireland over the next six months.

Painter Mohammed Al Hawajwi had no chance of travelling via Israel. He hoped to travel through Egypt, crossing out of Gaza at Rafah at the southern end of the “strip”. However, the frequent closures and tight restrictions imposed by Egypt’s military government have made getting out via Rafah nearly impossible for Palestinians in recent months.

Egan pointed out that travel restrictions by the Israelis against cultural and sporting figures are common.

“Just this week the Israeli supreme court upheld the travel ban on the Palestinian Olympic athlete Nader Masri, preventing him from running in a marathon in the West Bank,” Egan told Kenny this morning. “Prevented, that is, from travelling from one part of Palestine to another.”

Egan, who travelled to Gaza last year, explained to Pat Kenny that the artistic community there is lively despite being deprived of gallery spaces and essential materials.  “Artists, like all people in Gaza, have to make do with what they’ve got.”

• More information on the Israeli Supreme Court decision and other recent travel restrictions here.