Cape Town - Iziko Museums of South Africa and the Yasser Arafat Foundation and Museum, have collaborated on an exhibition displaying the land appropriation, displacement and resistance in Palestine.
The exhibition usually on display in Ramallah, Palestine will be available for showing in the Bo-Kaap in Cape Town. It was originally inaugurated at the Yasser Arafat Museum in Ramallah, but now bares the reality of settler colonialism through displacement, while highlighting the enduring spirit of resistance and fight for liberation and justice.
The opening of the exhibition in Cape Town took place on August 8, at the Iziko Bo-Kaap Museum on Wale Street, with representatives from the Yasser Arafat Foundation and Museum, including Palestinian ambassador to South Africa Hanan Jarrar.
The exhibition can be viewed Monday to Saturday from 9am to 4pm until March 31 next year.
It also comprises artworks from the Butterfly Souls project by South African initiative, 2 Suns Shamsaan, in honour and commemoration of the martyred children in Palestine.
Iziko Museums of South Africa Social History curator, Lynn Abrahams, said the exhibition was a commitment to increase consciousness around the Palestinian struggle.
“It is up to us because when we went through apartheid, the outside world carried us. They gave us hope when they put sanctions against South Africa and all these interventions.”
South Africa's representative in Ramallah, Shaun Byneveldt, was instrumental in bringing the exhibition to Cape Town, after visiting the Yasser Arafat Museum.
Iziko Museums Social History curator Annelize Kotze read out a message from Byneveldt: “Through photographs, testimonies and historical documents, the exhibition serves as a poignant reminder of the injustices of forced displacement but also the enduring spirit of resistance.
“Exhibitions like these are crucial for building solidarity and understanding across borders and generations… The forced removals in South Africa and the forced displacement in Palestine, are not merely political issues. They are profound human tragedies that touch the very essence of our shared humanity.”
Iziko Council chairperson Jabulani Sithole said: “Quite a number of things happened to us. We knew that the Struggle we fought was for human freedom and human dignity, and now to be seeing the Palestinian people being subjected to exactly the same sort of thing, the unfortunate part is that it still continues to this day in their case.”
He added that the exhibition would form part of the museum's collection as a valuable symbol of solidarity between Nelson Mandela and Yasser Arafat, but also more broadly, between South Africa and Palestine.
Yasser Arafat Museum director, Mohammad Halayka said: “When I came to South Africa, I went to Robben Island. Nothing surprised me … because it's like moving from Palestine to Palestine, or South Africa to South Africa, it's like the same utility, the same approach which is based on segregation and discrimination.”
He said the exhibition was selfguided and intended to show visitors what the Palestinians were subjected to in terms of Israeli policies and practices, and why they were resisting.
Large swathes of Palestine are under Israeli control and occupation, with over 700 military checkpoints, roadblocks and gates across the West Bank, and nearly 300 illegal settlements and colonial outposts in the occupied West Bank.
Despite its illegality, expansion of illegal settlements continues through unjust and discriminatory Israeli laws implementing forced evictions and home demolitions, and allowing and overlooking settler violence on Palestinians. In East Jerusalem, families have chosen to demolish their own homes, seeing this better than having Israeli bulldozers tear them down.
On July 19, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel's continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory was unlawful, and that Israel was obligated to bring to an end its unlawful presence as rapidly as possible.
It further ruled that Israel should immediately cease all new settlement activities and evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and for Israel to make reparation for the damage caused to all natural or legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), estimated that between October and December 2023, up to 1.7 million people (75% of the population) were displaced since Israel’s incessant bombardment on Gaza, with some forced to flee multiple times.
Jarrar said: “It (exhibition) is a clear reminder that our struggle is not only just about resilience through arms, but also about preserving our identity, our heritage, our history and our culture through the powerful medium of art.
“Israel has been simply trying to erase our existence, to erase us from memory, all of us, the 14 million Palestinians, both within historical Palestine and in the diaspora.
“Since the Nakba of 1948 through to the ongoing Israel genocidal war against Palestinians that began 10 months ago, our culture and our people have faced systematic erasure.”