Voices From Gaza: Raed Issa, Artist
Raed Issa has intermittently posted messages to friends on his Facebook page since October 13th.
[Updated 29 January 2024]
Friday, October 13th
Thank you, dear friends for your messages and I apologize for not replying because there is no internet, no electricity, no water, and no security!!!
(Love in the time of war)
We want to reassure you: If you ask how we are - we are still, praise God, not fine!! Bombardment and horror do not stop night and day!! Gaza is wretched and waiting for God’s deliverance!! What can we tell you!! About our children who ask a thousand and one questions! Or about their simple needs that we can’t meet! Or how do they sleep at night under the booming sounds of death planes and the earthquakes they cause as a result of their black hatred. And the inhuman scenes of innocent children as well as the buildings and residential areas that have become ashes or about the memories they have obliterated? Or about the bride who doesn’t conclude her wedding! Or about a mother who lost all of her children. Or about entire families who were erased from the civil registry! Or about the funeral procession of a martyr that passed by here moments ago. Or the families displaced, who don’t know where to go, what to eat or how to drink, in cases when they have these, or if there is even time to eat and drink, all of which at the moment are least concerns. It is true that time is long, so very long, and sometimes the night seems the length of a lunar month without electricity. And we spend it talking about One Thousand and One Nights! And there’s no time for love, culture and education! Even hope and art are captive! We are still in shock, we can only wait and wait for what!! Is there good news that buoys morale or is there news of another tragedy here or there. And to follow everything that is happening on the ground we have no time but to wait and we are very, very, busy with this long, long, waiting that determines our fate in the shadow of international silence and indifference. The anguish is great and the pain is acute and the calamity is immense. We have no choice for freedom but patience and prayer. Because we have no other choice.
Wednesday, November 22nd
My kind and loving mother, Maryam Issa, “Umm Adnan,” May God have mercy on her soul, the mother of martyrs and heroes, was martyred and now joins the procession of martyrs. Our eyes shed tears and our hearts grieve, and we are left desolate by your departure, mother. We belong to God and to Him we shall return.
Tuesday, December 5th
These photographs were taken after the Occupation’s aerial bombing of Eltiqa Gallery for Contemporary Art, on Omar Al-Mukhtar Street in Gaza City.
[Raed is a founder and active member of Eltiqa Gallery.]
The Gallery was founded by young artists of the Eltiqa collective in 2002 and is considered one of the most important spaces in Gaza for contemporary visual arts…. Eltiqa is one of the most active groups in Gaza organizing cultural and artistic events … The gallery provided a permanent exhibition space for visual arts and education, training and cultural dialogue. It has helped foster many young talents from the Gaza Strip and has been a haven for them…One of its most important projects, the Contemporary Arts Program, gave young artists the opportunity to present their project and receive the training necessary for their work to be exhibited to the public…
Friday, December 29th
My precious nephew Muhammed [has departed] to the gardens of eternity. We belong to God and to Him we shall return.
Raed Issa is a contemporary artist born in al Breij refugee camp who lives in Gaza City with his wife and children. His art explores the themes of vulnerability, loss and bereavement of living under siege and war, and has been exhibited in Palestine, Jordan, Switzerland, Australia and Ireland. He is founder of the Fine Art Program of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza and a founding member of the Gaza Contemporary Art collective Eltiqa. In Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza his home and much of his artwork was destroyed. See Raed's work here and read more about it here.
*A version of this dispatch was published in Italian here by Pagine Esteri.
