A refugee camp, a military watchtower, and the apartheid wall   [59 × 80]

Source of image:Inspired by art created by Palestinian artist Rani Sharabati, of Hebron
Design: Rani Sharabati
Embroidery: Jan Chalmers

Palestinian refugees were expelled or fled from their land during and after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.  Further mass exodus followed the 1967 ‘Six-Day War’, when  Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt), the Golan Heights (Syria), the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  In response to these exoduses of refugees, known to Palestinians as the Nakba (catastrophe), refugee camps were established in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Since June 2002, Israel has been constructing an 8-9 metre high ‘apartheid wall’, incorporating strategically-placed watchtowers, which stretches for more than 700 kilometers. This is annexing Palestinian land inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and separates Palestinians from their lands and relatives. Israel claims that the separation wall is necessary for Israeli security.

Era: Sumud - Steadfastness (1948 onwards)

Further reading