‘Even Before The War, Life Was Very Hard’: Palestinian Artist Mohammad Sabaaneh On What It’s To Live Under Israeli Occupation

Purely as a Palestinian cartoonist what I have to do is depict day-to-day Palestinian life or archive events and issues — the war, the war refugees’ issues, the issues prisoners inside Israeli jails face, the problems children suffer. I was imprisoned in an Israeli prison (because I’m a Palestinian artist) for six months and was released in 2014. We Palestinians face Israeli atrocities daily. On the second day of the war, I was travelling back from Italy to the West Bank to Ramallah with my brother. Israeli soldiers attacked us and beat us up just because we are Palestinians. My brother is in prison now under something they call “administrative detention”. That means he is going to be kept in prison without a trial and without any legislation only because they want to lock him up. 

Palestinian cartoonists and most Arab cartoonists are concerned about the Palestinian issue not just because of this war. Even before the war, our daily life was very, very hard. For example, I live in Ramallah and my family is from Jenin. If I want to visit my parents, I have to cross through three Israeli soldiers, sorry, three Israeli checkpoints — and that this is our normal life. This is not acceptable anywhere else in the world. At the same time, the Israeli settlers who illegally live in the West Bank can go wherever they want without any restriction. Last year, the Israelis killed more than 200 Palestinians in my city, Jenin. They destroyed refugee camps and killed many civilians without any reason.

I am a visual artist, not just a cartoonist. I have done comics, cartoons, graffiti illustrations — all kinds of art. I do believe that our main mission as Palestinian artists is to reflect these hard living conditions through our visual language, to inform the audience around the world through our art about what’s going on in Palestine and what we are facing not just as artists but as (Palestinian) human beings.

I don’t know if you’ve heard about Naji al-Ali, the most famous Arab cartoonist who was killed in London in 1987. Most of the Palestinian cartoonists are influenced by Naji al-Ali, who used to draw about our political situation and the occupation. He was killed. But because of his cartoons and opinions, all Palestinian artists have the conviction that we are artists, we use our art as a tool of resistance against the occupation and to better our living conditions here in Palestine. I think most of the Palestinian people —not just artists— practise resistance. Journalists and doctors for example. 

You have seen how doctors in Gaza were resisting by just doing their duty in the hospitals. It’s a form of resistance and resilience to stay on and do your job, to reflect exactly as an artist or a writer or an intellectual reflects on our daily life using art, music, poems, etc. If you are a student or teacher or doctor in Palestine, do your job and enhance peoples’ lives. This is resilience and resistance because the settler colonialism regime wants to evacuate the historical Palestinian land and expel the Palestinian people as it happened in 1948. What has happened in Gaza and what is going on here in the West Bank is the same as what happened in 1948. That’s exactly what the Israeli leaders have said — this is the new Nakba in Gaza. Here in the West Bank, they are doing the same. They are trying to colonise the Israeli settlers and give them weapons just to kill the Palestinian people. 

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Artists from around the world have faced terrible hardships because they are pro-Palestinian or they have criticised Israel. I am a representative of Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI). I follow all of the issues concerning cartoonists around the world, not just Steve Bell’s case who was expelled from The Guardian two years ago. Antonio Antunes did a cartoon about Netanyahu and Trump and was accused of being anti-Semitic and was fired from the New York Times. Many cartoonists across the world have lost their jobs just because they were pro-Palestine. Anti-Semiticism is being used as a tool of censorship. If you criticise Israel, if you criticise anyone in Israel, not just Israel as a State, even the prime minister or a minister, you will be accused of being anti-Semitic and will be fired from a newspaper. This is the double standard that most of the Western media uses to silence the Palestinian people and pro-Palestinian voices. If you criticise Prophet Muhammad, or Jesus, or any other figure, they will give you permission under the umbrella of freedom of speech, but at the same time, if you criticise one Israeli soldier, you will be accused of being anti-Semitic. I have faced many accusations. But at the same time, I insist that this is my mission. With all of their restrictions, we can still publish our work. 

Right now, my account on Facebook is restricted because I have published something about Palestine. My first Facebook account used to have 200,000 followers. I have lost my account just because I published many cartoons against Israel. Always you are censored, always you are under censorship just because you are talking about Palestine. That’s what all the Palestinian people and pro-Palestinian voices from around the world are facing. When you hear governments, newspapers, and intellectuals claiming that they have freedom of speech, just ask them to declare their position or opinion about Israel. They cannot do that. No one can. They will be accused of being anti-Semitic and lose their jobs. This is the hypocrisy. 

We face this not just on the intellectual and art level, but also at the political and human rights level, but we Palestinians are strong enough to declare our opinions, fight for our rights, do our jobs and stay on our land.

(As told to Vikram Sharma)