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Located in the beautiful Well of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral is a stunning exhibition, "Loss of Innocence: Gaza Children’s Art". Rod Cox, who collated the exhibition, drove from Cheshire, through Europe and North Africa to Gaza with the UK humanitarian aid convoy in March, following the 22 day assault on Gaza this year. He stayed to work on an art project with children. A group of younger children taking part in a psycho-social therapy programme and some older children attending a Girls High School, were asked to paint what they had experienced during Operation Cast Lead and what they hoped for in the future. The keynote speaker at the launch of the exhibition, referred to the paintings as "a toxic cargo of beautiful but unwelcome images which it is necessary that we see and acknowledge." Toxic because the blockade and assault on Gaza was, and is, toxic. Toxic because the paintings mirror back to our adult world the poisonous environment we have watched develop for these children. The paintings describe aerial bombardment of apartment blocks, mosques, schools, hospitals, ambulances. They portray phosphorous, helicopter and drone attacks on civilians. Gunboats fire inland from the sea. Bulldozers demolish homes. Everything happens in an enclosed space from which there is no escape: all routes out of Gaza by land, sea and air are sealed off. The children experienced all this and more. Mohanned, 12 yrs old, watched while his home was being destroyed with his parents and five younger siblings buried alive inside. He has drawn what he witnessed. What has happened to our world that even one child, anywhere, has lived through such a nightmare? The paintings are a visual endorsement of the findings of the Goldstone Report which was published this week: a report which the Israelis are doing their best to persuade governments, the UN and the PA not to accept, but the children’s pictures do not lie. In several paintings the sun is crying. In one of the drawings a tree cries, packs its’ bags and walks away in dread. A visitor to the exhibition said she will never forget the tree crying. The Cathedral Dean, who welcomed people to the exhibition, said he had "been much affected by the children’s paintings." An unsurprising reaction. We had all seen, to quote from an entry in the comments book "what Picasso could never create, Guernica painted with the hands and hearts of children." Over 300 Gazan children are dead. A greater number seriously injured. 1,400 are orphaned of at least one parent. 30% are suffering mental health problems. All are traumatised. Yet still the siege of Gaza persists while the world looks on and the EU issues more bland reminders to Israel of "its obligations." It will soon be the first anniversary of the assault on Gaza and in all that time the crossings have never been fully open for humanitarian and medical aid. Little, if any, building material has been allowed in for reconstruction work. There are no textbooks, pens or paper available locally for the children returning to school. Insufficient food. Insufficient clean drinking water. Insufficient teachers. Insufficient psycho-social workers… insufficient everything except the will of the people to survive. This week one of the architects of the assault, Israeli Minister Ehud Barak, visited the UK to speak to Labour Friends of Israel at their annual reception. He was welcomed and entertained by British Cabinet Ministers. An application to Westminster Court for a warrant for his arrest was over-ridden by the Foreign Secretary David Milliband, which enabled Barak to enjoy diplomatic immunity. At what point, one wonders, can "diplomatic immunity" become an absolution for the crime against Mohanned, his parents and his five little siblings? Unlike the child victims and child survivors in Gaza, Barak walks free and well-fed. Milliband may all too easily absolve his colleague from the crimes committed in Gaza, but the hundreds of people who have visited this exhibition and have seen the horror experienced and documented by children will not be so ready to forget or forgive. The exhibition finishes at Liverpool Cathedral on Tuesday 6 October. |
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