Democratic Palestine : 5 (ص 35)
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- Democratic Palestine : 5 (ص 35)
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against fascism and exploitation - for lib-
eration. Historically this is a well-known
pattern, exposed not only by Palestinian
experience; Europe's history itself pro-
vides clear evidence. Today banks in
Europe might well want to buy Picasso’s
famous ‘Guernica ’, the picture of the fas-
cist slaughter of the Spanish population
during the civil war in 1936, but it was
most certainly not those forces who sup-
ported Picasso in 1936. At the best they
closed their eyes to the growth of fas-
cism; in all too many cases, they directly
supported. This is not an exceptional
example; the history of the world is virtu-
ally littered with examples like this.
It is not in American or European
banks you find the art of Mansour, but in
Suleiman Mansour s painting «Jamal al Mahamel»
- the old man carrying Jerusalem, symbolizing the
Palestinian problem.
«Palestine» - Suleiman Mansour
almost every Palestinian home. The
Palestinian people have no patience
with an artist whose work is marginal to
their struggle, but find their reality and
encouragement in works like those of
Mansour.
As the fascists fought Picasso and
his art, as they relentlessly persecuted
other artists who are today among the
most respected and known, ‘Israel!’ is
constantly persecuting Mansour and his
art, along with other Palestinian artists.
As the fascists of Europe during the 30s
and 40s, the Zionists know very well that
the power of art is strong, and speaks
very directly to the oppressed masses,
Again and again, the Zionists have
raided Mansour's home, destroyed his
paintings, put him under house arrest;
they have confiscated his pictures on
exhibition, and hundreds of posters, and
even arrested booksellers who sold
them. Others are quite — simply
threatened by frequent raids of their
bookshops. Mansour has been impris-
oned, and always been denied an exit
permit when he tried to travel abroad. |s
this any better than the cultural policy of
Hitlers Germany? True, the Israelis
never used gas chambers to kill
thousands of people; in Lebanon they
used cluster bombs and carpet bomb-
ings. In the process, they completely
demolished the Palestinian Plastic Arts
Centre in Beirut, destroying 12 of Man-
sours pictures among many others.
Unlike Hitler, they did not have to burn
pieces of art one by one. However, as
the European fascists, they destroy art,
aiming to destroy the will to fight, to live
freely in proud independence. Yet they
have not succeeded in reaching this
aim, for they are not able to understand
the strength of a people who want to be
free.
Already in 1980, Mansour became
a regular cartoonist for the English
weekly edition of the Jerusalem news-
paper A/ Fajr. Mansour says: «Cartoons
are an outlet for my political thoughts.
Since the invasion of Lebanon, | have
been doing nothing but political car-
toons. But a cartoon is not enough. The
colour, texture, vastness of a painting -
you Can put more anger into it.» Yet the
cartoons have a different effect. Man-
sours cartoons are precise political
analysis. With a few lines, they point out
not only the brutality of oppression, but
also the weaknesses of the liberation
movement itself, the weaknesses we
must face in order to overcome and ulti-
mately win what we are struggling for:
liberation, identity and pride. a
35 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 5
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- سبتمبر ١٩٨٤
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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