2023 – The Year of the Nakba – Our busiest year yet ! We took the decision to organise an event each month, which really kept us on our toes. Highlights of the year was our first filmed panel discussion in January addressing the topic “What dos Solidarity really mean? This can now seen on YouTube. In March, Ahmad al Bazz and Najib Jo Hakim represented NPP in an interview with Mark Sneddon on Palestine Deep Dive. This can be seen on our Facebook page. In April, Ursula Mindermann gave an illustrated Zoom talk about her visit to the Shatila Refugee camp in Beirut, followed by our major exhibition, “The Ongoing Nakba” in collaboration with Art 27, Edinburgh in May. In July, our two-day Festival of Palestine in Glasgow drew in the crowds. This involved the landmark exhibition by Ahmad al Bazz of the Palestinian villages lost in the Nakba, as well as Owen Godbert’s exhibition and talk “Skateboarding Palestine”. The highlight of Festival was, though a live Zoom conversation with Ilan Pappe and Ramzy Baroud. Sadly our end of year programme was disrupted by the horrific onslaught on Gaza. We were in the process of planning an exhibition in Gaza when the Israeli bombardment commenced. Our main efforts after this were to support our members in Gaza not least by collecting and distributing over £3000 of contributions from our crowdfunder. Our December event went ahead, however. This involved a zoom talk by Rev. Dr. Mitra Raheb, the prominent Christian Theologian, who described the situation of Christians in Palestine’s as we approached the Christmas period.
Not only did we organise a range of successful events this year, we also welcomed two outstanding photographers to Scotland. Sabrine Mukarker-Zeidan from Bethlehem visited us in June, showing her exhibition “The Occupation of Childhood ” in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Najib Joe Hakim took his work “Home Away from Home” to various venues in the Highlands of Scotland ably assisted by our friend from Inverness, Derek Newton.
2021-22 – We were devastated to learn of the “double whammy” suffered by our dear Treasurer Frank Thomas this year. His stroke and subsequent heart attack left him unable to carry on with his Treasurer’s duties. Franks amazing resilience has nevertheless shone through since his illnesses and he remains steadfast in his support of the Palestinian cause. Fortunately, we now have a new Treasurer, Omaya who has really risen to the task of replacing Frank with remarkable speed.
2020-21 – The COVID Year
Paradoxically, this was a very busy year for us when most of the rest of the world was closed down. We started off with an on-line exhibition inspired by our colleague in San Francisco, Najib “Joe” Hakim. Najib had already mounted an inspirational exhibition with audio commentaries, so we extended this in our exhibition “Home Away from Home” , involving additional work from Scotland and Germany. Then the virus struck ! Our intention to exhibit in Germany and throughout Scotland was confounded, but this allowed us to explore on-line alternatives.
2020 also saw a significant “internationalisation” of our management team. We have been honoured to work with Ursula Mindermann, vice-president of the German-Palestine Society, and Najib Joe Hakim, a major Palestinian photographer from San Francisco. Both of these are now on our Board of Trustees.
Finally, 2020 saw the publication of our first book, “Home Away from Home”. Based on Najib’s original exhibition, which we extended with the participation of Craig Maclean (Scotland) and Ursula Mindermann (Germany) The book came out in English, Arabic and German in December, 2020. It documents the experiences of Palestinians living in the diaspora, their memories and experiences of the homeland, and their experiences of finding a new home away from home. You can find details of our book and how to obtain it here. https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1898533
Keep an eye on our Fb site for news of these and other projects that may occur during the year.
Learn more by going to membership page now
28/11/2019 – Much has happened since our last posting. We put in a great deal of effort to secure a visa for Mahmoud al Khurd to travel from Gaza to visit us in Scotland earlier this year. Everything was in place to receive Mahmoud when, at the very last minute, the Jordanian authorities refused him permission to travel to Amman to board his flight !!! We are not daunted by this, however. We are planning to bring Mahmoud over in the summer of 2020 to display his work throughout Scotland.
We have also been delighted to collaborate closely with our great friend Mohamad Zwahre from Al Mas’ra village near Beit Lahm. Mohamad has been unstinting in his work with us, curating exhibitions in Beit Lahm, Birzeit University and his own village.
08/01/2017 BDCC Project”
We were asked by the organising committee of the Balfour Declaration Centenary Campaign (BDCC) in the UK to put together an exhibition documenting British complicity in the gradual demise of Palestine since 1917. We used images of Palestine under the British Mandate to the present day, so if anyone has suitable photographs from this period please send them on.
This exhibition was displayed as part of the JUST Festival’s, Balfour thread during this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, where it caused some controversy due to constant vandalisation by pro-Israeli members of the public. At one point police demanded that some pictures be taken down. Our subsequent complaint to the police authority was finally upheld and a full apology was issued.
The exhibition has also been shown in the village of Al Mas’ra, near Bethlehem, and will appear at the Universities of East Anglia and Birzeit during Israel Apartheid Week this year.
3/1/2017 New Project “Displaced”
Our project Displaced explored the experience of living as a Palestinian refugee or displaced person in Palestine and the diaspora.
We showed this throughout August in this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and then took it to Inverness and Lochinver in the north of Scotland, where it was received to great acclaim.
In December 2017 this exhibition also appeared in Gaza City, and we hope to show it in Ramallah in due course.
It has recently appeared once more in Edinburgh this time in the Upright Gallery during January, and will then be on show throughout the month of February at Arbroath Library in the east of Scotland.
For future venues and dates check out our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/nppalestine/
1/1/2017 NPP wins charity status
We have recently been awarded charity status by the Scottish Charity Regulator (SC046699). We would therefore like to invite you to become a member of our organisation. This will bring with it various advantages.