The Palestinian Museum hosted Land and Identity: A Tribute to Fathi Ghaben on Tuesday 14 July 2026, featuring contributions from children and young people across the West Bank. Organised by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in partnership with Tamer Institute for Community Education, the exhibition was held under the patronage of Professor Amjad Barham, Minister of Education and Higher Education.
More than 200 artworks created through a range of learning and art-making processes are presented across six sections: works by deaf students; pieces by young artists responding to the practices of Fathi Ghaben and Dia al-Azzawi; submissions to the Artist of the Year competition; and drawings by younger children that capture the world as they see it.
The exhibition foregrounds how children and young people use art to explore their relationship to land and identity. Taking the Palestinian artist and martyr Fathi Ghaben as a source of inspiration and a point of departure for dialogue and reflection, the works span a range of visual approaches and themes. They show how the participants see Palestine, giving form to its memory, places, and stories in artistic languages of their own.
Building on the Museum’s partnership with the Ministry, the exhibition reflects a shared commitment to the Museum as a space for children’s and young people’s creative practice. It gives their work a public platform for display and dialogue, supports the development of their artistic voices, and places their creativity in conversation with Palestinian art history and the practices of pioneering Palestinian artists.
Sadiq Khdour, the Ministry’s assistant undersecretary for student affairs, conveyed the minister’s greetings and emphasised that Land and Identity reflects Palestinian pupils’ creative capacities and their ability to use art to express themselves and engage with the national and human concerns that shape their lives. He reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to creating spaces that nurture pupils’ talents, strengthen partnerships with cultural and national institutions, enrich the learning environment, and expand opportunities for creativity and innovation.
Rania Amodi, Head of the Arts Activities Department at the Ministry, said the exhibition features works produced through art competitions held as part of the Ministry’s programme of student activities. These initiatives are designed to develop pupils’ creativity and artistic expression by introducing them to Palestinian and Arab artistic practices and encouraging them to draw on these encounters as they shape their own visual and creative language.
Amodi added: “Land and Identity: A Tribute to Fathi Ghaben reflects the Ministry’s commitment to ensuring that all pupils have equal access to artistic activities, including deaf students. It affirms art as an inclusive space for expression and dialogue, and for discovering and nurturing talent.”
Sarah Zahran, Education Officer at the Museum’s Yasmine and Laila Qaddumi Education Unit, noted: “Celebrating the work of children and young people reflects the Museum’s belief in art’s power to bring learning to life. Art opens rich ways into the histories, cultures, memories, and stories of communities.Through our partnership with the Ministry, we seek to carry learning beyond the classroom: a place where children and young people can find their voices, express their imagination, and develop creative practices that contribute to Palestine’s cultural narrative.”
