Workshop in Haifa, Israel
2008

Report about the Kids’ Guernica peace mural painted in a summer camp
For Palestinian children whose parents are Israeli citizens in Haifa , Israel
 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　From Christina Gossmann　　Friday, August 29, 2008

The summer camp was a unique experience that I am proud and happy to have had. It was not easy though, of course there were difficulties with the language barrier and since the children's age ranged from 4 to 12, it was sometimes hard to find something interesting to do for everyone at the same time. In the beginning, I was concerned that I might not be able to connect with the children the way I wanted to because we could barely communicate verbally. After a week or so I realized that language is only a small step in communication. We did communicate in many other ways and understood each other. It was beautiful to feel so close to these children who come from a completely different background and experience than me. 
At times we also had to discover some unfortunate miscommunications with the organization we worked with but they were grateful for our help and generally supportive when we needed help. 
The Kids' Guernica painting was introduced to the children through a brief overview of the original and some historcal background in form of an interactive presentation. After the presentation we split into smaller groups and started collecting ideas around peace. What does peace mean and how would you represent it? We started off on the actual canvas in the third week by having them run on the canvas in groups of three or four and paint on their feet in order to explore the space .
Later on we let 6 to 8 children come on the canvas. The groups then each had 2 minutes to draw whatever they wanted wherever they wanted on the canvas, also to explore the space .  
Once they felt more comfortable with the space we started actualizing the ideas. One idea that came up was to draw a little praying boy in the middle of the canvas with candles next to him.
Later on the children thought the boy with the candles should be located on a world. Two hands in the colors of the Israeli (right) and Palestinian (left) flag should be reaching from both sides of the canvas towards the world with the boy and candles .
This left us with space in the corners. As it can be seen on the four last pictures that show the end product, there are two peace doves on the upper left corner with a sun that says peace - salem . Under it, one can see the Wall which is built around Palestine by the Israeli government. In front of the Wall stands Handala, a cartoon figure by Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al-Ali who created cartoons that depict the complexities of the plight of Palestinian refugees from approximately 1975 through 1987, when he was assassinated as he walked towards the offices of Al-Qabas newspaper. He died in the hospital on August 29th. His murderer has never been apprehended but speculations say that it has been the Israeli government that is responsible for his death due to his brutal and honest criticism. I would like to emphasize at this point that putting this character on the Kids' Guernica painting was an idea by the children. I personally was really impressed and touched by this political statement coming from children of such a young age.
At the upper right corner one can see an eye with splashes inside (which represent missiles). Tears are dropping from the eye over the hand with the Israeli flag onto the lower right corner. There, one can find an olive tree branch and again, the Wall which stands for the Occupation.
The painting turned out to be strong and impressive and everyone was extremely proud when we exhibited it on the last day of the camp. It was a lot of work and took a lot of repainting but it fit in perfectly with the mission of our camp. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
At the moment the painting is still at the Committee for Educational Guidance for Arab Students facility in Haifa but it can be sent to wherever it would be exhibited in the future.
Christina