The exhibition “The Dead Trees Stand” in memory of the Palestinian poet and communist leader and Gaza resident Mu’in Basiso opened Sunday, December 22 at 6:00 PM at the Haifa Gallery, 41 Al-Wadi Street featuring works by artists from the Gaza Strip, some of whom were killed last year during the bombings by the occupation forces in the Strip.
Bseiso was born in Gaza in 1926 and began publishing his works in the Jaffa newspaper “Al-Hurriya” (Freedom). In 1952, he published his first work called “The Struggle.” In 1948 he studied at the American University in Cairo and twice served prison sentences in Egyptian prisons during Nasser’s rule, between 1955 and 1957 and between 1959 and 1963. He was considered close to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and even served as a cultural advisor to Yasser Arafat.
Bseiso died at the age of 57 in Britain in 1984. He was buried in Egypt after Israel did not allow his family to return his body to Gaza. His books and poems have been translated into numerous languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Farsi. On the eve of his death, he participated in the Palestinian Cultural Week held in London with the participation of Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qassem and Emil Habibi.
The gallery’s owner, Suad Nasser, told the local newspaper “Kalbu”: “It is based on a poet from Gaza who died 40 years ago, and we are holding an exhibition in his memory. Artists from Gaza will present their works made before the war. The goal of the gallery is for Israelis to also get to know Palestinian art. The artist’s role is to express his reality, what he feels. He is influenced by the environment, he is not disconnected,” she emphasized.
