Bearing Witness
Art Bearing Witness to the Palestinian Genocide
John Gideon Hartnett | biblescienceforum.com
The art piece “Bearing Witness” by Jessamy Offszanka, inspired by the suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza, aims to highlight the horrors of war and evoke action against the ongoing conflict. Despite its powerful message, the artwork’s potential for recognition was stifled by its politically sensitive nature, reflecting societal indifference to the plight of innocents.
Recently I attended the annual art exhibition of the art society that I am a member of. The art was beautiful as I expected. There wasn’t any of the commonly disgustingly horrible art that has infected the national and state art galleries but there was one piece that stood out from all the others. It screamed a message that cannot be ignored; that must not be ignored.
The following is what the artist wrote about her art piece shown above.
Inspired by war footage out of Gaza, I felt compelled to create this piece, ‘Bearing Witness’. A confronting and emotionally draining experience, I wanted to capture the harrowing reality of despair and horror that Palestinian children are living, and the world’s response, through external political and media perceptions. The sombre palette conveys the starkness of the aftermath of conflict and a childhood overshadowed by misery.
‘Bearing Witness’ is not just a documentation, but a protest and an appeal for understanding and action. All children’s lives are worthy of protection, and we cannot allow thousands to be slaughtered, maimed, and traumatised.Artist Statement by Jessamy Offszanka <jessamy.offszanka@gmail.com>
How can a modern civilised society ignore the plight of the impoverished starved children in the Gaza strip? War is horrible but this war is totally unnecessary. Modest estimates figure 40,000 women and children killed in the horrific conflict. At least 15,000 are children. Children cannot be “terrorists” and as such there is no human justification for their wholesale murder like this.
The Lancet medical journal even estimates as high as 180,000 killed or injured in the Israeli war on the Palestinian people. And now you can add to that 15,000 Lebanese killed or injured. This is nothing short of barbarism!
The insanity of the war all stems from the invasion of Palestine about 100 years ago with the mass migration of tens of thousands of European Jews fleeing persecution. But there never was a policy of co-existence only of elimination of the indigenous people of Palestine, whether they be Muslim, Christian or Druze. That is genocide by definition.
According to Dictionary.com
genocide (n)
the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.
That is what is happening now. Where are the protections for the innocent children in this conflict? Where are the mighty western values of support for the innocent? Where are those who protect the children?
Jessamy’s piece should have won a major prize at the exhibition I attended but I suspect that it was too politically incorrect to be chosen. She was even rejected from a major exhibition 6 months earlier. The latter exhibition usually has politically motivated pieces and a lot of the horrible crap I mentioned above. But the western elites have buried their heads in the sand, ignoring the plight of the downtrodden and the oppressed.
Original Article: https://biblescienceforum.com/2024/11/04/art-bearing-witness-to-the-palestinian-genocide/
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