Mohammad Saba'aneh: On Art and Nonviolent Resistance

Art as a Form of Nonviolent Resistance: Palestine

by TRNN

May 24, 2017

The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip is now 50 years old. For 50 years, Palestinians have struggled to become free of the occupation, and they used a variety of means of resistance. If we compare the struggles of Palestinian freedom to the occupation struggles in, say, Algeria, Vietnam, or even Kashmir, Palestine stands out as one of the least violent of them.

Part of the Palestinian struggle for liberation uses the term culture as resistance. Can art be used as a weapon, or art as a form of unarmed resistance? For that discussion, in our Baltimore studio today is Mohammad Sabaaneh. He is a Palestinian-born Kuwaiti. He is a painter, caricaturist and a cartoon artist. His cartoons appear in dozens of newspapers and he's a member of CRNI, Cartoon Rights International Network. Mohammad uses art as a form of unarmed resistance. Mohammad has just published a book of his cartoons titled White and Black Political Cartoons From Palestine.

Palestinian political cartoonist Mohammad Saba'aneh talks about his art and its importance to him and to the Palestinian people.

Mohammad Sabaaneh is a Palestinian political cartoonist and the author of White and Black: Political Cartoons from Palestine, which was published by Just World Books in 2017.

Just World Books was founded in 2010 by longtime global-affairs writer and researcher Helena Cobban, who is now their CEO. They publish the work of talented authors who write thought-provoking books across a variety of genres that expand and enrich the discourse in the United States and worldwide on issues of great international concern. Their emphasis is on topics connected with the Middle East and with war and peace issues more broadly.

For more about White and Black: Political Cartoons from Palestine and about Sabaaneh, visit the Just World Books website.