<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" dir="ltr" lang="en">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-gaza-children-artwork-removed-hospital-looks-new-home">middleeasteye.net</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Gaza children's artwork, removed from London hospital, looks for new home</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Mustafa Abu Sneineh in London - March 19, 2023<br></div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><img src="cid:ii_lffod88f19" alt="image.png" width="392" height="220"><br><p>The headteacher at a London hospital school has told Middle East Eye of her <a href="https://www.cchs.org.uk/schoolnews/crossing-borders-exhibition-taken-down" target="_blank">shock </a>after British-Palestinian artwork made by children was removed following a complaint by a pro-Israel group.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.chelwest.nhs.uk/" target="_blank">Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Foundation Trust</a> (C&W
HFT) took down the display, "Crossing Borders - A Festival of Plates",
amid threats of legal action from the UK Lawyers for Israel (<a href="https://www.uklfi.com/" target="_blank">UKLFI</a>).</p>
<p>The project, which consists of 21 ceramic plates, had been exhibited
in a corridor next to the children's outpatient department at Chelsea
and Westminster Hospital since 2012. </p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_page/public/palestine-gaza-plates-fisherman-chelsea-westminster-hospital-community-school-%20CCHS.jpg?itok=L8lr3E8e" alt=""" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="220"></p>
<font size="1">The artwork shows scenes from everyday life in Gaza, including this image of a fisherman (Chelsea Community Hospital School)</font></div><p>Janette Steel, the principal of Chelsea Community Hospital School
(CCHS), which provides full-curriculum education for children receiving
treatment at the hospital, told MEE: "It is a wonderful exhibition. What
is upsetting now is that it has turned into something ugly and
political, which it was not meant to be."</p>
<p>Steel said the art plates were shown in Sweden before being exhibited
in 2012 in London at the Nour Festival, which celebrates culture from
the Middle East and North Africa.</p>
<p>"It was a joint project with children from London and Gaza. What a
smashing project, what a wonderful project. Let's turn down the anger
and the upset; this is how we move on with our world by making children
work together."</p>
<p>She said of the complaint from UKLFI: "No one complained for 11 years [about the artwork], and that's what is so extraordinary."</p>
<p><a href="https://www.uklfi.com/hospital-removes-gaza-artwork-from-hospital-corridor" target="_blank">Caroline Turner, the director of UKLFI</a>,
said on 14 February that it was pleased the plates had been removed and
said it had submitted a complaint to the hospital "on behalf of some
Jewish patients, who said that they felt vulnerable and victimised by
this display".</p>
<p>UKLFI said that the Palestinian flag atop the Dome of the Rock hinted
that "Jerusalem and in particular the site of what had been the Jewish
Temple, would be part of a Palestinian state".</p>
<p>"The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism, and it is
offensive for Jewish people to see a Palestinian flag over their holiest
site," it added.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_page/public/palestine-gaza-plates-woman-working-chelsea-westminster-hospital-community-school-%20CCHS-04.jpg?itok=P9k1C-4E" alt=""" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="221"></p>
<font size="1">The plates were created in 2012 after teachers from the UK visited the schools in Gaza (Chelsea Community Hospital School)</font></div>
<p>In a previous statement to MEE, the hospital trust said that UKLFI's
letter had stated "that some patients had complained to them that some
elements of the display caused them offence and made them feel
victimised". C&W HFT declined to comment on when they received the
letter and when the artwork was removed or on whether the trust itself
had received any complaints.</p>
<p>The ceramic art plates are currently in the storeroom at CCHS, which
owns them. "We are looking for somewhere in London to display them
again," said Steel. "Who would like to host this exhibition? Who would
like to see it?"</p>
<h3>School makes links with Gaza</h3>
<p>Chelsea Community Hospital School is a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/chelseacommunityhospitalschool/photos" target="_blank">purpose-built </a>facility
owned by the hospital trust in Chelsea. It educates children aged four
to 18 who cannot attend school because they are receiving medical
treatment or have mental health needs, sometimes for up to six months a
year. Subjects it offers include maths, science, geography, art and
music.</p>
<p>Founded in 1989 at the Westminster Children's Hospital, when it was
known as the Westminster Children's Hospital School, it received
the British Council's <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/school-resources/accreditation/international-school-award" target="_blank">International School Award</a> in 2010 for partnering with schools in Finland, Poland, Italy, Greece and Gaza.</p>
<p>In 2012, Steel, who has been the school's principal for more than 30
years, was herself awarded an OBE for her educational work, fundraising
and setting up a charity to enhance the lives of children at the
hospital.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_page/public/palestine-gaza-plates-children-marbles-chelsea-westminster-hospital-community-school-%20CCHS.jpg?itok=_JviXbmb" alt=""" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="220"></p>
<font size="1">This plate, which hung in the hospital for more than a
decade before being removed, shows children playing with marbles in Gaza
(Chelsea Community Hospital School)</font></div>
<p>The school's links with Gaza came about as part of the British
Council's "Connecting Classrooms" programme, which ran between 2008 and
2022 and matched CCHS with Palestinian schools in Gaza run by the UN
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.</p>
<p>Children make up almost 47 percent of Gaza's population. Some have endured multiple Israeli bombing campaigns since 2007. A <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2021-08-05/palestinian-children-face-constant-and-unique-trauma-in-gaza-experts-say" target="_blank">study</a> by <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/4497/New-Report:-91%25-of-Gaza-children-suffer-from-PTSD-after-the-Israeli-attack#:~:text=Women's%20rights-,New%20Report%3A%2091%25%20of%20Gaza%20children%20suffer%20from,PTSD%20after%20the%20Israeli%20attack&text=Geneva%20%2D%20Nine%20out%20of%20ten,Euro%2DMed%20Human%20Rights%20Monitor." target="_blank">Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor in 2021</a>
showed that nine out of 10 children in Gaza, which is blockaded by
Israel, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and
suicidal thoughts.</p>
<p>In 2012, three staff from CCHS travelled to Beit Lahiya Preparatory
Girls' School and Jabalia Preparatory Boys School in Gaza. Students then
aged 14 and 15 produced dozens of pictures of traditional and everyday
life in Palestine, which one of the teachers scanned and emailed to the
UK.</p>
<p>Back in London, students at the CCHS chose 21 images to transfer on
to ceramic plates that they had produced as part of pottery classes and
after-school activities. Some showed Palestinians carrying water jars,
baking bread and milling lentils, beans and chickpeas. Others showed
fishermen with their catch, workers harvesting olives and children
playing with marbles.</p>
<p>Steel said: "It was a such a positive project for so many young
people, children from different communities, who all had difficult
times, coming together and supporting one another. That's what it was
like."</p>
<p>The children from London and Gaza, she said, worked together. "They
shared their lives. Some children in the hospital who were unwell and
the children in Gaza still wanted to go to school and proceed with their
lives."</p>
<p>Three of the plates show the Palestinian flag, with one atop the Dome
of the Rock mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. One includes an olive
branch, recognised worldwide as an emblem of peace, to symbolise the
hope for a viable Palestinian state.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_page/public/palestine-gaza-plates-flag-chelsea-westminster-hospital-community-school-%20CCHS.jpg?itok=CjOULMjp" alt=""" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="221"></p>
<font size="1">This plate combines the Dome of the Rock, an olive branch and a Palestinian flag (Chelsea Community Hospital School)</font></div>
<p>Steel said that CCHS could not censor children when they undertook
projects, and that they faced a similar issues before with a work from
Spain that included the Catalan flag. "We are always very careful about
what we do," she said, "but we are bound to cross boundaries sometimes,
and this project is called Crossing Borders, and we did cross
boundaries."</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/90036658@N08/sets/72157631988444104/" target="_blank">original paintings</a> and <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cchsgaza/sets/72157631992024088/" target="_blank">the ceramic art plates</a> first appeared in a book. When the plates were displayed in <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cchsgaza/sets/72157631991999889/with/8179894819/" target="_blank">Leighton House</a>,
west London, as part of the Nour Festival in November 2012, they were
shown next to a collection of Arabic and Damascene decorative plates.</p>
<p>The plates then found a home at the hospital, where they hung for
more than a decade as part of a display "Crossing Borders" - until last
month, when they were taken down.</p>
<h3>Petition: Put the plates back</h3>
<p>Rosalind Nashashibi, a British-Palestinian artist and a 2017 nominee
for the UK's prestigious Turner Prize, said the "Crossing Borders"
exhibition was "really a beautiful piece of artwork".</p>
<p>"The idea of it being on ceramic plates looks domestic and
heartwarming. It is a gentle artwork showing everyday life, connecting
distant communities. It does not come off as protesting or making a
statement."</p>
<blockquote>
<p>'The idea of it being on ceramic plates looks domestic and heartwarming'</p>
<p>- <em>Rosalind Nashashibi, artist</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nashashibi said it was "frightening" that Palestinian drawings of
their daily life and mundane activities were received as a "threat" in
Europe and the UK. "The work represents daily life, depicts what
Palestinian students see around them. It is a characteristic work of
art. It shows people from other places that this is how life looks like
in Palestine. It connects with the outside world."</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gabysahhar.com/queerdirect-com" target="_blank">Gaby Sahhar</a>, a French-Palestinian artist and founder of Queerdirect art network, has started a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/rehang-children-s-artwork-form-gaza-at-chelsea-and-westminster-hospital?recruiter=1122777255&recruited_by_id=f4c6ad30-b461-11ea-97c5-3715b11ec2a4&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&fbclid=PAAaaRJ1umUAXvU2k2p5yjumTP1V2kb3Ehf4VRd0c9--LcvxxxehQ00HSQrCM" target="_blank">petition</a> calling on the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital to rehang the plates.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_page/public/palestine-gaza-plates-women-chelsea-westminster-hospital-community-school-%20CCHS.jpg?itok=8eM0t4ER" alt=""" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="220"></p>
<font size="1">A new place to display the plates, which are owned by the school, is now being sought (Chelsea Community Hospital School)</font></div>
<p>Sahhar, who is based in London, told MEE that he experienced
censorship "due to the word Palestine or references to Palestine in my
artwork, so could I relate. I'm also disabled, so go in and out of NHS
hospitals a lot."</p>
<p>He told MEE: "I know how important artwork is; that's why I started
the petition. I knew I would have a lot of people in the art world that
would support me."</p>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>