{"id":24556,"date":"2015-06-05T15:24:52","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T19:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=24556"},"modified":"2015-06-26T10:14:47","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T14:14:47","slug":"palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C."},"content":{"rendered":"

After first visiting Washington D.C. in 2011, Bshara Nassar was struck by the fact that among the city\u2019s dozens of museums, there was \u201cno place for the Palestinian story to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bshara-Nassar-214x277\"<\/a>
Bshara Nassar, MA ’14, has started the Nakba Museum Project of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C. to tell the story of Palestinian refugees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the next several years, as he worked on a master\u2019s degree in conflict transformation<\/a> from Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a> (CJP), the thought continued to turn in Nassar\u2019s mind. He was particularly interested in telling the little-known story of the \u201cNakba,\u201d which means \u201ccatastrophe\u201d in Arabic. The term is used to refer to the displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948 when the State of Israel was created. Today, nearly 5 million people, nearly all of them descendants of the original group, are registered as Palestinian refugees with the United Nations. (Nassar\u2019s grandmother is one, though he is not.)<\/p>\n

Following his graduation from CJP in 2014, Nassar moved to Washington D.C. and dedicated himself to founding what he\u2019s calling the Nakba Museum Project of Memory and Hope<\/a>. After a successful fundraising campaign earlier this year, that project will formally launch on June 13, 2015, with the opening of a two-week art exhibit at the Festival Center in Washington D.C.<\/p>\n

The exhibit will feature the work of six Palestinian refugee artists. Nassar chose to use their painting and photography as the primary method of telling the refugees\u2019 story because art \u201cis a language that everyone can understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about victimhood, politics or religion,\u201d said Nassar, acknowledging the controversy and divisive rhetoric that often surrounds the issue of Palestinian refugees. \u201cWe want deep conversations that can lead to equality and justice in Israel and Palestine\u2026. I\u2019m trying to tell stories that people haven\u2019t heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Art is a common language<\/h3>\n

To do that, he\u2019s recruited a team that\u2019s helped with various aspects of the project. One of the artists whose work will be featured in the upcoming exhibit, painter Ahmed Hmedat, curated the show by recruiting other Palestinian artists and helping assemble their work for display. Hmedat will speak on the opening night and remain in Washington as an artist-in-residence throughout the two-week run.<\/p>\n

Another collaborator of Nassar\u2019s was an American Jewish friend named Sam Feigenbaum, who did the exhibit\u2019s website and graphic design.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to prove that somewhere in the world that a Jew and a Palestinian could get along,\u201d said Feigenbaum, who had first met Nassar several years earlier and got back in touch with him after the outbreak of a war in Gaza last fall.<\/p>\n

\"Bshara-3\"<\/a>
Photographer Hamde abu Rahme exhibits this photo of a nonviolent protest in Bill’in, taken in 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s nice about this exhibit is that it uses a means of communication that is not necessarily dependent on language or education. You don’t need to know about the Nakba in order to experience it through the art. My hope is that people will see something that hits them on an emotional level, and then start asking questions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to CJP Executive Director J. Daryl Byler<\/a>, better understandings of the historical bases for conflicts, such as the Nakba, \u201chelps us to imagine what issues will need to be addressed in order to transform a destructive conflict into a sustainable future for the parties to the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project includes the tagline, \u2018Memory and Hope,\u2019 which helps cast a positive vision for a future of Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side as neighbors,\u201d continued Byler, who along with his wife, Cynthia, is a sponsor of the upcoming exhibit. \u201c[Nassar\u2019s] theory of change seems to be that hope for a future together is rooted in remembering the past when Jews and Arabs shared the land, largely in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘We refuse to be enemies’<\/h3>\n

Nassar emphasizes that the museum is as much focused on the present as the past, and describes the Nakba as an ongoing event for Palestinian refugees who still live in camps and for all Palestinian people who live under occupation. To address that reality in their own lives, Nassar\u2019s family founded an organization called Tent of Nations<\/a>. Based at their 100-acre farm in the West Bank, near Bethlehem, it is dedicated to building respect and understanding between different people and cultures.<\/p>\n

That hasn\u2019t prevented them from living under constant fear of displacement, however. For years, the family has fought a legal battle in Israeli courts to block plans to seize parts of their land for development, and in 2014, military bulldozers uprooted 1,500 fruit trees and grape vines<\/a> on their farm.<\/p>\n

In life generally, and in his efforts to found a museum to tell the Palestinian story, Nassar continues to draw inspiration from a stone at the entrance to the family farm, inscribed with the words, \u201cWe refuse to be enemies\u201d in three languages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m also inspired by CJP and the EMU environment that supports and empowers peacebuilders locally and around the world. I\u2019m deeply appreciative,\u201d said Nassar.<\/p>\n

Although no future exhibitions have been planned beyond June, the Nakba Museum Project of Memory and Hope will be an ongoing one. One of Nassar\u2019s biggest goals is to eventually find a permanent space to tell the refugees\u2019 stories, in the service of memory and hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After first visiting Washington D.C. in 2011, Bshara Nassar was struck by the fact that among the city\u2019s dozens of museums, there was \u201cno place for the Palestinian story to ... read more about Palestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C.<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,12503,264],"tags":[15977,10545,15979],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-24556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-cjp","category-graduate-programs","tag-bshara-nassar","tag-daryl-byler","tag-tent-of-nations"],"yoast_head":"\nPalestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C. - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Palestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C. - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After first visiting Washington D.C. in 2011, Bshara Nassar was struck by the fact that among the city\u2019s dozens of museums, there was \u201cno place for the Palestinian story to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-05T19:24:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-26T14:14:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/06\/Bshara-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"646\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"513\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/\",\"name\":\"Palestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C. - EMU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/06\/Bshara-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-05T19:24:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-26T14:14:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d6737034219398924e6bd5dedcfa1245\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/06\/Bshara-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/06\/Bshara-1.jpg\",\"width\":646,\"height\":513},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Palestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\",\"name\":\"EMU News\",\"description\":\"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d6737034219398924e6bd5dedcfa1245\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Palestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C. - EMU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Palestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C. - EMU News","og_description":"After first visiting Washington D.C. in 2011, Bshara Nassar was struck by the fact that among the city\u2019s dozens of museums, there was \u201cno place for the Palestinian story to","og_url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/","og_site_name":"EMU News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite","article_published_time":"2015-06-05T19:24:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-06-26T14:14:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":646,"height":513,"url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/06\/Bshara-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EMU_News","twitter_site":"@EMU_News","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/","name":"Palestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C. - EMU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/06\/Bshara-1.jpg","datePublished":"2015-06-05T19:24:52+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-26T14:14:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d6737034219398924e6bd5dedcfa1245"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/06\/Bshara-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/06\/Bshara-1.jpg","width":646,"height":513},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/palestinian-cjp-graduate-prepares-to-open-first-exhibit-of-nakba-museum-of-memory-and-hope-in-washington-d-c\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Palestinian CJP graduate prepares to open first exhibit of Nakba Museum of Memory and Hope in Washington D.C."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/","name":"EMU News","description":"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d6737034219398924e6bd5dedcfa1245","name":"admin","sameAs":["http:\/\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24556"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24574,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24556\/revisions\/24574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24556"},{"taxonomy":"feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature?post=24556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}