'Israeli and Palestinian Artists'
Mahmoud Darwish Museum Givat Haviva Art Institute of Chicago Peace Festival Peacebuilding MAHMOUD DARWISH ASSOCIATION Sindyanna of Galilee ...Yes, it did happen in Chicago, 1989.
1988: Vice-President George H. W. Bush was elected U.S. president by defeating Michael Dukakis. The Soviet war with Afghanistan ended after 8 years. A Libyan terrorist bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, killing 270 people.
That same year, a pro-Palestinian demonstration took place at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Students and faculty members gathered to advocate for Palestinian rights and raise awareness about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was a student at ‘Circle Campus’, as it was then coined, learning Classical Arabic Grammar. As my Microsoft Copilot put it, the demonstration 'engaged in peaceful sit-ins and protests'. But I saw it as going ‘out of hand’, with the burning of Israeli flags and what I thought was ‘screaming rage’ by a few of what appeared to me was a predominantly Palestinian student contingent.
Apparently, I was not the only one disturbed by the conduct of this fraction of demonstrators and the demonstration at large. A number of faculty, staff and students later formed a committee to promote peaceful dialogue between the two sides (this was when there was still quite significant support for Israel and what it stood for and a rather small but growing sympathy towards the Palestinian people). Having come back from Israel some 5 years earlier, I took an active role in this committee, which centred round a very unique art exhibit for its time.
Coinciding with the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover festival, 24 Palestinian and Israeli artists exhibited 84 works of art aimed at fostering dialogue, understanding, and shared perspectives through art at the same campus, hosting what was called the ‘Israeli and Palestinian Artists’ peace exhibit, beginning on Wednesday, 19 April, ending the following Monday the 24th.
Wednesday the 19th Passover began. At the historic KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation synagogue, a joint Passover Seder and Ramadan Iftar (fast-breaking evening meal of Muslims in Ramadan) at the time of adhan (call to prayer) was held. I remember seeing Palestinian women in their traditional garb holding the elements of the Seder in their hands. The melding of Passover and Ramadan (preceded by the Western and Orthodox Christian Easter in the end of March and beginning of April that year) significantly resonated inside of me…as I remember it and the artists’ exhibit to this very day.