MPPM AT THE 5TH EDITION OF ART FOR PALESTINE

MPPM once again partnered with the Art for Palestine event and was present at the 5th edition, which took place between May 14th and 17th.
In this edition, we brought to Casa do Comum the exhibition "The Children of Gaza: Interrupted Childhood," a joint production of This Is Palestine and Visualizing Palestine, which MPPM adapted into Portuguese. In this exhibition, we document the interrupted lives of a generation, showing the barriers that govern Palestinian children from the moment they are born.
The exhibition is divided into four thematic spaces. It begins with the dramatic recording of the voices of the children themselves—not as victims, but as holders of their own destiny.
Young people who are now leaving adolescence are now "Six Age Wars" and have never known another reality.
In Palestine, "growing up" is not a natural progression; It is a challenging act of survival, as we show in Everyday Realities, where hunger is a weapon of war and access to water is done drop by drop. And in Targeting Childhood, we show how the murder of children is premeditated.
As a complement to the exhibition, on Saturday, May 16, we will host a debate with the participation of Carlos Almeida and Elena Probst, from MPPM, and Rebeca Gouveia, from Parents for Peace Portugal, on the theme "The Children of Gaza: Hope Reborn".
To open, we will show the short film "In Gaza Pietas", by the Italian director Diego Manfredini, who animated drawings by Palestinian children made in the HeART of Gaza space "to give voice to their imagination, hope and pain".
Since October 7, 2023, more than 20,000 Palestinian children have been killed, and almost 60,000 have lost one or both parents. The number of children who have suffered amputations exceeds 4,000, and more than 600,000 have had their education interrupted. In this bleak scenario, children need hope for a different future.
That's why we also talked about the "Swim with Gaza" project, spearheaded by Amjed Tantesh. Before the war, Amjed taught children in Gaza to swim. The war took almost everything, except an unwavering will to continue working for the children, and now he is putting into action the ambitious project of creating swimming pools along the Gaza coast to teach 10,000 children to swim.

On Sunday, May 17, we showed the film "An Orange from Jaffa," which was followed by a lively discussion.

Mohammed Almughanni's film tells the story of Mohammed, a young Palestinian student who is trying to reach Jaffa, passing through the Hizma checkpoint after being refused entry in Qalandyia. Taxi driver Farouk, also Palestinian, risks having his car seized if Israeli authorities deem him to be illegally transporting Mohammed. In just under 30 minutes, the director exposes the harsh reality of living under occupation, how the occupier seeks to create tension and division among Palestinians through the imposition of discriminatory measures, but also how a strong national identity, here symbolized by an orange from Jaffa, maintains the cohesion of the Palestinian people.