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= Mahmoud Alhaj = Mahmoud Alhaj is a Palestinian arts teacher, graphic designer and visual artist from the Gaza Strip. His work on the series he calls “fragile” reflects the widely accepted opinion that Gaza is essentially the world’s largest open-air prison and highlights the mental health strain long-term occupation has on innocent people.

It is important to understand that the historical context of Israel and Palestine is a major contributing factor, this is the birthplace of three mainstream modern religions. It is sacred land for Muslims, Jews and Christians. The land has been shared (or contested) by all three for centuries as they share the same Abrahamic origin.

Mahmoud as well as other creatives have expressed issues getting work produced due to lack of resources and materials. They have trouble on a creative level because Israeli police can intercept art that they consider problematic and arrest the artist. It is also difficult to sell work outside of the country due to blockades in place."Mahmoud Alhaj - 'In most cases some of the Israeli soldiers see art as the same as military resistance. There are a lot of stories about artists in the prisons, a lot of missed artworks. As an artist you have to deal with their powerful intelligence services.'"Internet journalist website, itsnicethat has interviews with 5 creatives from Palestine which allows other artists in the region to voice their concerns, for example:"Malak Mattar – “Palestinian identity is at risk as our culture has been threatened by appropriation and theft for over 70 years.”"There is a website called Weare-Europe where the writers call themselves “cultural actors”, wanting to connect people of different cultures. Mahmoud was interviewed where he spoke about life in Gaza, his attitude shows the mentality of living in captivity"Mahmoud Alhaj - “I am 31 years old, I still didn’t see the cross points in Gaza. I made a passport but I didn’t use it. I lived my entire life in the Gaza strip, I didn’t even try to experience travel, I wish I would.”"Recently Mahmoud has been the apparent victim of Israeli censorship, his website is currently suspended. There is no way to officially verify if this is the case or if there is a legitimate reason for the website to have been taken down, the current conflict in Gaza would certainly make it difficult to maintain payments on website hosting fees. Unfortunately, with the loss of his online portfolio, a lot of his work is no longer accessible.

The importance of bringing to attention the struggle that Palestinians go through regularly cannot be understated. It is a difficult topic to discuss because of the threat that Israel poses, there are too few designers that create political images out of fear of repercussions.

Israel’s justification for all of this is to deny any Apartheid is taking place, by refusing to acknowledge Palestine as a Nation.

Amnesty international compiled an extensive document on the topic."“For example, Palestinian citizens of Israel are denied a nationality, establishing a legal differentiation from Jewish Israelis. In the West Bank and Gaza, where Israel has controlled the population registry since 1967, Palestinians have no citizenship and most are considered stateless, requiring ID cards from the Israeli military to live and work in the territories.”"Israel's Prime Minister wrote on Instagram “Israel is not a state of all its citizens… [but rather] the nation-state of the Jewish people and only them”

Message posted on instagram in March 2019 by Israel’s then prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.