Drawing 10

This drawing caught my attention because it reflects, for the child, a real threat to the home, to the future, and to humanity.

The massive weapon positioned above the houses crushes them, flattens them, and connects them to the ground.
Without a doubt, this is a very difficult drawing, hard to digest—especially because it reflects a bitter truth that our region experiences again and again.

This drawing takes me back to the style of children’s drawings from the time of the Second Intifada.
I too, as an adult, carry within me the memories of the traumas I experienced as a child growing up in a reality of ongoing war between Israelis and Palestinians.
For a child, even just a siren is already a trauma, and the heart breaks at the fact that children themselves become actual victims.

There is no doubt that this drawing, and others like it, make an important contribution to understanding the perspective of children—how they see and feel.
In these illustrations, one can recognize a basic humanity, the kind that is sadly disappearing in too many people in today’s world.

Salam Diab,
deputy-director of cultural center Majd al-Krom, Israel