Museum of the Palestinian People: An exhibition in the US capital to preserve Palestine's history

Washington, DC — While Palestinians in besieged Gaza and the occupied West Bank have drawn global attention to their cause through immense personal sacrifice, the diaspora has pursued alternative paths, from activism and media engagement to political advocacy.

In Washington, DC, the Museum of the Palestinian People harnesses art and culture to counter prevailing Zionist narratives, preserve historical truths, and ensure the Palestinian story remains visible to the American public.

The museum features artworks by Gaza artists, while also offering a broader narrative of Palestine’s history, displaying vintage currency, artistic works, keys to homes seized by Israeli settlers, and an ancient map delineating historic Palestinian lands.

Bshara Nassar, Executive Director and founder of MPP, tells TRT World that the museum started in 2015 as a travelling museum, showcasing the Palestinian history and culture across the US, before finding a permanent home in the US capital. 

"When I came to Washington, DC, and I went to museums, monuments and memorials, I saw that there are so many museums that tell other stories, like the African American story, the Native American story, the Holocaust Museum, but I didn't find a place to tell our story as Palestinians," Nassar tells TRT World.

"We wanted to tell a story from our perspective. We want to portray ourselves as people of resilience, people who have a rich culture and history that goes back thousands of years. We're not just invented people. And we also want to show the Palestinian Americans in this country what our achievements and accomplishments are."

He explains that he and the other founders of the museum initially faced difficulties, including funding, the political situation, and convincing people that the idea would succeed.

"But it was possible, and we ended up doing a great job and opening the museum and receiving thousands of visitors," Nassar says.

Showcasing Gaza

After the start of Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, the MPP was quick to highlight the reality of what's going on in the blockaded enclave.

"We've done a vigil first, and then outside the museum, we read names of children (killed by Israel)," he said. "We've highlighted artists who were killed in Gaza. We highlighted the storytelling about them."

Nassar stressed that they acted to increase awareness of the current situation, but also highlighted the history and context of Gaza.

"We want to give the context of what Gaza is, where it is. And that's important as well," Nassar added.

"But we've had like exhibits before, throughout the genocide that did focus on the genocide itself and people who were killed."

The 'Biblification' of Palestine 

At the Museum, Julia Pitner, Director of Operations and Programmes, walked TRT World through the Gaza exhibition, which featured many portraits and photographs from Gaza.

Pitner told TRT World that since the start of the genocide in Gaza, they received 33 artworks from 33 artists from Gaza.

But beyond the Gaza exhibition, the museum showcases a lot of Palestine's history, including old Palestinian currency, works of art, keys to houses stolen by illegal Israeli settlers, and an ancient map that shows the Palestinian land before what Pitner describes as the "Biblification of Palestine."

"It was never a land without people," Pitner tells TRT World, explaining how the British and the European Jews at the time found ways to manipulate the fact that Palestinians held less land than they actually did.

"So, they (Great Britain) began instituting property taxes. This is the first time ever that the Palestinians were asked to pay money for the land that they were farming or living on," she elaborates.

Pitner, who was in the occupied West Bank as those events were unfolding, said that some Palestinians were forced into selling their lands, but the vast majority refused to sell.

"There are other examples where the property deeds have been forged, often in California, to show that this family, this Jewish American family, owns this property in Sheik Jarrah, for example," she explains.

"And then you just have the military confiscation, where they just declare this area a military zone, which means it's closed. The military hangs on to it for about 5-10 years, and then they sell it as public lands to the Government of Israel, as if it never had any people."

Many forms of resistance through the decades

The museum also highlights symbols that reflect Palestinian women’s key role in resistance, as well as the diverse forms of opposition Palestinians embraced during the early years of Israeli occupation. 

One of them is a piece of art made by Syrian artists on behalf of Palestinian women on International Women's Day (March 8^th), that shows a Palestinian woman in traditional clothing, wearing a necklace of historic Palestine's map, and an Arabic phrase that reads "A salute to every fighting woman on her international day."

Pitner says this piece of art was a tribute to Leila Khaled, a prominent Palestinian activist, but it also conveys a message about women's great role in the resistance.

Because men and kids were often detained during the first Intifada, "the women… were allowed a lot more freedom of movement, and they were the ones that started carrying the bayans (public statements) during the First Intifada, to let people know what the actions were going to be for the week."

"They also developed songs to sing outside the prison so the men would know that the word got out," Pitner says.

Other paintings and photos also described what happened between the Nakba and the Naksa (the Arabs' defeat against Israel in the 1967 War), and pay homage to another form of resistance the Palestinians followed in Beit Suhur, a city in Bethlehem governorate.

"Beit Suhur instituted a non-violent resistance action… they refused to pay taxes to fund their own occupation," Pitner says. "Mubarak Awad was kind of the leader there. And he was deported." 

She was referring to Mubarak Awad, an American-Palestinian psychologist often dubbed "the Palestinian Gandhi," who was also a prominent figure in the First Intifada by organising boycotts, protests and non-cooperation movements with Israeli authorities.

Another item that is being showcased is a stone, which was a part of the wall upon which 12-year-old Muhammed al-Durrah — whose image is deeply ingrained in the Arab public's consciousness — was killed by Israeli forces.

Pitner says one of the journalists went back the next day after al-Durrah's assassination to grab this stone because it had his blood, and hence his DNA, which was needed as proof of his killing alongside the footage, especially after Israel's authorities started to spin the narrative.

Not only "Palestinians have to prove their existence, but they also have to prove their death," she says.

The exhibition also showcases a wall of photos of influential Palestinian figures, including Shireen Abu Akleh, Ghassen Kanafani, Mahmoud Darwish, Edward Said and many others.

Seeking expansion to increase awareness 

Recently, the museum has been seeking donations and funding to expand its space to showcase more Palestinian art and accommodate more visitors. 

"Since we opened in 2019, we have had thousands of visitors. And many, many would ask us to expand the museum," Nassar says. "Artists come. And say we need more space to display our arts." 

"We have a lot of objects and artefacts that we would like to display. We've been collecting, and we don't have enough space. So, the purpose is to increase the impact of the museum, to increase the visibility of the museum, and the reach."

Nassar says that they want to reach more universities, colleges and schools, which would be possible through this expansion.

He also notes that the museum appreciates any support and donation that help sustain and expand its work.

"We would love for people to support the museum, the expansion, the sustainability of the museum," Nassar adds.