The art of peace – can artists stop the war between Israel and Palestine?

Abstract

In the face of constant threats, regardless of time, epoch, place or degree of civilization (de-civilization), human beings behave in ways that are primarily analyzed by doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists. The most relevant scholars to take up this problem are Lévinas, Ozick and Quignards. Such a state of affairs, involving extreme experiences caused by the forces of nature, technical failures, terrorist acts and wars, has become the object of attention of philosophers, cultural researchers and artists. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict – one of the world’s longest disputes – has been causing deep wounds to communities on both sides. In the midst of political and historical tensions, and the awareness of a lack of any consensus, there is a spring of thought and, consequently, of action, the conviction that art, through the expression of deepest experiences, can become a platform of understanding. The current (since 7 October 2023), another war in the history of the State of Israel since 1948, and the reaction of Israeli and Palestinian artists to it, is the subject of this article. The reaction of artists through works of art is a dramatic attempt to respond to a state of extreme threat (war, death, famine, kidnapping, rape). From the perspective of researchers (e.g. La Capra or Van Alphen), it is perceived as a “transmission of the affect that moves them”, which is reflected in the works created. Jewish and Palestinian artists reacted energetically to the events unfolding in Israel and Gaza. In this article, selected works by Israeli and Palestinian artists will be discussed, among others: Maya Freedman, Hadeel Nasser, Oren Fischer, Michal Worke, Rana Samara and Addam Yekutiel, directly related to current events, and critical philosophical and psychoanalytic commentaries on them. The artists represent a generation born several decades after World War II and 76 years after the establishment of the State of Israel on the territories of former Palestine (British Mandate for Palestine – Mandate territory from 1922 to 1948, formed from parts of the former Ottoman Empire territories in the Middle East), and they live in Israel, Palestine, France and the United States.