Designed to celebrate Jerusalem’s designation as the Capital of Arab Culture by the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALESCO) in 2009, this artwork by prominent Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour (see Sliman Mansour) shows a stylized white dove flying across the city’s luminous night sky. Below, a compact, colorful depiction of Jerusalem’s Old City shows clustered buildings and figures gazing upward, with their attention fixed on the bird, whose soaring wings and olive branch symbolize the enduring hope of an oppressed population.
The special and honorable designation was celebrated by the planning of the program “Al-Quds Arab Capital of Culture” on March 21, 2009. While the program opened in Bethlehem and was supposed to have related events in Jerusalem, Gaza, Nazareth, and at the Mar Elias Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, the day before its planned opening, Israel banned all eight program events in Jerusalem and arrested 20 organizers.1