West Bank arts festival kicks off for first time since Gaza war

Ramallah’s Contemporary Arts Festival, one of the largest in the West Bank, starts today for the first time since the war in Gaza shut down most cultural activities in the territory.

Art, theater and film festivals once held in Ramallah and elsewhere in the West Bank came to a halt after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, amid escalating violence, Israeli military raids and settler attacks following the outbreak of the Gaza war.

“Culture and art historically play an important and distinctive role in our struggle… because they reflect our identity and reinforce our role as a Palestinian society,” Khaled Aliyan, the festival’s director, tells AFP.

Aliyan says the festival, previously limited to contemporary dance, was expanded to include Palestinian artists from all fields.

Aliyan regrets that the West Bank’s cultural life experienced “a forced two-year suspension due to the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.”

Israel strongly rejects such accusations, saying the high death toll in Gaza is a result of Hamas and other terror groups operating from within densely populated civilian areas.

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Because of the war, many organizers in the field decided to pause cultural activities out of solidarity for their fellow Palestinians living in displacement and constant danger of airstrikes.