Barakat Trust and Google Arts & Culture launch digital exhibit spotlighting Gaza

DUBAI: Google Arts & Culture has launched a digital exhibit by the Barakat Trust about the Gaza strip in Palestine. The project, which is Barakat Trust’s inaugural collection on Google Arts & Culture, aims to help more people around the world learn about Palestinian culture and heritage.
The charity organization, which focuses on the Islamic world’s education and heritage, worked with experts in Gaza to document a range of the city’s architectural and cultural facets through firsthand accounts from the city’s residents.
Available in both Arabic and English, the exhibit features audio clips from Gazan engineers, academics and journalists about their experience growing up in the city, their history and shared memories of living through war.
“Gaza is very small, (it is) only 365 sq km — roughly the same as Las Vegas or a quarter of the size of London,” Salem Al-Qudwa, architectural engineer at Harvard University, said in one of the audio files featured in the exhibit.
“It’s currently home to almost 2 million Palestinians, making it widely regarded as one of the most densely populated areas in the world and leading some to call it the world’s largest open-air prison, and I lived in that prison with my family,” he said.
Journalist Rawan Yaghi talked about the history and destruction of Gaza. “To me, it (Gaza) always felt like an alternate world,” she said.
When walking in Gaza, she added, it feels like “this place has existed for centuries and you’re just passing by in your short life.”
“What’s more devastating about that is that it (Gaza) keeps getting destroyed and being rebuilt and destroyed and being rebuilt,” Yaghi said.
The digital exhibit also features a series of videos and stories about preservation efforts in the Gaza strip and the difficulties facing local preservation experts who are working to restore and maintain local heritage sites.
“We all need to support Gaza in a different way. Not only (with) food and medicine, but also to safeguard its identity and cultural heritage. This project funded by the Barakat Trust is very important to us — to help make our voices reach outside of Gaza,” said Muneer Elbaz, a participant in Barkat’s Trust’s project and an architect, urban planner and lecturer at the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza.
One of the main heritage sites in Gaza is Palestine’s oldest mosque, the Omari mosque. Established in 1277 A.D., the mosque has a history similar to that of Turkey’s Aya Sofia, where it was used for different religious purposes over the years — from temple to church to mosque to church and then mosque again.
The collection also delves into local conservation efforts in the city, including efforts to digitally preserve religious manuscripts found in the Omari mosque and historical buildings.
“We have supported conservation and heritage education efforts in this historic city for several years and are delighted by the change these projects are bringing to the city. This collection of stories highlights both the history of Gaza and the dynamic people involved in preserving its diverse heritage,” said Seif El-Rashidi, director of Barakat Trust.
Google Arts & Culture highlights the stories of more than 2,900 cultural institutions from 80 countries, working as a partner for these institutions to preserve and share culture through new technologies.
Previous digital exhibitions include the Dalloul Art Foundation in Lebanon; the National Library & Archives and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority in the UAE; the Art & Soul of Mosul in Iraq and Preserving Egypt’s Layered History project in Egypt.