Abed Abdi

Abed Abdi is an artist and educator who has been consistently promoting Palestinian culture for over 40 years, and whose contribution to the visual culture of historical Palestine is unprecedented.

In 1964 he went to study in Dresden and on his return to Haifa in 1971 he was appointed chief graphic designer and illustrator of Al-Ittihad newspaper and the Al-Jadid literary journal, which at the time were the main platforms of Palestinian culture and society. It was then that Abdi created hundreds of illustrations and prints - images of refugees, exile and homeland - the majority of which illustrated the literary works of Emile Habib, Salman Natour, Samih al- Qasim, and others.

It is these images that shaped Palestinian visual memory of historical events like the Nekba, the refugee camps, destroyed villages, and the events of Land Day, hence the works’ significant influence on the collective memory of the Palestinians under occupation.