The very first artzero children’s art workshop was held in East Jerusalem in 1998 at the Al-Wasiti Art Centre with the help of Palestinian artist Taleb Dweik. Palestinian children from East Jerusalem, aged between 5 and 14, took part in vegetable printing workshops.

In 1999 a more extensive project was organised by the British Council as part of their Ahlan-UK – an art and culture festival for the Palestinian Territories. Workshops took place in Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus and Gaza co-ordinated by the British Council and run with the help of local schools and organisations. This project was originally conceived of as a Palestinian - Israeli cultural exchange initiative. The Palestinian section of the initiative was completed before the outbreak of violence that erupted in 2000. The Israeli part of the programme has had to be indefinitely postponed due to the current political and cultural situation.

All of the Palestinian children involved in the project had grown up during the relatively peaceful period following the Oslo Peace accords. Their pictures reveal a children's eye view of a potentially peaceful Palestine, now just a distant dream.

See the children and their pictures using the links on the left

View all the pictures or click the Palestine title to return here