An exhibit in the Milpitas Library features historical photos of the Palestinian people before partition in 1947-1949 of the land of Palestine. It documents a people who were once free to live their lives, pursue their aspirations, exercise their traditions and develop their culture and institutions to the fullest. The new exhibit of “Palestine: A People, A Culture, A Heritage” is on display throughout the months of January and February.
This free exhibit also displays traditional arts, pottery, tatreez (traditional embroidery), calligraphy, foods and cultural symbols of the Palestinian people that today contribute to the diversity of the Bay Area. It provides visual evidence that Palestinian people are real people at a time when their existence is too often denied and misunderstood.
Palestine and Palestinian people have been very much in the news over the past two years. Contrary to common perception, the current conflict is not age old, but only started in the last hundred years. A century ago, Palestinians had a thriving society, economy, culture, education, medicine, literature and institutions of civil society. Even Gaza was once a center of both over-land and sea-borne trade along the ancient Silk Road between Europe and Asia. Because of the Holy Land, Palestine was the crossroads of pilgrimages and the confluence of cultures at the nexus of three continents.
Today the vast majority of Palestinians live in the diaspora outside of historical Palestine with the largest numbers being refugees in the neighboring countries of the Middle East—Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and the Arabian Gulf countries. The largest Palestinian communities outside of the Middle East are in Chile and Central America.
There are some 200,000 Palestinian Americans living in the United States. Palestinian Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area have brought their rich culture and heritage with them, of which this exhibit gives but a sampling.
Palestine: A People, A Culture, A Heritage
Friday, Jan. 3 – Saturday, Mar. 1
During library hours
Milpitas Library
160 North Main St., Milpitas
sccld.org/locations/milpitas
