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Bethlehem Cultural Space Raided By Israeli Forces
By HG Masters
Israeli security forces have burned Dar Jacir’s urban farm to the ground.
On the weekend of May 15–16, Israeli security forces operating in Bethlehem, a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank, broke into the cultural space Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art & Research and ransacked its offices, severely damaging the premises and taking equipment including phones, computers, hard drives, cameras, and books. It is still unclear why the institution was targeted by security officials, who blew open the door and shattered interior fixtures including the glass on a bathroom door. The building was empty at the time of the incursion as several nights earlier, a fire had broken out in the urban farm created on the grounds of the 19th-century Jacir family home, and the artist-residents had relocated.
The street in front of Dar Jacir runs between Bethlehem and Hebron, and has been the site of protests by Palestinians against a heavily militarized crackdown by Israel Defense Forces. The Dar Jacir team found numerous tear-gas canisters, bullets, and other projectiles in the scorched garden. In a statement, the organization vowed to rebuild and to “continue to stand by our mission to protect cultural life and heritage for artists, students and community members.”
In 2014, artist Emily Jacir, filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, and their father Yusuf Nasri Jacir transformed the house into a cultural space. Its 2018–20 residents included artists Jumana Manna, Coco Fusco, Adrian Paci, Sam Durant, Trevor Paglen, as well as musician Nicolás Jaar, and Vivien Sansour, the founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library.
As Gaza continues to endure heavy shelling and bombing from Israeli artillery and aircraft, resistance efforts have continued across the Palestine, with a general strike called on May 18 and protests continuing in and around the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where Palestinians families are still being removed from their homes by Israeli settlers and security officials.
HG Masters is deputy editor and deputy publisher of ArtAsiaPacific.
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