The Al-Qarara Cultural Museum

A painting of a Palestinian woman wearing the traditional thoub (dress) is the first thing I saw when I visited the Al-Qarara Cultural Museum. Looking at the woman in the painting, with long brown hair and kohl lining her wide eyes, I remembered my late grandmother tying my hair into a long braid and letting me bring her cosmetic box so she could put kohl around our eyes. She used to tell me, “The eyes of Palestinian women are their weapon against the Israeli occupation.” I feel a spiritual impact during my visit to Al-Qarara Cultural Museum, which is located at the southern side of the Gaza Strip in Al Qarara town. Al Qarara is a rural area where most residents depend on agriculture as a primary income source.

Starting A Museum

Mohammed Abu Lehya and Najlaa Abu Nahla were married in 2013. In 2017,they brought their dreams together and undertook a plan to launch a private museum, which would preserve objects of artistic, cultural and historical importance in the Gaza Strip. From a very young age Mohammed was interested in gathering neglected artifacts, such as old coins and stones, ancient pottery and even old traditional clothes. After spending most of his time collecting artifacts and antiques, his apartment looked like a small museum — with no place to walk. This led him to rent a house and renovate it in a traditional style. Mohammed told me that he asked public figures at Al-Qarara to help him convince the farmers in the eastern cultivated lands to keep the ancient objects they found at the Al-Qarara cultural museum, instead of throwing them away or selling them to Israeli dealers in antiquarian goods. This step was successful and he was able to collect 2,000 objects, which include relics, antiques, artifacts, traditional paintings and clothes. These objects go back to the Roman, Byzantine, Greek and early Islamic eras.

The museum is divided into two rooms and a courtyard. In the first room, the museum displays objects such as old cooking utensils, traditional clothes, agricultural tools, old swords and guns that were used during the Ottoman rule of Palestine. In the second room, artifacts and antiques such as old coins, rocks and old pottery are displayed. These are kept in unbreakable glass cases. The courtyard was decorated in traditional style, in order to be a suitable place for photo sessions.

The Staff of The Museum

Beside Mohammed Abu Lehya and his wife Najlaa Abu Nahla, the museum includes a total of 10 volunteers, including artists, a designer, and a photographer. The entire staff has previous experience in the techniques of renovation and conservation. Both Mohammed Abu Lehya and his wife are arts graduates. Also, Abu Lehya has attended a 10-day practical course on the techniques of renovation and conservation, as well as watching online YouTube videos on these techniques.

Cultural Activities

Al Qarara museum is not just a place to exhibit ancient objects, but is also a cultural center for various events. First, the staff of the museum ran a camp for 50 children to teach them how to preserve the past history of Palestine and its capital Jerusalem through artwork. This camp showed fruitful results, and encouraged the to children collect metallic objects and coins while playing in the streets, and handing them to the museum’s staff. It really inspired me that this small museum supports the concept of women’s empowerment–-the staff of the museum organized training courses in Palestinian hand embroidery to help women expand their ability to succeed and advance economically. This kind of training course revived the art of embroidery, which had been neglected for the last several years. When I asked these women why they were interested in learning embroidery, they explained that these courses are a means of protection for the Palestinian heritage, as well as the rejection of Israelization and the occupation, which has sought to sabotage everything Palestinian. At the same time, the women who benefited from the training courses have been working to prepare traditional food in the museum to give it to the poor families who reside in Al-Qarara town. They did this kind of charitable work because it’s the best way to promote the museum and help the needy at the same time. Later, Abu Lehya and Abu Nahla intend to open a library for cultural and historical books, which visitors will be free

to use.

Challenges

The most crucial challenge that the museum staff faced was the lack of some necessary chemicals for conserving the artifacts, because the Israeli occupation has banned their entry into Gaza. As a result, they were forced to look for some primitive alternatives, which required more money, effort and time.

Mrs. Abu Nahla said that the number of students who specialized in archeology in Gaza’s universities has reduced dramatically within the last couple of years because of the lack of sufficient job opportunities. Despite these impediments Mohammed Abu Lehya and Najlaa Abu Nahla have applied for a license for the museum from the Ministry of Tourism and Archaeology, which they hope to receive by 2019.

Abu Lehya and his wife said, “Together we can face any challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky.’’ Also, they hope their museum will be the first spark that leads to a cultural revolution in the Gaza Strip. They also confirm that what makes their museum special is that everybody can visit it and they don’t need to pay a penny.