Presented until December 20 at the McGill Islamic Studies Library, the installation Arab Exhibitions in Mandate Jerusalem: Resurgent Nahda evokes the cultural and political roots of Palestine. The exhibition invites the public to discover an often unknown facet of the history of the Palestinian people.
Friday morning, 11 a.m. The atmosphere at the McGill Islamic Studies Library is studious. Some students are engrossed in their reading. The wooden floor creaks softly under our feet, as we discover the first space of the exhibition, accompanied by Dyala Hamzah and Nyla Matuk, founders of the organization Maison Palestine, which is organizing the exhibition.
Nyla, a writer with a fine face and dark skin, exudes great calm and softness. At her side, Dyala, a historian with short, white hair, is warm and has a keen eye. Both are of Palestinian origin. Together, they play the role of guides for this unique exhibition. Their elaborate vocabulary testifies to their expertise and passion for the subject.
“A period where everything is still possible”
“This exhibition brings the history of Palestine back to life,” Dyala begins with a discreet smile. It shows frescoes, Arabic art illustrations and photographs that evoke the period of colonial resistance against the British and Zionists**, between the major Palestinian revolts of 1929 and 1936.
She and Nyla collaborated closely with the historian and architect Nadi Abusaada, the original designer of the exhibition at the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre in Ramallah, Palestine. Bringing this project to Montreal represents for them an act of preserving Palestinian heritage, despite the logistical challenges that such an initiative involves. “Export restrictions affecting Palestinian territories forced Nadi to recreate the exhibition using reproductions and visual archives. So only prints are on display,” explains Dyala. “The original exhibition included artifacts, jewelry, paintings, printed matter, and a lot of other things that we couldn't import for this exhibition,” adds Nyla. Since October 7, 2023, in fact, Israel has been preventing people and goods from leaving Gaza.
The installation highlights the two major exhibitions of 1933 and 1934, key moments when Palestinians, then under British mandate, showcased their culture and know-how in a spirit of collective pride. “They were a kind of trade show,” says Nyla.
“These events,” Dyala continues, “attracted visitors from across the region. Industrial, craft and artistic products were presented. Here you will see all the Arab countries that participated in the exhibition,” the historian explains in front of an interactive television.
A central sign recalls that these events took place in the midst of a confrontation with the Zionists and the British: despite colonial pressure, the organizers succeeded in arousing a Nahda, a real “rebirth”.
“[There was then] an economic force to counter the development of the Palestinian economy,” Dyala continues. An reference to the policies put in place by the Zionist movement — especially the Histadrout*** — which, in the 1920s, prohibited the use of Palestinian labour. The aim was to consolidate a separate economy.
At the same time, the historian proudly declares: “And finally, this exhibition shows that, despite this hostile deployment to the local economy, there is an economic strength in Palestinian society that can be seen in the organization of these two fairs of 1933 and 1934.”
“It was an intense moment of socio-cultural renewal,” says Nyla. "Despite the threat of Zionist colonization, Palestinians remained hopeful.”
Looking back on a time when anything was still possible seemed essential to these two women at a time when Palestinian territories are constantly being bombed. “There was this faith in the future, and we still believe in it today, despite everything and despite the current genocide,” adds Dyala.
Palace Hotel: a struggle for Palestinian identity
As we make our way to the second exhibition hall, Dyala continues: “This exhibition also explores the history of Jerusalem's architecture.”
In a rounded room, made entirely of solid wood, students linger around a central table, while banners that adorn the walls tell the story of the Palace Hotel, which hosted the two exhibitions in 1933 and 1934.
Built in 1929 under the direction of the Supreme Muslim Council and Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini, the Palace Hotel was designed to strengthen the Arab presence in Jerusalem. It symbolized a form of resistance, the Palestinian response to the King David Hotel, the quintessential emblem of British influence.
“Both exhibitions and the Palace Hotel itself were meant to show Arab populations around the world what they had to offer on the global market at the time,” Nyla said. "The Palestinians were then trying to build their own economy, which was in decline, and continues to be so today, because of what colonialism created.”
Very quickly, the hotel itself became “a symbol of colonization par excellence” as underlined by a panel in the exhibition. Indeed, the poor management of the hotel and its finances by the Supreme Muslim Council led to its rental and purchase by the British administration. In 1936, the building was chosen to house the offices of the Peel Commission, tasked with investigating the Great Palestinian Revolt, an uprising against British policies supporting Zionist colonization. It was also at the Palace Hotel that the first lines of the plan to partition Palestine in 1937 were drawn.
“The exhibition also shows how colonialism shaped the commercial and cultural environment of the time,” says Nyla.
Today, the establishment is owned by the Waldorf Astoria chain, which has completely transformed the interior, marking a symbolic break with its past and erasing part of its history.
Broadcast the Palestinian story.
With this exhibition, Dyala and Nyla present a different perspective on Palestinian identity. They evoke speeches that tend to deny the very existence of a Palestinian people, reducing them “to Bedouins”, mentions Dyala.
“This vision of things completely ignores the fact that we are talking about a very connected, urban population that has always played a central role in the Arab world,” says the historian. For her, the exhibition is a way to restore a more complete and authentic image of Palestinians during a period when Arab nationalism was in full swing. “We see an extremely tight network of Arabs, [a people] mobile in the region, whose identities are singular and general. There is an Arabity, but there are also very local identities. We are Palestinian, we are Palestinian Arabs and the Palestinians are convinced to bring this Arab revival to a time when it is less significant elsewhere.”, she says.
Nyla, for her part, sees the exhibition as an act of resistance to the dominant media discourse. “[It] presents the facts, but they are dangerous for the current discourse that has been established as a kind of defamation campaign against Palestine and Palestinians.”
According to her, this vision is supported by some Quebec university institutions, which “prefer to secure this discourse, [even if it means] limiting access to alternative discourses.”
“They want to prevent people from being educated on this subject,” she says exasperatedly, referring to numerous denials of exposure. "It's fascinating... it's fascinating and horrifying at the same time.”
Palestine at McGill
In fact, organizing such an exhibition was not without pitfalls, the two women tell us. “It was extremely difficult to find a place to host our project. We knocked on a dozen doors and were told no everywhere. In the end, the University of Montreal was thrilled by the idea,” says Dyala.
However, while the launch was scheduled between January and March 2024, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences cancelled the event, citing security reasons. “We were shocked to learn of this decision. For us, these safety justifications are extremely vague,” she comments with annoyance. The organizers were offered to postpone the exhibition to June, with no guarantee. An unacceptable compromise for Dyala: “In June, the campuses were empty; therefore, that would have been useless.”
Contacted on this subject, the University of Montreal explains that the decision to postpone the event was madedue to tensions in Montreal at the time. “Remember the fall of 2023, when demonstrations, bomb cocktails and other hateful graffiti on the walls of Jewish schools (among others) were the lot of Montreal. At UdeM, we were not victims of these events, but the context was very volatile.”
According to spokesperson Geneviève O'Meara, it was not possible to ensure the safety of the premises for an exhibition that was supposed to last three months. She points out that, despite this, conferences and activities related to tensions in the Middle East were able to take place on campus during the year.
In the end, it was at the Islamic Studies Library at McGill University that the exhibition found refuge. “We did not plan to exhibit in a library, and obviously, the fact that it is at the Islamic Studies Library in a way accentuates the niche side of the exhibition, perhaps isolates it more, but we are extremely happy to have had the opportunity to show it for four months,” adds Dyala with a slight smile.
“We took photos of all the available spaces and sent them to Nadi Abusaada,” Dyala adds. She and Nyla collaborated remotely with Nadi to best adapt the library spaces, which were not intended to host this type of event. “The installation was acrobatic, and even epic,” she continues, letting out a chuckle.
For Dyala and Nyla, exhibiting on the McGill campus has particular meaning. “It's ironic to do so on a campus that has often exerted some violence against the Palestinian solidarity movement,” says Dyala. “Security agents are everywhere, are even watching some students ”, adds Nyla. In particular, she refers to the tense atmosphere that reigned on campus during 2024.
As I pass through the main hall of the exhibition, I see the exhibition's guest book open on a table. Messages from visitors abound, and all converge on a simple formula: “Well done.”
To go further
Palestine House is a non-profit organization (NPO) founded in January 2023 by Nyla Matuk and Dyala Hamzah, both of Palestinian origin. The objective of this NPO is to create a permanent space “dedicated to the culture, history and future of Palestine”, explain the two women to us. Nyla and Dyala want to organize in Montreal “more than one-off events, such as festivals or occasional exhibitions, which, although valuable, lack sustainability”. Their objective is to create a “house” for Palestine in the public space, which would be a library.
To learn more
Nadi Abusaada, The Palace Hotel in Jerusalem: History beyond Memory
To understand what pro-Palestinian students are going through at McGill, we recommend the following article: Tense return to McGill.
* Mandatory Palestine: In 1922, Palestine was placed under British mandate by the League of Nations, along with other former Ottoman territories. Unlike the latter, which would become independent states, Palestine was intended to host a "national home for the Jewish people", in accordance with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British Mandate ended in 1948 with the creation of the State of Israel, leading to the division of Palestine and major geopolitical upheavals in the region, including the Arab-Israeli War of 1948–49.
** Zionism is a political movement that emerged in the late 19th century that aimed to create a homeland for the Jewish people, primarily to protect them from growing anti-Semitism in Europe. In 1897, at the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, Theodor Herzl proposed in his manifesto, The Jewish State, a program for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, considered the “Promised Land” in Jewish tradition. This movement encouraged Jewish immigration to Palestine, leading to an increase in the Jewish population in the early 20th century, but also to mass displacement and massacres of the Arab population already present in the territory.
*** The Histadrut, founded in 1920, is the trade union center of Jewish workers in Palestine, then under British mandate. It played a role in the economic and social development of the Zionist movement and in the construction of the Jewish economy in Palestine, and then in Israel after 1948. The Histadrut actively promoted “Jewish labour” (Avoda Ivrit in Hebrew), a policy aimed at employing only Jewish workers to develop a self-sufficient economy.