In the last two years, Palestinian settlers in so-called Australia have launched a relentless mobilisation for Gaza’s freedom, against Gaza’s annihilation. Palestinians have been the beating heart of a historic local antiwar effort, sharing the truth of the Catastrophe, the Nakba, that has befallen Palestine since the forceful establishment of the Zionist settler colony. Vilified by the prime minister, used as political football in the federal election, demonised to keep the arms flow running and scapegoated to restrict protest, Palestinians and those who stand with our calls for justice have been, with a maddening orthodoxy, portrayed as today’s internal enemy. It has been rare to encounter humanising representations of the Palestinian in Australian media, for the Palestinian post October 7 must be the villain in a civilisational narrative that Australia has not only echoed but actively produced.

Tia’s Portraits of Resistance are a radical break from this assault against being a Palestinian settler in Australia. In these drawings we meet Palestinians, young and old, who found themselves holding a historic movement with dedication, tenderness and strong belief in the right to be in one’s truth. People who found in one another a shared desire to voice louder than any broadcaster: We are the people, we won’t be silent, stop the bombing now now now now. You see us here, standing firm, tired, eager and haunted by the fight. We come together to be illustrated and with that act, to illustrate another sense of being the Palestinian protester. Free Palestine.

Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak