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Enterعربي

Charting the culture of giving in the Arab region

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عربي
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2024

Present

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After October 7th

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Omar Al-Qattan

Abdel Mohsin Al-Qattan dedicated his life to the betterment of his beloved Palestine, which during his lifetime suffered so many chapters of violence and turmoil.  In 2025, the nation is once again on its knees after a terror attack by Hamas triggered 15 months of a genocidal Israeli bombing campaign that has turned Gaza to dust and claimed nearly 50,000 Palestinian lives.

Despite losing several staff members and children, the foundation’s Cultural Center in Gaza, which closed its doors when the Israeli airstrikes began, re-opened as a temporary shelter for displaced families. A year into the war, it was bombed, and while the structure still stands, the foundation says it believes a lot of its contents have been destroyed or stolen.

Yet, despite these extenuating circumstances, the foundation’s work continues in Gaza and as of late 2024, it had provided 70 small grants to artists and educators stuck in the besieged territory to enable them to offer lessons and cultural programming for children.

Executive director Fida Touma says that within Gaza, the focus is on artists and children, with the foundation providing mental health and psychosocial support to young people in evacuation centres through music, storytelling, art exercises and theatre. 

In the West Bank meanwhile, the foundation has continued its artist in residency programme, and is offering support to teachers and educators, although mostly online due to roadblocks and movement restrictions enforced by Israel.

The Al Al-Qattan Cultural Centre in Ramallah closed briefly, but re-opened in ^^ and is offering a limited programme of lectures, film screenings, and other public events.

At the time of writing, applications for the Spaces project and the 2025 First Book Grant. The former providing practice space to Palestinian musicians in the West Bank, and the later to support new writing, both expressions more vital than ever at this moment in Palestine’s history.

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Grassroots grants to Gazan artists

Mahdi Karira (see video below) is one of the Gazan artists who has received funding from the foundation. He has been using scrap materials to make his marionettes which he then performs with for children in displacement camps across Gaza.

“The first puppet I made, my daughter named “Harbi” (War Puppet) because of the war,” he said. “Making puppets is challenging with no electricity. Simple tasks like drilling holes or connecting parts became extremely difficult. I had to carve and manually screw things in. My hands bear the marks—burns from hot glue, cuts from saws, plastic melted onto my fingers.”

Getting to performances is also a struggle, he says, but he has no shortage of audiences as people continue to live crammed into temporary shelters and he the reaction he receives more than justifies his efforts.

“Theater isn’t just about bringing people together—it brings us together,” Karira says. “One thing I learned during this war is how much it means for a child to hold a puppet after a show. I’ve seen photos of children whispering to the puppets, and I wish I knew what they were saying. These moments bring me the greatest happiness.

Meanwhile, at the Al-Fakhour School, which has become an accommodation in Jabalia Refugee Camp in the northern Gaza Strip, performing arts trainer Ahmad Tafesh has been teaching children how to sing songs and play rhythms with simple tools, such as wooden objects and empty food utensils.

Tafesh focuses on group singing to create harmony between participants. This style of collaborative performance aims to strengthen bonds between displaced children from different areas and creating a sense of support and strength.

Another grantee in Khan Younis is visual artist Alaa Shahwan, who is working with displaced children, encouraging them to use drawing to express their feelings about the war. Drawing on the rubble of destroyed homes, some children depict themselves as doctors treating injured persons, while others draw policemen who can defend their homeland. 

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      Mahdi Karira is one artist who has received funding from the foundation. He has been using scrap materials to make his marionettes which he then performs with for children in displacement camps across Gaza.

      “Things are worse than they have ever been and the urgency to help is also more intense, not just in Palestine but the whole region, Lebanon, Syria, and even Egypt,” says Omar Al-Qattan, who in late 2024 handed the chair of the board to his sister Najwa, while he focuses on the family’s business interests.

      “Everything feels 10 to 20 times more challenging than when we started out, even in the West Bank,” he adds. “The question we have to ask ourselves now, is what can we do? Our model of being a catalyst and hoping that other people understand and emulate is not feasible now.”

      Omar feels strongly – as his father did – that it is important to use arts and culture to bring Palestinians together.

      “We need to create conversations within our society to reflect on this catastrophe – not just geo-politically – but in terms of why did we event allow this to happen to our society? We have to find ways to ask these tough questions. It’s not easy,” he explains.

      “Everybody is extremely defensive at the moment, but as a foundation, we want to leverage our legitimacy to host important conversations with artists and intellectuals. I hope it’s possible. People are very raw. It will provoke reactions. But we need to re-build together.”

      For Mahmoud Abu Hashhash, the director of Culture and Education at the AM Qattan Foundation, who has steered teams through repeated cycles of violence and disruption, it is also a moment of reckoning. 

      “I think we are now standing in a very critical moment and where we are witnessing a very sharp transformation,” he says. “I think we as a sector need to collectively reshape our visions and programmes to meet the challenge before us and fulfil future needs.”

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