Walls of Resilience: Murals of Solidarity Between American Indigenous Communities and Palestine
In the West Bank, a new collaborative effort puts murals of solidarity between Palestinians and Native Americans on view.
“From Palestine to Standing Rock,” a mural by the artist Ahmed Hmeedat, Aida Camp, 2026.
Photo courtesy of Lajee Center
PALESTINE – In the West Bank, a fresh series of murals is bringing solidarity between Native American communities and Palestinians to light through powerful imagery.
At the former site of the now-closed InterContinental Hotel, once filled with tourists visiting the West Bank, four colorful murals depicting parallels between the Palestinian and Native American experiences now face the Aida refugee camp.
The mural series is part of an ongoing project between the Palestinian-American community, Aida Camp’s grassroots organization, the Lajee Center, and Native American artists.
In 2025, Palestinian Artists Consortium founder Ahmed Hmeedat and a Native American artist started brainstorming a mural project concept together.
Four Palestinian artists from across the West Bank met virtually with the Native American artist to brainstorm the concept of the Walls of Resilience.
With financial support from the Palestinian-American community, the work could begin.
On the morning of April 22nd, Alaa Albaba, Ahmed Hmeedat, Haya Kaabneh, and Mohammad Al-Raee, all Palestinian visual artists from across refugee camps in the West Bank, gathered and began executing the artworks on a 60-meter-long wall.
Painting from dawn to dusk over the course of nearly four days, the artists brought vibrancy and a fresh display of solidarity across communities resisting colonialism to the entrance of the Aida camp.
“I am very happy with the final results. It is the first time in years we have huge well-done murals painted by local artists.” said Lajee Center Director Mohammed Al-Azzah.
“This ongoing artistic endeavor is an eye-opening experience that taught me many things about street art and community art,” said Hmeedat. “I have learned new painting techniques from the participating artists and shared my experience in mural art with everyone.”
The location of the murals has significant meaning. Their revitalization of the walls of a now closed hotel highlights the plight of tourism and visitation in the West Bank, where over 30 hotels and hostels in Bethlehem alone are out of business due to the ongoing war and consistent Israeli measures to weaken the Palestinian economy.
On the opposing side of the wall, a road with a graveyard is seen, an unsettling area to pass through at night. A few meters away, an Israeli military tower equipped with sophisticated surveillance looms over the scene. This area of the camp has witnessed many confrontations with the Israeli army in the past.
The murals now bring a sense of calm, peace, and interconnectedness to the place.
“One of the most asked questions by bystanders was, ‘Why the Native Americans?’” says Hmeedat. “We have a lot of similarities and common ground with the Native Americans as people who live under colonization.”
These murals are just the beginning of an ongoing project that will be implemented in multiple locations in the West Bank in collaboration and solidarity with Native American tribes.
“Between Constraint and Dream,” by the artist Alaa Albaba, Aida Camp, 2026.
Photo courtesy of Lajee Center
Alaa Albaba, a distinguished painter, muralist, and teaching artist from Al-Amari refugee camp placed his fish motifs front and center in this mural. The fish symbolize the two nations. They emerge from a tin resting atop a Native American dreamcatcher, backdropped by the West Bank apartheid wall, which is a visual symbol of the ongoing apartheid.
“The Sun will Rise Again,” by the artist Haya Kaabneh, Aida Camp, 2026.
Photo courtesy of Lajee Center
Haya Kaabneh, a Palestinian visual artist born in 1991 in Jordan and living in Jericho, depicts the Palestinian sunbird next to the cardinal, a bird that is dear to the Native American people.
Centered on a tree branch that spans the length of the mural and surrounded by flowers and roses, Kaabneh’s work highlights the aesthetic wilderness of both communities.
The mural constitutes a visual representation of an aspect that is neither entirely concealed nor fully manifest in contemporary discourse on states of existential conflict. It addresses the environmental dimension intrinsically tied to the land: the birds, trees, and wildflowers that form an essential part of the existence of Indigenous and Palestinian peoples and that are inherently linked to them and to their being. The bird, too, possesses the right to life and the right to be described as a Palestinian bird or a Palestinian wildflower.
“I find that expression through other living beings that share the earth with us is both necessary and imperative,” says Kaabneh
The Palestinian sunbird, the northern cardinal, the Anemone coronaria, and the cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis all embody survival and steadfastness, “sumud” despite all circumstances that would stand in opposition. Also appearing in the mural is the yellow sun, a symbol associated with freedom for Palestinians, embodying the light that comes after darkness, and affirming that the right to life and hope are never lost.
“The Chief,” by the artist Mohammad Al-Raee, Aida Camp, 2026.
Photo courtesy of Lajee Center
Mohammad Al-Raee, a visual artist and muralist from Al-Aroub Refugee Camp, places two leaders in juxtaposition to one another. On the right side, the Chief of a native tribe looks defiantly towards the horizon. On the left-hand side, Al–Mulatham gazes directly at the viewer. Backed by their homelands and rooted together by the stump of a historic olive tree trunk, the two leaders hold their heads high as their resistance continues into new generations.
“From Palestine to Standing Rock,” a mural by the artist Ahmed Hmeedat, Aida Camp, 2026.
Photo courtesy of Lajee Center
Ahmed Hmeedat, a visual artist, teaching artist, and founder of the Palestinian Artist Consortium, who is from Bethlehem, painted this mural of two women looking out towards their homelands.
“If we look closely at the feather crown that is placed on the head of the native girl, we notice that some of the feathers are missing,” said Hmeedat. Ahmed deliberately made the missing feathers a signifier for the presence of colonial efforts that aim to steal the heritage and culture of the native peoples. The number of present feathers is more than the missing ones, and that is also a deliberate indication to reflect that, despite the colonial attempts, the steadfastness and resistance of the natives will prevail.
The murals came into reality by a generous contribution from the Palestinian-American community in the USA and were implemented under the supervision of Lajee Center in collaboration with the Palestinian Artists Consortium platform.
Local Artists:
Ahmed Hmeedat
Ahmed Hmeedat is an artist from Bethlehem, Palestine. He has founded the Palestinian Artists’ Consortium Website in 2022, the only online platform that promotes the work of Palestinian artists and empowers them to navigate the global art market. Ahmed holds a BA degree in International Law from Al-Quds Bard College in East Jerusalem and another LL.M. degree in American Legal System from Syracuse University College of Law in Upstate New York.
He also contributed to establishing the first Palestinian museum in Washington D.C., the Museum of the Palestinian People, in 2019. The opening co-exhibit, “Re-imagining A Future in Palestine” has featured some of Ahmed’s artwork. Ahmed experiments with a variety of media, including watercolors, acrylics, oils, and charcoals as well as different printing techniques such as cyanotype, woodcut print, and silkscreen.
Alaa Al Baba
Born in 1984 in Jerusalem, is a distinguished Visual Community Artist and a Teaching Artist. In 2015, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts at the International Academy of Art Palestine, a pursuit he undertook from 2010 to 2015 through a scholarship awarded by Kio University in Norway.
Additionally, he honed his skills at the Visual Arts Forum in Ramallah from 2008 to 2010. In 2011 Albaba founded the ON THE WALL Studio “Almarsam” in the Al Amari Refugee Camp. Throughout his career, Albaba has been actively involved in various artistic residencies both within and outside Palestine. Notably, he participated in a Beirut residency focused on the Borj Al Shamali Refugee Camp and the Alhola massacre. There, he produced impactful sketches and murals rooted in the real-life stories of the camp.
Mohammad Al-Raee
Mohamed Alraee is a multidisciplinary Palestinian artist whose work includes mural art and painting. He grew up in Al-Aroub Refugee Camp, where his artistic identity was shaped and where he developed a strong awareness of the relationship between art, space, and community. He transformed the walls of the camp into his first exhibition space, which later led him to create murals across various Palestinian villages, cities, and refugee camps. He has also participated in group exhibitions and multiple local artist residencies in Palestine.
Mohamed graduated from Park College with a diploma in sonography. Through his practice, he has developed an artistic approach that reflects Palestinian reality by reimagining and depicting nature, people, and daily life as visual expressions of resistance and resilience. His work engages with public art, collective memory, urban space, and the ongoing relationship between art and land.
Haya Kaabneh
Haya Kaabneh is a Palestinian visual artist, born in 1991 in Jordan. She has participated in a number of exhibitions in Palestine and abroad, displaying works in Gallery One, the A.M. Qattan Foundation, the Museum of the Palestinian People (USA), among others. In 2019, Haya launched her first solo exhibition, in collaboration with The Walled Off Hotel, Bethlehem. Primarily using watercolour and acrylic, the artist has produced a large body of work focusing on the plight of Palestinian women as they struggle to change their status quo.
