Murals of Solidarity Between Native American and Palestinian Communities
In the West Bank, a new collaborative effort puts murals of solidarity between Palestinians and Native Americans on view.
Bethlehem, Palestine — A new series of murals at the entrance to Aida refugee camp is bringing the solidarity between Native American and Palestinian communities into public view.
Six colorful murals depicting parallels between the Palestinian and Native American experiences now face the camp, painted along a wall at the shuttered InterContinental Hotel, which once housed tourists visiting Bethlehem.
The series is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Palestinian Artists Consortium, the Lajee Center, a grassroots organization in Aida camp, and Native American artist Danielle SeeWalker.
SeeWalker and consortium founder Ahmed Hmeedat began developing the concept in 2024.
“The journey began after I was canceled from a residency in the Town of Vail, Colorado, because of an artwork I created titled ‘G is for Genocide,’” said SeeWalker. “Through that experience, I connected with the founder of the Palestinian Artists Consortium, Ahmed Hmeedat, based in the West Bank. What began as a conversation grew into a friendship and eventually into a shared vision: to create murals along a 200-foot wall in Palestine.”
Four Palestinian artists from across the West Bank met virtually with SeeWalker to develop the concept for Walls of Resilience.
The site carries its own meaning. Reviving the walls of a closed hotel points to the collapse of tourism in the West Bank, where the number of tourists in Bethlehem declined by 88.9% between 2020 and 2024, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in The World Tourism Day, issued jointly with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on September 26, 2024. Many hotels in Bethlehem alone have gone out of business amid the ongoing war and Israeli measures that have weakened the Palestinian economy.
On the opposite side of the wall runs a road beside a graveyard, an unsettling stretch to pass at night. A few meters away, an Israeli military tower fitted with sophisticated surveillance equipment looms over the scene. This part of the camp has seen many confrontations with the Israeli army.
On the morning of April 22, Alaa Albaba, Ahmed Hmeedat, Haya Kaabneh, and Mohammad Al-Raee, all Palestinian visual artists from refugee camps across the West Bank, gathered and began work on the wall.
Working from dawn to dusk over nearly four days, they brought a fresh display of solidarity between communities resisting colonialism to the entrance of Aida camp.
SeeWalker was originally due to arrive in April, but her flight was canceled because of the ongoing war in the region. She eventually joined them on June 28.
“I am very happy with the results. It is the first time in years we have had large, 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 murals now bring a sense of calm and interconnectedness to the site.
“One of the most common questions from bystanders was, ‘Why Native Americans?’” said Hmeedat. “We have a lot of similarities and common ground with Native Americans as people who live under colonization.”
“While I came to Palestine to paint, what I’ll carry home with me are the relationships,” said SeeWalker. “I sat with artists, families, and children living under the daily reality of occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. I’m still processing everything I experienced and witnessed, but one truth has become undeniable: art is medicine. It reminds us that our stories matter, that our grief is witnessed, and that solidarity is not symbolic but is something we build together, one conversation, one brushstroke, one relationship at a time.”
A mural by the artist Danielle SeeWalker, Aida Camp, 2026
In this mural, SeeWalker repaints the portrait that appears in her painting “G is for Genocide,” the work behind the cancellation of her residency in Vail, Colorado. Facing it, she adds a second portrait of a Native American woman. The opposing triangles on the right side are a Native American motif known as “as above is below,” which SeeWalker has tattooed on her arm. The colored lines across each portrait reflect the loss each community carries after being expelled from its homeland. Native Americans searching for a new refuge sometimes lost their way, retraced their route, and settled somewhere else. Palestinians, after the Nakba in 1948, likewise went astray looking for refuge before settling in camps in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the suburbs of Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
The parallel extends to the numbers: roughly 575 Native American tribes are federally recognized in the United States, while historians and scholars count around 530 Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948.
By the artist Alaa Albaba, Aida Camp, 2026
Alaa Albaba, a painter, muralist, and member of the Palestinian Artists Consortium from Al-Amari refugee camp, placed his fish motifs front and center. The fish symbolize the two peoples. They emerge from a tin resting atop a Native American dreamcatcher, backdropped by the apartheid wall.
By the artist Haya Kaabneh, Aida Camp, 2026
Haya Kaabneh, a Palestinian visual artist and consortium member who lives in Jericho, depicts the Palestinian sunbird beside the cardinal, a bird dear to Native American peoples.
Centered on a tree branch that spans the length of the mural and surrounded by flowers, Kaabneh’s work highlights the wild beauty of both landscapes.
The mural gives space to something rarely addressed in discussions of existential conflict: the environmental dimension bound to the land. The birds, trees, and wildflowers form an essential part of the existence of Native American and Palestinian peoples. A bird, too, possesses the right to life, and a right to be described as Palestinian, as a wildflower is.
“I find that expression through other living beings that share the earth with us is both necessary and imperative,” said 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.
By the artist Mohammad Al-Raee, Aida Camp, 2026
Mohammad Al-Raee, a visual artist and muralist from Al-Aroub refugee camp, sets two leaders side by side. On the right, the chief of a Native American tribe looks defiantly toward the horizon. On the left, Al-Mulatham (a Palestinian masked activist), the masked figure of the Palestinian fighter, gazes directly at the viewer. Backed by their homelands and rooted together by the stump of an ancient olive tree, the two leaders hold their heads high as their resistance continues into new generations.
A mural by the artist Ahmed Hmeedat, Aida Camp, 2026
Ahmed Hmeedat, a visual artist, teaching artist, and founder of the Palestinian Artists Consortium, is from Bethlehem. His mural shows two women looking out toward their homelands.
“If we look closely at the feather crown placed on the head of the Native American woman, we notice that some of the feathers are missing,” said Hmeedat. The missing feathers stand for colonial efforts to strip Native peoples of their heritage and culture. The feathers that remain outnumber those that are gone, a deliberate signal that, despite those efforts, the steadfastness and resistance of Native peoples will prevail.
The murals were funded by a contribution from the Palestinian-American and Native American communities in the United States and carried out under the supervision of the Lajee Center in collaboration with the Palestinian Artists Consortium.
A mural by the children of Aida refugee camp, supervised by artists Mohammad Al-Raee and Danielle SeeWalker, Aida Camp, 2026
The idea for this mural was generated by children from Aida Camp and then developed and polished with the guidance of artists Mohammad Al-Raee and Danielle SeeWalker.
The children who attend Al-Raee’s beginner art classes were introduced to the themes of the murals and invited to contribute ideas for the “Kids’ Mural.” Their ideas were combined into a series of sketches that eventually evolved into the mural painted on the wall. The mural depicts maps of the United States, illustrating the dramatic reduction of Native homelands over time and the reservation lands where many Tribal Nations remain today. The map of historical Palestine resembles an archipelago of islands due to the contentious colonization and stealing of the land. Between the two maps, the children painted a combination of a dreamcatcher and the motif of a fishing net, inspired by the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh. The composition is surrounded by Native American feathers and Palestinian olive-branch leaves, bringing together symbols from both cultures.
All of these murals have recently been reproduced as high-quality woodcut prints and signed by the artists. Each print measures 70 × 40 cm (27.6 × 15.7 inches). The prints will be made available for purchase for those interested in owning a piece of this collaborative project. Each artist has signed a limited-edition series of 50 prints: 25 in black and white and 25 in color.
A link to order the prints will be available soon.
Artist & Advocate · Denver, Colorado
Danielle SeeWalker is a Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta artist and citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. An award-winning fine artist, muralist, writer, and advocate, she is based in Denver, Colorado. Through her multidisciplinary practice, SeeWalker partners with museums, galleries, cultural institutions, and communities across the United States and internationally to create work that sparks dialogue, challenges historical narratives, and celebrates the resilience and vitality of Indigenous peoples.
Working across painting, mixed media, public art, and installation, SeeWalker often incorporates traditional Native materials, symbolism, and storytelling with contemporary artistic approaches. Her work is rooted in her identity as a Lakȟóta wíŋyaŋ (woman) and reflects her commitment to uplifting Native American voices while advocating for Indigenous peoples around the world. By weaving together history, identity, and lived experience, she invites audiences to engage with the complexities of the past while envisioning a more honest and equitable future.
Artist & Founder, Palestinian Artists Consortium · Bethlehem
Ahmed Hmeedat is an artist from Bethlehem, Palestine. In 2022 he founded the Palestinian Artists Consortium, the only online platform that promotes the work of Palestinian artists and empowers them to navigate the global art market. He holds a BA in international law from Al-Quds Bard College in East Jerusalem and an LL.M. in American legal systems from Syracuse University College of Law.
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, featured some of his artwork. Hmeedat 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.
Visual Community Artist & Teaching Artist · Al-Amari Refugee Camp
Albaba, born in 1984 in Jerusalem, is a distinguished visual community artist and a teaching artist. In 2015 he completed a Bachelor of Arts at the International Academy of Art Palestine, a pursuit he undertook from 2010 to 2015 through a scholarship awarded by KHiO University in Norway.
He also trained at the Visual Arts Forum in Ramallah from 2008 to 2010, and in 2011 founded the ON THE WALL studio, “Almarsam,” in Al-Amari refugee camp.
Albaba has taken part in artistic residencies inside and outside Palestine, including one in Beirut focused on the Borj Al Shamali refugee camp and the Alhola massacre, where he produced sketches and murals rooted in the real-life stories of the camp.
Multidisciplinary Artist & Muralist · Al-Aroub Refugee Camp
Mohammad Al-Raee 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.
He holds 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.
Visual Artist · Jericho
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, and the Museum of the Palestinian People (USA), among others. In 2019, Kaabneh launched her first solo exhibition, in collaboration with the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem. Working primarily in watercolor 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.
As a self-taught artist, I strive to capture the ongoing reality of the Nakba for Palestinians and bring attention to the plight of refugees through my art. I had the privilege of contributing to the establishment of the Museum of the Palestinian People in Washington D.C., and my work has been featured in Symposeum Magazine. As an educator at Al-Quds Bard College in East Jerusalem, I teach in the Human Rights and International Law Program. My commitment to social justice and inspiring the next generation fuels my pursuits.
