Art Auction
to benefit Palestinian refugees facing deportation from Canada

There are currently over 100 Palestinian refugees in Montreal, Canada, currently under threat of deportation. These stateless refugees have self-organized as the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees, calling upon Citizenship & Immigration Canada to stop the deportations and to regularize the status of the Palestinian refugees in Canada.

These stateless Palestinian refugees, struggling against discrimination and deportation, need our support! Each refugee's claim requires at least $500 to begin the legal process of achieving refugee status in Canada. The threat against these refugees is dire - a number have been deported, and several further deportations are scheduled to occur in the next days - deportations to the illegal and deadly military occupation which plagues daily life throughout Occupied Palestine and to the violence, poverty and persecution, which defines daily life in the Palestinian refugee camps throughout Lebanon.

An art auction, featuring works donated by Palestinian and solidarity artists, will be held at the Al-Awda Second International Convention to raise funds to support these refugees' claims. All proceeds will go directly to the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees.

Below is a preview of just some of the artwork which will be sold in a silent auction at the convention beginning the evening of Friday, April 16th.

If you are an artist who can contribute Palestine-related art of any medium, please read this important call.

For more information on Palestinian refugees facing deportation from Canada, please see the document Stateless and Deported [pdf file] recently released by the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees.

Samia Halaby: Samia Halaby is a Palestinian artist born in Quds prior to the nakba. She has taught in American universities for seventeen years ending with ten years at the Yale School of Art. She is the author of "Liberation Art of Palestine." Her work is on display in museums around the world, and she has been featured in numerous one-artist shows internationally. See more of her work at www.art.net/samia. For the auction Samia has donated two original paintings, and four computer prints created with art software which she developed.

Susan Fateh: Susan Fateh is known as a printmaker and paper-maker. She has created art-books with her own handmade paper. She has had numerous one-artist shows and is represented in museums. She is of Iranian/Scotish descent and lives now in Italy.

Muhammad Abu Zreik: Muhammad Abu Zreikis is an artist who was born in Palestine but lives in Hittin refugee camp near Amman in Jordan. He has exhibited throughout Jordan. He has written a book on Palestinian art in Arabic. He contributes his time generously to children of the camp arround him and has built a basement under is modest home. In it he created a printing show out of discarded materials where he invites camp children to come and do graphic work. Their printing-press is ingeniously created from the wringers of an old fashioned washing machine, and in place of felt blankets they use discarded bubble wrap. Under his guidance children transform the metal of aluminum soda cans into little bas-relief works.

Shareef Sarhan: Shareef Sarhan is a young Palestinian artist who lives in Ghazze (Gaza city). His work was exhibited at Tribes Gallery in New York and in many shows in Ghazze.

Zahed Harash: Zahed Harash lives and works in the town of Shafa Amer in Al-Jallile (Galellee) under the Israeli government in that part of Palestine occupied in 1948. Harash has been an activist for Palestine for many years and has distinguished himself as a writer on Palestine. His work is published in Al-Ittihad. His work was exhibited in New York at the Williamsburg Art and Historical center.

Amanda Levin: Amanda Levin is an organizer for Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights in Montreal, a student in Urban Studies, and Socioeconomic Development at McGill University , an organizer for CEPAL, The Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees, and Al-Huda. She currently lives and works in Montreal. She is also a makeshift poet and artist.

Palestinian children: The children of refugee camps in Palestine and Lebanon reveal the realities of life under occupation and oppression in these beautiful drawings. Donated from the collection of Samia Halaby.