These photos show Palestinian life in the shadow of occupation

“At this moment, I felt that the last thing we need is more images of bloodshed, violence and dead Palestinians,” says Dalia Al-Dujaili, the curator of Ard: To Belong to Land, a new exhibition of Palestinian photography at Milan’s Galleria Gola. While she believes it’s important to pay close attention to the genocide still unfolding in Gaza, she wanted the exhibition to “rehumanise a dehumanised people” by showcasing quieter and gentler scenes of everyday life.

Focused on the occupied West Bank, the exhibition features contributions from some of the most renowned Palestinian photographers working today, including Adam Rouhana, Maen Hammad, Jenna Masoud, Samar Hazboun, Kholood Eid, Dazed MENA cover star Sakir Khader, Zach Hussein, and Dean Majd (who earlier this year shot Dazed’s cover story with activist Mahmoud Khalil), along with poetry from Gaza-based writer Yahya Al Hamarna. Al-Dujaili didn’t give the photographers a specific brief, but when they submitted their work, she realised that it was all in some way concerned with the land, portraying natural elements, animals and olive trees alongside human subjects. Having a deep interest in ecology, wildlife and the climate herself (ideas she explored in her 2025 book Albion, Babylon), she decided to centre the exhibition around land – a theme which, for obvious reasons, has a deep resonance in Palestinian culture. 

The title is drawn from a phrase that Al-Dujaili saw circulating online during the Gaza genocide. “Palestinians and indigenous people around the world will describe themselves as belonging to the land, while occupiers describe the land as belonging to them and see it as an object to control. In the West Bank, you see that in settlers razing olive trees and killing livestock,” she says. Due to a multi-generational process of displacement from the late 19th century onwards, Palestinians are one of the world’s largest diasporas or refugee populations. There are no entry points to Palestine which aren’t controlled by Israel, and for those living abroad, it is at best challenging and at worst impossible to visit; if the Israeli authorities turn you away at the border, your chances of overturning this decision are close to zero.

This all adds a layer of pathos and complexity to the exhibition’s themes. “A lot of Palestinians have never even set foot on their homeland, yet they’re still connected and aware of their relationship with it; it’s still so real, it lives in their minds and hearts,” Al-Dujaili says. While the images collected in the show were all taken in Palestine, many of the photographers have grown up elsewhere. In their photos, she says, we can see a “very tender, very loving” care and attention.

It is a timely moment to launch an exhibition focused on the West Bank, where conditions have dramatically worsened since the genocide began and escalated even further following the launch of Trump’s “peace plan” in September. While the West Bank has so far escaped the level of mass slaughter inflicted on Gaza, its inhabitants live under a brutal military regime, where they are subjected to routine daily humiliations, army raids, the destruction of their property, imprisonment without trial, and rising violence from settlers who – despite the efforts of Israel’s more liberal apologists to portray them as a rogue faction or a handful of bad apples – are armed, funded and supported by the Israeli government.

This is different to Gaza, but it’s hardly a subtler form of oppression: according to the UN, 1000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023 and between 30,000 and 40,000 forcibly displaced. Whether they are settlers or soldiers, it’s rare for Israeli perpetrators of violence to face justice. Yino Levy, a notoriously violent figure who earlier this year shot dead No Other Land co-director Awdah Hathaleen, was released after just three days of house arrest and has since faced no other legal repercussions.  

Occasionally, the Israeli government will be compelled to act: a settler who assaulted a 52-year-old Palestinian woman in October, clubbing her in the head multiple times as she harvested olives and leaving her with a brain injury, was recently charged with terrorism offences. But this only happened due to video evidence – too incontrovertible to be denied and downplayed – captured by American journalist Jasper Nathaniel and the unusually intense international backlash which followed. Without that kind of pressure, most Israelis who murder or assault Palestinians enjoy near total impunity.

While Al-Dujaili chose to avoid direct depictions of violence, the brutality of the occupation is still present in the exhibition, just as it’s inescapable in the lives of Palestinians. Based in Nablus, Sakir Khader often photographs the Jenin refugee camp, which is one of the world’s largest – effectively a city in itself. “Jenin is constantly raided, and there are almost daily killings of boys and young men. Sakir captures these atrocities – he has a photo in the show of a young man living with a massive indentation in his skull,” says Al-Dujaili. 

In a photograph by Adam Rouhana, two young boys cycle through the frame, a joyful scene which is complicated – if not diminished – by the apartheid wall looming behind them. Maen Hammad, most well-known for documenting the West Bank’s skateboarding scene, has spent the last year photographing communities as they gather to welcome home Palestinian men who have been released from prison, many of whom have been unlawfully detained for years – in some cases since childhood – without a trial or even being accused of a crime. In one of Hammad’s works in the exhibition, taken following a hostage exchange earlier this year, a group of men kiss an older man who has just been released. “What these photographers capture so well is that despite [the reality of the occupation],  Palestinians continue to find ways to be joyful, to live beautifully, to find dignity in their lives and humanity within themselves,” Al-Dujaili explains.

Al Hamarna, an author who has just published his first collection of poetry, My Voice Cannot Be Bombed, wrote a poem in English specifically for the exhibition. “[It depicts] images of plants and fanua and flora growing through the barren landscape, despite the destruction and death,” says Al-Dujaili. “This is symbolic of Palestinian steadfastness and resoluteness, to continue to be hopeful and to continue living.”

Currently living in Gaza, Al Hamarna has been offered a scholarship at a university in Ireland, which he will only be able to accept if he raises enough money to pay for his visa. Al-Dujaili is trying to help with these costs by selling artworks tied to the show, and a friend of hers has organised a GoFundMe. “I’d like to remind people that while the work in this show is beautiful and important, what’s more important is helping people on the ground in a material way,” she says. “I think a lot of people lately feel their efforts are futile and that nothing makes a difference, but that’s not true. Whether it’s sharing resources, signing petitions or donating money, it all helps.”

Ard: To Belong to Land runs at Galleria Gola, Milan, until 30 December 2025.