West Bank arts fest returns for first time since Gaza war, in ‘act of resistance’

Ramallah’s Contemporary Arts Festival, one of the largest in the West Bank, started Monday for the first time since the war in Gaza shut down most Palestinian cultural activities in the territory.

Khaled Aliyan, the festival’s director, told AFP that the festival had returned “after a forced-two-year suspension due to the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip,” referring to the war started by the Hamas terror group with its onslaught of October 7, 2023.

Israel responded with a ground operation that destroyed most of the Strip and killed tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, though Jerusalem has said this is a result of Hamas operating from within densely populated civilian areas, including hospitals and schools. Israel has vehemently rejected Palestinian and international allegations of genocide, saying its goal is to protect its own civilians by toppling the terror group’s rule.

Aliyan said the festival, previously limited to contemporary dance, had expanded to include Palestinian artists from all fields.

Art, theater and film festivals that had previously been held in Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank came to a halt amid escalating violence, Israeli military raids, and attacks by settlers after October 2023.

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Israel conquered the West Bank from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War and has since maintained a military rule there.

“Culture and art historically play an important and distinctive role in our struggle… because they reflect our identity and reinforce our role as a Palestinian society,” Aliyan added.

فيديو- تحت شعار "مكملين".. انطلاق مهرجان رام الله للفنون المعاصرة بتنظيم سرية رام الله الأولى ورعاية إعلامية من صدى نيوز pic.twitter.com/3XQozFX1nX

— SadaNews (@SadaNewsPS) July 6, 2026

The festival began Monday at Ramallah’s Cultural Palace with a showing of Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyyah, a musical play.

Based on an Arabic poem of the same name, the play tells the story of the Banu Hilal tribe, one of the most famous Arab folk epics.

The Khashabi Theater, an acting company based in Haifa, in northern Israel, performed the play for the first time in the West Bank, after touring in Europe.

Ola Hanna attended the opening performance with her family from the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Ramle in central Israel.

She said she hoped Palestinian cultural life would return to what it was before the war in Gaza.

“Without music and joy, for me there is no life,” she said.

The festival will continue until July 16, featuring 48 artists and artistic groups, including dance, theater, circus performances and video art.

The festival will also host the Palestine Arts Forum, bringing together 22 artists, cultural programmers and arts institutions from 15 countries.

Art critic Youssef al-Shayeb told AFP that hosting such a large festival with a diverse program of contemporary performing arts despite the hardships of life in the West Bank was an achievement.

“Simply continuing life is, in itself, an act of resistance,” he asserted, pointing to settler violence, increased checkpoints, and Israeli military operations.