#lydda

SMAIL SHAMMOUT, Palestine 

إسماعيل شموط‏‏، ‏‏فلسطين

Here Sat My Father/ هنا كان أبي, 1957

Medium: Oil on canvas

86 x 55.5 cm

Ismail Shammout's painting, Here Sat my Father, 1957 ,هنا كان أبي, depicts a child seemingly orphaned by the Israeli military attacks on Palestine. The emaciated child, barefoot with slumped shoulders, sits next to a blood- stained broken stool/kursi. He stares morosely at the kursi where his father used to sit, his own little body streaked with blood.

The painting's somber color palette, characterized by dark reds and ochre tones, heightens the oppressiveness of wartime destruction. Similarly, the desolate background of bombarded houses and burnt trees intensifies the sense of despair. The theme of parental loss is central to this piece, symbol- ized here by the three-legged kursi, where its fourth leg had been broken, and the roofless house. Both elements suggest the child's loss of protection and stability, while the bright white of his shirt emphasizes his innocence amidst all the destruction.

Here Sat my Father exemplifies Shammout’s early painting style, particularly evident in his first critically acclaimed work, Where To?, 1953, which had come to be known as the symbol of the Palestinian cause. His works during this period favored an expressive figurative style, where the focus, as seen in this painting, was on emotional intensity, bold brushwork, subjective representation, as well as symbolism and metaphor. His earlier works, up until the early 1960s, often revolved around themes of displacement and suffering in relation to the 1948 Nakba and his personal experience of the Lydda Death March. The coming decades, especially between the 1960s and 1970s, would see a general shift by the artist to a more vibrant palette that prioritizes resistance in the face of oppression.

1,700-Year-Old Coin Hoard Reveals Details About 4th-Century Jewish Uprising

Many of the silver and bronze coins were minted during the Gallus Revolt during the Roman era.

A hoard of 1,700-year-old coins found in Israel provides new evidence about the last known Jewish revolt against Roman rule.

Archaeologists found the hidden coins while conducting excavations inside the remains of a newly discovered public building dating to the Late Roman-Early Byzantine period in Lod (also known as Lydda), a city in what is now central Israel that the Romans renamed "Diospolis," according to a statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

Despite the building having "suffered violent destruction" at the time of the revolt, its surviving foundation protected 94 silver and bronze coins dating to between A.D. 221 and 354. Whoever's stash it was, they likely "deliberately placed" it inside the building in hopes of returning to collect it when the situation calmed down, according to the statement.

"This is essentially an emergency hoard, meaning a hoard that people hide in anticipation of a catastrophic event," Mor Viezel, an excavator with the IAA, said in a translated video.

Many of the coins were struck during the Gallus Revolt (A.D. 351 to 354), a tumultuous time when Jews rebelled against the rule of Flavius Claudius Constantius Gallus, the half-nephew of Constantine the Great (the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity) and ruler of the Roman Empire's eastern provinces at the time. Lod was just one of several Jewish communities that revolted as the Romans "burned and destroyed" several cities' buildings, according to the video.

Other cities that were attacked include Tiberias and Sepphoris, Viezel added. By the time of the Gallus Revolt, Jews in Judaea had been revolting against Roman rule for hundreds of years. During the First Jewish-Roman War (A.D. 66 to 70), the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, and later during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (A.D. 132 to 135), the Romans crushed the Jewish resistance that was fighting for an independent state.

"This building, destroyed down to its very foundation, is a clear indication that the revolt was forcefully put down with violence and cruelty, and was not simply a local uprising event as some earlier studies contended," IAA excavator Shahar Krispin and Viezel said in the statement. "From Talmudic writings we know that Lod was a most significant [Jewish] center in the aftermath of the Second Temple's destruction in Jerusalem."

In addition to the coins, researchers found "impressive stone and marble artifacts" containing Greek, Hebrew and Latin inscriptions. One item, which is currently being studied further, mentions the name of "a Jewish man from a priestly family."

However, it's unclear how Jews used the building before it was destroyed in the revolt. "It is difficult to determine if this magnificent building served as [a] synagogue, study hall, meeting hall of the elders or all three of these functions as one," Joshua Schwartz, a professor and chair of the IAA, said in the statement.

The findings will be presented at the Central Israel Region Archaeological Conference in Tel Aviv on June 20.

By Jennifer Nalewicki.

Artists and Scholars Sound Alarm on Far-Right Israeli Extremists in Lydda!

Over a thousand, including scholars Judith Butler and Angela Davis, have signed a statement in solidarity with the Palestinian city of Lydda in the wake of mounting racist violence.

Over 1,000 cultural figures have signed a statement in solidarity with the community of Lydda, a Palestinian city south of Tel Aviv increasingly threatened by racist Israeli extremists. Artists Molly Crabapple and Rehab Nazzal; scholars Judith Butler and Angela Davis; and authors Rachel Kushner and Ottessa Moshfegh are among those backing the petition’s demands: that the United Nations establish a peace-keeping force to protect the Indigenous Palestinian community in Israel and launch an investigation into Israeli apartheid.

The letter echoes similar calls by global organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which issued an appeal on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli war crimes, including recent bombings of the al-Shati refugee camp and a major media tower in Gaza.

Genocide of Palestinians: Ethnic cleansing of Lydda and Ramle: