Palestinian artist and neighborhood organizer Dorgham Bassam Qreiqea, 28, was killed within the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza Metropolis amid the onslaught of Israeli airstrikes final Tuesday, March 18. Qreiqea, his spouse Aya Qudra, and over 30 different members of the family died within the ruins of their residence because the renewed assaults on Gaza yielded a dying toll of over 400 Palestinians in in the future. Along with his artwork apply, Qreiqea is remembered by pals and advocates for his selflessness and for his devotion to the youngsters of Gaza by native and worldwide support teams.
Born in 1997, Qreiqea was a talented muralist, oil painter, and portrait artist who exhibited in Gaza’s since-destroyed arts areas, together with Shababeek for Up to date Artwork, the place he was meant to have his first solo exhibition in late 2023. He had a studio area at his household residence in Shuja’iyya, which was destroyed by the Israeli navy within the final yr. He and his household had returned to the north throughout the preliminary weeks of the ceasefire settlement.
Qreiqea had at all times targeted on neighborhood empowerment as an artist, working particularly to enhance and enrich the lives of Palestinian kids. Early into the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, he collaborated with different artists in Gaza on a masks portray venture and accompanying public murals to encourage correct COVID-19 precautions and social distancing in marginalized areas of the Gaza Strip. Qreiqea additionally labored as a coordinator for an art-aligned youth group with the Tamer Institute for Neighborhood Training, in response to a submit from the group. He maintained his artwork and advocacy apply within the aftermath of the October 7 assaults, persevering with to serve Gaza’s kids all through displacement, bombings, dying, accidents, and hunger.
Dorgham Qreiqea’s surviving work amid the rubble of his artwork studio hooked up to his household residence within the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza Metropolis (photographs courtesy Jafra Abu Zoulouf)
By means of collaborations with worldwide organizations similar to Hope and Play (United Kingdom), Médecins du Monde (Switzerland), the Hope Basis (Netherlands), and Associazione di Cooperazione e Solidarietà (Italy), Qreiqea hosted artwork workshops, exercise and sport circles, pool events. Final yr, he additionally coordinated movie screenings for kids in displacement camps between Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah metropolis by the Camps Cinema initiative.
“ There was one time that Dorgham and the other coordinators were screening a film in a designated safe zone in Rafah, and Israel started bombing the safe zone,” Cyprus-based Palestinian artist Jafra Abu Zoulouf, who helmed Qreiqea’s GoFundMe marketing campaign and collaborated with him on a joint artwork venture, recounted in a cellphone name with Hyperallergic. “He sent me pictures of them watching a movie and seeing all these bombs around him exploding.”
“ In our conversations he was saying that to be surrounded by children and hearing them laugh, excited to see a movie or eat popcorn, to get into a pool with clean water, or to paint for him, was his only goal,” Abu Zoulouf continued. “Most of their days are just sitting in a tent or outside of their tent and starving, looking for water or looking for food, so this is a way to keep them occupied and entertained and to help them forget about everything that’s happening.”
Dorgham Qreiqea and Jafra Abu Zoulouf co-designed posters concerning the weaponization of humanitarian support in Gaza. (photograph courtesy Jafra Abu Zoulouf)
Abu Zoulouf additionally collaborated with Qreiqea on a research-based artwork venture referred to as “Deadly Aid,” born from Qreiqea’s private observations of the opportunistic capitalization of humanitarian support in determined instances. Abu Zoulouf and Qreiqea developed a collection of informational posters that have been exhibited in Cyprus and shared on the “Deadly Aid” social media account, every specializing in totally different aid-related incidents over the past 17 months.
“I can honestly say that this is the most tragic loss I’ve experienced, and I only knew Dorgham for a year,” Abu Zoulouf informed Hyperallergic.
“We had so many plans of things that we needed to do together that I was sure that he was going to survive the genocide,” she continued. “I didn’t even think about the possibility that he might be killed.”
Abu Zoulouf added that the artist and his spouse, Aya Qudra, have been married on February 28 — lower than a month earlier than the airstrike killed them.
Qreiqea’s shut buddy Khalid Abu Khater, who was with the artist hours earlier than he was killed, additionally spoke to Hyperallergic by way of WhatsApp messages translated by Abu Zoulouf. Qreiqea and Abu Khater solely knew one another for eight months, assembly one another whereas displaced to the southern a part of the Gaza Strip. Each working with kids, the pair linked and Qreiqea shared his worldwide sources for funding help.Abu Khater, who leads and fundraises for a dabke dance group for displaced and orphaned women referred to as the Rajeen Staff, stated that Qreiqea took on a father position to a lot of them and assisted their households with meals and clothes.
“I once asked him why he gives away all his money and doesn’t take care of himself, and he told me that he lives to make people happy,” Abu Khater wrote to Hyperallergic. “Even though I am older than him, he was like a mentor to me — he truly motivated me to be better.”
Khalid Abu Khater and Dorgham Qreiqea (photograph courtesy Khalid Abu Khater)
Abu Khater stated that he and Qreiqea have been discussing initiatives for Eid on March 17, telling Hyperallergic that “it was dangerous to go and meet him, but I missed him and really wanted to talk to him — as if I knew it was our last night together.”
“Dorgham was a brother, a friend, and everything to me during this genocide,” Abu Khater continued. “Despite the suffering, the siege and distraction, he was always calling me to tell me about people that needed help.”
In his ultimate Instagram submit on February 28, Qreiqea shared pictures of himself along with his broken art work amid the rubble of his studio, reflecting on the saying, “Hope is not killed until the soul dies.”
“Art is my soul that will not die,” he concluded.
In accordance with pals of Qreiqea, the artist is survived by his mom and sister, who made it to Egypt for medical remedy forward of Israel’s seizure of the Rafah Crossing final Could; his older brother Mohammad, who’s at present hospitalized in Gaza after the airstrike; and his four-year-old niece Jenin, who was discovered alive within the rubble of the assault.
