Remembering Sliman Mansour: Seven Iconic Paintings That Capture the Palestinian Experience and Legacy

The rope is taut against his head, chafing his palms as he takes one determined step after another. The load on his back is crushing. It is Jerusalem, its culture and history, and yet the old man’s grip is unwavering as he perseveres ahead. He knows what is at stake if he lets the burden fall, if he lets the contents of the sack spill to the ground. Sliman Mansour’s Jamal Al Mahamel, also called Camel of Hardship, is perhaps his most recognisable work, serving as a searing metaphor of displacement.

As many pay tribute to Mansour, who died on Monday at the age of 79, this iconic painting has been widely shared across social media. Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha poignantly unpacked the painting in his post: “Our Palestinian people today are not only displaced, carrying their cities and villages on their backs. They are also carrying the rubble of their homes, beneath which the bodies of their loved ones remain trapped. They carry their uprooted trees, their burned tents, their destroyed homes, and the remains of refugee camps.”

Mansour understood how to communicate the ineffable through symbols and how to evoke the Palestinian experience under occupation through metaphor, utilizing both his compositions and his chosen materials. Below, we take a look at six more of Mansour’s defining works:

Symbol of Hope (1985)

The dove in the painting takes over the night sky, carrying an olive branch in its mouth. Below, a mother looks up in awe, cradling her children in her arms, while people on rooftops take in the marvellous sight and some take flight themselves. Created in the years before the First Intifada, the uplifting painting instils hope amid the devastating effects of the Israeli military occupation.

Olive Harvest (1988)

As the First Intifada began, Mansour entered one of the most prolific periods of his career, seeing art and cultural production as a formidable means of resistance. While creating series like Destroyed Villages to memorialise depopulated towns, Mansour used this painting to show how harvesting olives was a daily act of defiance as Palestinians continued to look after and live off their land.

Rituals Under Occupation (1989)

The crowd stretches to the horizon and the hills that block out the setting sun, carrying a cross wrapped with the Palestinian flag. Bringing to mind the funerals of those who died from decades of Israeli occupation, the crucifix alludes to the burden of Christ while also showing a people coming together to share the burden rather than subsist under its weight.

Shrinking Object (1996)

During the First Intifada, Mansour cofounded the New Visions collective with Vera Tamari, Tayseer Barakat, and Nabil Anani. The artists boycotted Israeli art supplies and turned to local materials like mud and henna. Shrinking Object is one such work, showing the map of Palestine drawn in mud that cracks and fragments as it dries.

The Sea is Mine (2016)

Produced more than three decades after Symbol of Hope when diplomatic hopes had grown fraught, this painting shows figures marching forward on a beach armed with pens, brushes, books, and rifles, juxtaposed with oblivious swimmers. The work highlights the wildly disparate experiences along the same coastline, separated by mere kilometres.

From the River to the Sea (2021)

A woman in traditional clothing wraps her arms around a tree sprouting vibrant olives and oranges against muted tones. Mansour posted the painting in May to mark the anniversary of the Nakba, writing that the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians and destruction of over 500 villages in 1948 was not a one-time event, but the beginning of a continuing project of displacement and erasure.