“Palestinians, like the olive tree, do not know what it means to give up.”
Sliman Mansour (1947 – August 24, 2026), a pioneer of Palestinian visual arts and a key figure symbolizing resistance and cultural memory, passed away at the age of 79. Over an artistic career spanning more than half a century, he etched the spirit of resistance (sumud) of the Palestinian people into global visual memory through his paintings, sculptures, and theoretical works.
Mansour’s most iconic work, which brought him international acclaim, was Jamal Al Mahamel (Camel of Hardships / Camel of Burdens), painted in 1973. The depiction of an elderly, weary Palestinian porter carrying the Dome of the Rock and the city of Jerusalem in an eye-shaped bundle on his back became one of the most powerful symbols of displacement, identity, and the search for home.
Jamal Al Mahamel III (2005)
Mansour was born in 1947 in the town of Birzeit near Ramallah. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Rather than adopting Western-style abstract art, he chose a figurative and symbolic visual language that reflected the everyday life and reality of his people.
During the First Intifada in 1987, he extended the Palestinian boycott of Israeli goods to the art world. As a leading member of the “New Visions” collective, he rejected commercial Israeli-made paints and canvases, turning instead to local materials like Palestinian soil, mud, straw, coffee, and henna. He drew a direct parallel between the cracking of drying mud and the physical fragmentation of the Palestinian landscape.
The Shrinking Piece (1996)
In his works, he combined orange trees symbolizing the 1948 Nakba, olive trees representing deep roots in the land, strong female figures wearing traditional embroidered dresses, and geometric elements drawn from Canaanite, Oriental, and Islamic art.
Olive Grove
In addition to his creative work, Mansour led efforts to build the infrastructure of Palestinian art. He served as President of the League of Palestinian Artists from 1986 to 1990. In 1994, he co-founded the Al-Wasiti Art Center in East Jerusalem, and in 2004, he served on the founding board of the International Academy of Art Palestine. His works have been exhibited and acquired by premier global institutions, including the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, Mathaf in Doha, and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Passing away in Jerusalem on August 24, 2026, Sliman Mansour leaves behind a legacy devoted to a nation’s memory, land, and struggle for freedom.
