In the 1980’s a group of Israeli researchers began to re-examine the historical record surrounding the foundation of Israel in 1948. This is an interesting and important year that Ilan Pappe describes as a departure point for history. For one side, the Israelis, it was “a miracle, the best year in Jewish history” where the Zionist colonial project achieved its goal of building an independent Jewish State. Yet for the other side it was a disaster, the worst year in their history, what the Palestinians call the Nakba (Catastrophe), “almost the Holocaust.”

In May Israel will celebrate this event calling it their 60th ‘birthday’ and are inviting world leaders and the global media to attend. In other words – they’re not just celebrating while Palestinians are mourning they are using it as a photo opportunity!

With this in mind we propose a competition to create artwork that either commemorates the Nakba or highlights the offensive and indecent nature of celebrating while others mourn.

As the global celebrations run into 2009 so will the competition. We will however pick a handfull of the best from the 14th – 16th of May that will be distributed to the media and journalists.

All the artworks will be displayed on the ‘Artwork Competition‘ page and will be added to this flickr group (flickr pool RSS feed). To submit an artwork either post a link in a comment, email the artwork or add it to the flickr group. Also could bloggers that are willing to distribute the winning entries leave a comment to show their support?

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In the future they will be posted here.