The Artists

Basel was born in Al-Shati refugee camp to parents originally from Dimra village, where Kibbutz Erez stands today. He apprenticed under Marwan Kassab Bachi at the Summer Art Academy at Darat al-Funun (2000 - 2003). A co-founder of Shababeek (Windows from Gaza) for Contemporary Art, Basel has been actively engaged in the Palestinian art scene. In 2025, he was honoured by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture as Cultural personality of the Year.

On the evening of October 7, 2023, Basel received a phone call ordering him to immediately evacuate their home in the Al-Tawam neighbourhood of Beit Lahia. Since then, Basel and his family have been displaced thirty-one times, staying with relatives, and friends, in crowded rooms, schools, and tents. Basel currently lives in a tent in Deir al-Balah with nine family members.

Basel had previously lost his home and hundreds of artworks during the wars of 2008 and 2014. Yet he persisted in rebuilding and sustaining his artistic practice. Even amid the current genocide, starvation, and repeated displacement, he resisted despair by imagining his shelter as an artistic residency, where he continues making art and offering drawing sessions to the community, particularly to children. Aware of the therapeutic power of art, he explains “I draw in order to remain awake as a sensitive human being; the war does not erase my dignity nor humanity.”