An overflow crowd of Palestinians on Wednesday laid to rest visionary artist Sliman Mansour, whose landmark painting “Camel of Hardships” has become an emblem of Palestinian identity.

Mourners, including senior officials, followed his hearse from the family home in Birzeit near Ramallah in the West Bank to an Anglican church, led by uniformed scouts playing bagpipes.

Olive branches were draped over his coffin, a symbolic reference to the olive trees he depicted in many of his paintings.

“Many knew his paintings, his colours and his symbols. Many saw Palestine through his eyes and his brush,” Imad Haddad, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, said at the service.

“He portrayed man with his pain, his sorrow, his joy, his culture, his heritage and his memory.”

The small church could not accommodate the large number of mourners, with many people standing on the steps and in its courtyard, and a loudspeaker set up outside to broadcast the funeral........

© The Times of Israel