Ramallah’s Contemporary Arts Festival, one of the largest in the West Bank, started Monday for the first time since the war in Gaza shut down most Palestinian cultural activities in the territory.

Khaled Aliyan, the festival’s director, told AFP that the festival had returned “after a forced-two-year suspension due to the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip,” referring to the war started by the Hamas terror group with its onslaught of October 7, 2023.

Israel responded with a ground operation that destroyed most of the Strip and killed tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, though Jerusalem has said this is a result of Hamas operating from within densely populated civilian areas, including hospitals and schools. Israel has vehemently rejected Palestinian and international allegations of genocide, saying its goal is to protect its own civilians by toppling the terror group’s rule.

Aliyan said the festival, previously limited to contemporary dance, had expanded to include Palestinian artists from all fields.

Art, theater and film festivals that had previously been held in Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank came to a halt amid escalating violence, Israeli military raids, and attacks by settlers after October 2023.

Israel conquered the West Bank from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War and has since maintained a military rule there.

“Culture and art historically play an important and distinctive role in our struggle… because they reflect our identity and reinforce our role as a Palestinian society,” Aliyan added.

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© The Times of Israel