This article was originally published by Haaretz and is republished with permission.

Palestinian artist Hisham Saleh Mihsen explains one of his paintings during an exhibit at the Bethlehem Peace Center. (Jonas Jonzon, Maan Images)

"The school of art is our attempt to live more normally," says Palestinian artist Khaled al-Khourani, one of the founders of the International Academy of Art Palestine. "A month ago, the Israeli army entered Beit Hanun and they reported the massacre that occurred there on the news. On the same day, there was a film festival in Ramallah. One of my friends told me, 'What's going on here? How can Ramallah celebrate and hold festivals while a massacre is going on in Beit Hanun?' I asked him which he would prefer to see end - the massacre or the festival. What can we do? We have to go on living," al-Khourani says.

The criticism of the Ramallah festival is quite reminiscent of criticism of people's behavior in Tel Aviv during the last war in Lebanon. Does your successful opening of a contemporary school of art in Ramallah indicate that it is a cultural bubble in the territories, and that it would not have succeeded elsewhere?

"We held a few workshops for young artists in Ramallah and Gaza. It may surprise you, but the Gaza workshops were far more successful."

Despite that, it is hard to view the opening of the first contemporary art school in the territories as an everyday event. A few dedicated visionaries were vital to the school's establishment: A group of Palestinian artists, including Nabil Anani, Tayseer Barakat and Suleiman Mansour, who studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem in the late 1960s.

They were joined by Henrik Placht, a young Norwegian.

"The artists behind this project work in a harsh reality, but they permit themselves to dream," says al-Khourani, the academy's artistic director.

The school's goal is to give its students all the necessary tools to create. "It will be possible to create through video, photography, sculpture and painting," explains Rim Fada, one of the directors. "But we intend to help with production rather than teach technique. At this point, candidates from all over the territories have filled out applications. Near the end of March, we will invite 25 chosen candidates to a week-long, creative workshop. After that, 15 of them will receive full tuition grants."

Admission ticket

The academy is funded by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. The ministry will provide grants for at least the next four years. Placht initiated this association. He says the academy will preserve many aspects of Palestinian nationalism. "This place will provide Palestinians with an admission ticket to the international art community and lend Palestinians a new image. The academy could become a bridge to artists around the world, even to Israel."

At first glance, Placht looks like the typical foreigner roaming the territories: His hair is blond, his eyes are fair and a kaffiyeh scarf is wrapped around his neck. But looks are deceiving. Unlike other young Westerners, he did not come to protest the Israeli occupation. "I studied art in Oslo," he says. "I had 10 exhibitions in Europe and I read a great deal of material about the Oslo Accords, which is sort of a source of local pride in Norway. I understood that artists have to contribute to the world around them. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry told me that establishing a Palestinian school of modern art was not an outlandish idea, and then the concept began to roll."

Graduates of the school will receive a degree in Contemporary Art. "There are endless problems in founding an academy like this," Fada notes. "We need a permit from the Palestinian Ministry of Education to grant degrees, but Palestinian ministries have been on strike for eight months."

Only two weeks ago, the academy opened in a very old house near Manara Square. Palestinian historian Aref al-Aref lived there a few years ago. It is an exquisitely beautiful Arabesque structure. There is a large, central foyer, painted white, with a wood floor. Artistic exhibitions are mounted on the floor below, including work by Inas Hamad, from the village of Atzira a-Shamalya. Students, in Western garb, flank a photograph of Hamad, wearing traditional, Muslim clothes. In another room, works near an installation by Suleiman Mansour, by two foreign artists, emphasize the academy's international dimension.

Why is an academy of art in the territories necessary?

"We always knew that, without an institution of higher learning that focuses on art, local art would remain weak," Mansour says. "The concept has been hatching since the 1980s, but those were years when the Israeli occupation did not agree to the opening of a school of art or agriculture. As far as they are concerned, the land is solely theirs - so Palestinians don't need a school of agriculture. And art creates awareness, identity, nationalist feelings. So, the occupation was also not prepared to accept an advanced study of art."

Maria Khoury, an academy director, says, "the academic project is the heart and soul of local art. We want a variety of artists to meet here, to see Palestine in a new light. The intention is to establish an international school but maintain a Palestinian context."

Al-Khourani says universities, like A-Najah in Nablus, first tried to establish art departments: "But there is a need for a separate academy of art. The level of eduation in universities is still insufficient. Do you know that there is no museum in Palestine? We have been occupied since 1967. Now, despite exceptional conditions, artists will have access to the required framework."

Chatting with habibi

Like other art schools, the academy in Ramallah expects its students to be original, colorful and non-conformist. Fada sings the praises of Jumana Manah, an 18-year-old discovered in a workshop conducted by the academy's founders in Ramallah. "She shot a video of herself chatting on the computer with her boyfriend. She is in East Jerusalem and he is in Nablus. The room was red. The letters on the computer were in English, but the language was Arabic. Like the word, 'habibi [darling]' for example. She called the piece, 'Footless Pleasures.' That breaks down a taboo, as far as I am concerned."

What is the meaning of a Palestinian context? Al-Khourani says that Palestinian art absorbs Arab, Islamic culture, but also the culture of the Israeli occupation. "Art is influenced everywhere by local developments. We create in the surroundings in which we live, but with the intention to ask, to investigate, to dare. Now, in Ramallah, youths have a new language and a radio station called the 'Peace and Love Station.' This young generation does not constantly dwell on occupation and what is happening around them. Like a similar process in Israel, in the territories, art is more focused on the self, on individualism, and less on nationalism."

Fada agrees. "The culture of this entire region is comprised of historic strata, from Greece to Rome to the Israeli occupation. Palestinian culture is highly influenced by Israel and the reverse. It is clear that we will find the presence of checkpoints or the soldiers that guard them in Palestinian art."

So, will the school conceal problems and grant a sense of normalcy?

"This academy is proof of Palestinian society's yearning for a normal life, like that of other people," Khoury says.

Al-Khourani adds, "It's true that the Israeli occupation is continuing and Hamas won the elections ... A few decades ago, my mother could wear shorts in the street. Now in Gaza, all the women are completely covered. We are coping daily with pain accompanied by hope. In this academy, we discuss normalcy and touch upon that hope."