It is situated in the lower income Arab town of Umm al-Fahm (Mother of Coal) in northern Israel. Umm al-Fahm is often known for the devoutness of its residents, and in political terms it is the bastion of the Islamic Movement, whose radical wing seeks Israel’s replacement by an Islamic state. But you are best advised to leave your stereotypes behind before you make the turn to the town – and the gallery – from Route 65, the road that traverses the Ara valley, home to many of the Arab citizens who number about one-fifth of Israel’s population.

With finesse, a tolerance for contradiction, and perseverance, the gallery’s founder and director, Said Abu Shakra, an Umm al-Fahm native, has succeeded in turning the inconspicuous two-floor facility into a source of pride and empowerment for Israel’s often discriminated against Palestinian minority. This, while staying within the good graces of the Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture, which provides part of its funding.

Abu Shakra, himself an accomplished artist, knows a great deal about majority-minority tensions in the Jewish state. Before retiring early to devote himself full time to the gallery three years ago, he was an Israeli policeman, specializing in work with disadvantaged Arab youth. Not entirely comfortable with his place on the enforcement side of the majority, he would express his  identification with fellow Arabs in paintings of horses overshadowed by airplanes or animals in other difficult circumstances, yet holding fast.

But it was the death of his cousin Asim, a nationally known artist, from illness at age 29 that prompted Abu Shakra to realize that Arabs in Israel needed their own facilities to display and develop their art. “The Tel Aviv Museum of Art held a retrospective exhibit for Asim and I wanted to bring his works to Umm al-Fahm. But I had no space, no hall, nothing. I also discovered that all the people who wrote about Asim in the catalogue were Jews. I was sad we weren’t researching our own culture.”

On equal terms. “It is true the Israeli government neglected [Arab art]. But we also had ourselves to blame. We didn’t do enough,” he says. Twelve years ago he and others launched the gallery. Now it is planning to expand into the first art and heritage museum for Arab citizens of Israel. It balances between Palestinian nationalism and forging cooperation – on equal terms – between Arab and Jewish artists and between Arab artists and Jewish curators. The gallery has become woven into the fabric of the vibrant, unkempt city. It published the first tourist guidebook on Umm al-Fahm – in Arabic, Hebrew and English – complete with walking trails. The text affirms Umm al-Fahm’s Palestinian identity, while chipping away at perceptions among some Israelis that it is an unwelcoming or hostile place.

In 2003, the museum sponsored a project, “At Home,” curated by Israeli Jews Drora Dekel and Avi Ifargan, in which Umm al-Fahm residents hosted national artists in their homes, converting a room into a gallery.

Another exhibit, on display through December 2007 at the gallery, was a mini-retrospective of the work of Palestinian artist Sharif Waked, whose work touches upon not only the occupation in theWest Bank but also Palestinian loss of homeland after Israel’s creation in 1948.

With gray pillboxes, sandbags askew and dust mixing with sweat, the checkpoints Israel uses to control the move-ment of Palestinians in the West Bank appear anything but chic.

But a video by Waked in the exhibit, Chic Point: Fashion for Israeli Checkpoints, transforms the checkpoints into “chic points.” To a rapid beat, male models walk a catwalk and display clothes appropriate for inspections by soldiers looking for explosive belts: shirts that are unbuttoned easily, see through outfits, midriffs that reveal hairy abdomens, an “I love New York” T-shirt with its heart cut out.

It is a rebellion through irony against the humiliation that is shown graphically in stark black and white still photos, shown at the end of the clip, of Palestinians opening their shirts at gunpoint. In another work, Woman and Man, Waked uses a pointillistic rendering of the famous picture of Lynndie England and her leashed Iraqi victim at Abu Ghraib Prison to blur and magnify at the same time. A disturbing image becomes a protest against human depravity.

Respects sensitivities. The Islamic Movement backs the gallery and views it as respecting Islamic sensibilities. It is represented on the gallery’s directorate and is comfortable with Abu Shakra, who is a first cousin of Raed Salah, the head of the movement’s radical wing. The Umm al-Fahm municipality has allocated land for the £10 million museum project.

Abu Shakra says he is careful “not to display nakedness in the gallery,” because that would alienate local residents. He introduced ballet classes under the gallery’s auspices. “Everyone said it was forbidden, but I wanted to check what would happen. In fact, religious women brought their daughters.”

Mustafa Suheil, deputy mayor of Umm al-Fahm from the Islamic Movement, says the people running the gallery are sensitive to local Islamic norms. “They come from the city, they are familiar with the religion and they take it into account. There is no collision between us and them,” he says. “The gallery transforms Umm al-Fahm into a city of culture and puts it on the map. It is an address for people with talent, but no place to develop them. It draws tourists and artists from abroad and out of town and instills an interest in art among the city’s residents.”

Dalia Levin, director of the Herzliya Museum for Contemporary Art near Tel Aviv, says the gallery “is able to exhibit Palestinian artists more than any other Israeli institution because they receive cooperation from the artists.” Suzanne Landau, chief curator at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, terms the gallery “very special and unique.” According to Landau, “It is the only place in the whole country where Palestinian and Israeli artists show [their works] together. It’s becoming a museum with an archive, which is is extremely important.” She follows the gallery’s exhibitions and says, Everyone has deep respect for what they are doing.”

But some Palestinian artists have reservations about the gallery because of its Israeli funding, and because all the curators for the exhibits are Israelis, says Mazen al-Qubty, director of al-Hoash, a Palestinian gallery in occupied East Jerusalem. “In al-Hoash all the curators are Palestinians. Some Palestinians don’t cooperate or participate with the Umm al-Fahm gallery because they think it’s more of an Israeli gallery.”

Al-Qubty owns the largest collection of private Palestinian art in the world and put much of it on display at the Umm al- Fahm gallery – in addition to Ramallah and Gaza – in 2005 in order to reach the more than 1 million Palestinians in Israel. (Palestinians in theWest Bank and Gaza cannot reach the Umm al-Fahm gallery for security reasons.)

“When we talk about Palestinian art, it is hard to define it, but for me it is art done by Palestinians everywhere. What they exhibit in Umm al-Fahm is very limited to Palestinians in Israel and they have only a few exhibits from the West Bank and Gaza.”

Still, al-Qubty supports the plan to upgrade the gallery into a museum. “I think any project which will help Palestinian art be represented in the right way is a good project. We need many museums and galleries, to encourage the Palestinians artists to show their works.”

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