Poster 
January–June 2018
 

Five years after the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the election of Yasser Arafat as chairman of its Executive Committee in 1969, Palestinian work was institutionalized in an organizational structure that included departments and centers.  During that time, the PLO Unified Information Department fulfilled the role of a ministry of information.  Among the Department’s publications, posters by Palestinian, Arab and international artists were printed in various languages.  The posters featured issues and slogans for specific occasions and exemplified the spirit of the Palestinian revolution, inspired by the words of Yasser Arafat: “the revolution is not just about a revolutionist’s weapon but a farmer’s axe, a surgeon’s scalpel, a writer’s pen, and an artist’s brush.” 
From the second year of its inauguration, Yasser Arafat Museum has presented rotating exhibitions in accordance with an artistic program policy that represents its mission to depict the narrative of the contemporary Palestinian revolution in correlation with its permanent exhibits.
Opening on January 21, 2018, POSTER marks the third special exhibit presented in Exhibition Hall of Yasser Arafat Museum, following Our Homeland is Our Homeland and Intifada.  Special exhibitions are approved by the Museum Committee and remain on view to the public for six months.
The illustrations displayed in the exhibit, POSTER, represent a significant stage in the Palestinian contemporary national movement, from the early 1970s through the late 1980s, and depict compelling symbols of resistance such as the land, humanity and revolution.
Published by the PLO Unified Information Department and other Palestinian factions, these iconic posters were specifically designed over an area of 135 square meters to accommodate the random placement of posters on walls – primarily due to the urgency of activists to elude pursuit and arrest by the Israeli occupying forces.  Another factor was the limited space on houses and institutions due to a large number of posters already layering the walls.  Outside the occupied Palestinian territory, the display of posters varied from adorning fighters’ trenches to posting at military locations and on vehicles.  Framed and hung in offices, homes, and shops, both for their artistry and significance, posters also unexpectedly appeared in numerous locations around the world.  Despite ideal conditions at the Museum, the exhibit is designed to depict the political situation at the time the posters were created.
A half-hour presentation of numerous other specific occasion posters in the Yasser Arafat Museum collection can be viewed on a screen that has been installed after the final wall of the exhibit.
POSTER features selections from a rare collection gifted to Yasser Arafat Foundation by the Algerian artist, Rasheed Quraishi, to be part of the Museum’s permanent collections.