"TEAR GAS IN MY EYES!"

This drawing by eight year old Palestinian Sahar Mansour was created in 1988 during the first Intifada (Uprising), against the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank. In the drawing Sahar tells us what it's like to live under a foreign military occupation... she calls her autobiographical drawing, "Tear Gas in my Eyes." Sahar drew herself standing on the streets of her hometown, with boys in the distance leading a demonstration for an independent Palestine. Unseen Israeli Soldiers have responded with tear gas bombs, which explode at the young Girl's feet. Sahar's inflamed eyes have closed shut from the stinging gas, so she can no longer see. But the question really is... can WE see Sahar's suffering and the anguish of her people?

For more drawings by the Children of occupied Palestine, please visit the ART FOR A CHANGE Web site at;

www.primenet.com/~mvallen

The ART FOR A CHANGE Web site is dedicated to activist art and it's role in transforming society, from my own socially conscious paintings and drawings to the works of other like-minded Artists who possess a critical vision. ART FOR A CHANGE has just published an emergency Palestine Solidarity issue that documents Art Activism's role in bringing about a just and lasting peace between the Palestinian and Isreali people.

Mark Vallen

ART FOR A CHANGE!

mjvallen@earthlink.net

www.primenet.com/~mvallen/

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it."