ELECTRONIC INTIFADA – A small room on a rooftop in the occupied Gaza Strip’s crowded Beach refugee camp resembles a miniature archaeological museum.
It is the workshop of Nafez Abed, 55, who studies archaeological artifacts in order to replicate them in exquisite detail.
Abed copies antiquities photographed in history books and ones he’s seen during visits to archaeological sites across Gaza, which many a civilization has passed through, as well as in other Arab countries and Europe.
“I started collecting and copying artifacts one year after my release from Israeli prison in 1987,” Abed said. According to Abed, Israel accused him of being active with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“I didn’t study sculpture, but I became an expert in imitation and copying through practical experience,” he added. CONTINUE READING