Haneen was born under the light of a candle. Coming from a village without electricity or running water, she would wake up in the morning and go down to the well to retrieve water as a young girl. Haneen would stay up late studying and drawing cartoons she had heard about from other students in class. She could draw anything she saw, so she entered Dar al-Kalima University and studied art. Haneen’s curiosity drove her to learn everything she could about the field, and she soon graduated and connected with art institutions and centers. Her studies at Dar al-Kalima University introduced her to a variety of opinions and ideas, broadening her perspective on individual expression and belief.
Once graduated, Haneen started thinking about how to make a powerful exhibit that would reach people in a unique way and settled on a solo exhibition. Meanwhile, in Haneen’s home village of Juubit al-Dheeb, the Dutch government donated solar panels to provide electricity to the community. When Israeli authorities confiscated the solar panels and left the village in the dark for weeks, Haneen started mobilizing the women and took the case to the Israeli high court. They won and managed to send the solar panels back to the village. During the pandemic, Haneen was forced to stop her exhibitions and instead focused on henna art for weddings. She eventually started training others at drawing and community centers in remote villages of Palestine. Currently, Haneen is married and has a child. She lives in the town of Tuqu’ and her parents still live in the village of Juubit al-Dheeb, where the village has light again thanks to Haneen's bravery. Haneen is able, in part, to become a next-generation creative leader and flourish in Palestine now because of your generosity to Bright Stars of Bethlehem.
A Message From Haneen
“My name is Haneen. I live in Jubbet Ahd Dhib village. I studied Contemporary Arts at Dar al-Kalima. Since my early school years, I had an intense, persistent feeling of fear. After I became a student at Dar al-Kalima, that’s when I felt that I broke through all my fears. Sometimes when a person loves doing something, love from the inside, like when drawing or painting runs in your blood, and you pursue it. If it’s a long distance, you walk it. You get accustomed to it. It’s part of your life.
The journey takes me an hour and a half, sometimes even more. And it’s a hard one. I walk four kilometers to reach a transportation spot, so sometimes I miss class. It’s the care given to you at Dar al-Kalima, I personally feel that the teachers deeply care about us. The courses opened up my eyes to a world of opinions and ideas, local and global. I learned how to understand differences, which strengthened my ability to communicate and deal with people.
I’ve started working in my community. I lead summer camps for kids to introduce them to painting and colors. Our village is traditional in its way of thinking, so I always try to change this way of thinking and introduce them to new things. I hope I’ll be famous one day in the world of art. This has been my life-long dream. I am currently working on it, and I’m also pursuing higher education.”
