Wadi al-Salib

Mixed media, 30 cm x 40 cm (12 in x 16 in), 1982

Souad Naser Makhoul portrays a part of the displaced Wadi al- Salib neighbourhood of Haifa, from which Palestinian families were expelled in 1948 and replaced mainly by Mizrahi Jews from North Africa. Wadi al-Salib, the neighborhood and title of one of Tomb’s lost paintings, was known for mansions and homes of Palestinian families as well as the more humble accommodations of the Palestinian laborers who worked in the Haifa harbor or at the Hejaz railway that passed through the area. From the 1960s, the Haifa Municipality and the Israel Land Authority systematically took over Palestinian houses, evicted the residents, and demolished large parts of the neighborhood.

Makhoul was born on the outskirts of Wadi al-Salib and witnessed its demolition. She used to walk the neighborhood during her childhood and draw what remained of it, capturing what would soon be demolished. This painting is how she imagines the area prior to the demolition and includes its imagined inhabitants in an attempt to revive the collective memory of the displaced residents of Haifa. What is in the painting does not exist today; Haifa Municipality destroyed these houses to alter the distinctive architectural features of the area where also Maroun Tomb likely visited and painted prior to the Nakba. Both Tomb and Makhoul paint Haifa out of a commitment to their hometown.