Still Being: Sparrow as Witness

This drawing began as a simple study of a sparrow—light, quiet, almost fleeting. But as I worked, it became something heavier, more urgent: a meditation on survival, and a response to the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli state. The sparrow, small and unarmored, is a creature we often overlook. Yet it endures. It finds shelter in broken branches, warmth in the cold, and flight even when the skies are dangerous. In this way, it became a symbol for me—of the Palestinian people, and of all those forced to persist in the face of erasure.

The space around the bird is sparse, almost bare. The lines are thin, fragile, like the thread of life stretched through war, displacement, and grief. But in the middle of it all, the sparrow remains. That stillness is not passive—it is resistance. In a world that demands constant noise to validate suffering, I chose quiet. A single bird on a branch, holding its place. My pencil became a form of protest. This drawing is not decorative. It is a soft refusal to look away.

As an artist, I believe that bearing witness is not a neutral act. To draw a sparrow in a time of genocide is to say: I see the violence, and I choose to make room for the lives that violence seeks to erase. This work is dedicated to the people of Palestine—those living, those martyred, those surviving through memory. May this image carry, however gently, the truth that still being is a form of power. And that art, even in its most delicate form, can speak.

pencil on paper/ 30 x 21 cm