The first project resulting from the Prince Claus Fund’s collaboration with the Qattan Foundation opens in June 2013: the play Return to Haifa tells the story of a young Palestinian couple and the son they left behind when they were forced to leave Haifa in 1948. The theatre piece was supported by ‘SELAT: Links through the Arts’, a collaborative initiative of the Prince Claus Fund and the A. M. Qattan Foundation, which supports Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon.

SELAT: Links Through the Arts

The Prince Claus Fund and the A.M. Qattan Foundation initiated ‘SELAT: Links through the Arts’ in 2012, a grant-making programme that supports cultural initiatives in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. SELAT provides grants in support of projects by young Palestinian artists in Lebanon in the fields of visual arts, performing arts and literature. This pioneering programme will run for three years with a budget of €310,000.

SELAT promotes cultural life in the Paletinian camps in Lebanon, focusing on emerging artists and new creative practices. It aims to strengthen links between the camps’ cultural practitioners and their peers in Lebanon and abroad. The initiative followed a recent survey of cultural organisations and activities in Lebanon’s twelve Palestinian camps.

SELAT gives priority to projects that overcome the barriers resulting from the isolation and socio-economic difficulties in the camps. It will also prioritise initiatives capable of building links with the local Lebanese communities as well as regionally.

The A.M. Qattan Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, founded in 1993 and registered as a charity in the UK. Since its establishment, the Foundation has worked toward the development of culture and education, targeting a variety of social groups, with a particular focus on children, teachers and young artists. It considers the two principal areas of culture and education as central to any long-term and consistent process of human development.

Return to Haifa

The play Return to Haifa, a dramatisation of Ghassan Kanafani’s novella, is about a young Palestinian couple forced to leave their city, Haifa, on 21 April 1948, leaving their infant son behind. Twenty years later, after the 1967 war, the couple returns to Haifa to discover that an Israeli woman of Polish origin is living there with her son. Return to Haifa is produced by Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation and directed by Lina Abyad.  

The play Return to Haifa opens at Babel Theatre in Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, 6 June 2013. Performances will take place through 16 June 2013 (except 10 June) at 20:30 in the evening. There will be extra matinee performances on 8, 9, 15 and 16 June at 17:00. For reservations and information please call 71/ 144767 – 01/ 744033.