EDIT as of 10/21/2025:

I began this project in October of 2024. As a team of creative experts, we worked extremely hard on a very short timeline and overcame innumerable financial, technical, creative, and logistical hurdles along the way, to create a large scale work of art of a girl from Gaza wearing a Palestinian kuffiyeh and heart shaped sunglasses. For Blink 2024, my goal was not perfection as an artist, but a presence for Palestine, amid what many scholars, human rights organizations, and international bodies have now rightly labeled as genocide in Gaza.

As a Palestinian myself, who has lost countless members of my family in Gaza over the past 2 years, I that know there are many organizations and institutions in need financial support to perform the impossible, difficult, and heart wrenching work on the ground in Gaza. My goal as an artist is not to detract from their efforts, but rather, amplify them. And use my effort as an artist, to educate people about Palestine, these organizations, the work they do, and help drive donations to them.

It needs to be understood, that the situation in Palestine will not change unless there are efforts being exerted here in the United States to change the discourse, dialogue, and eventually, the foreign policy decisions that drive these tragedies from occurring.

Art is a powerful weapon in the fight against fascism because it transcends barriers of language, ideology, and propaganda, appealing directly to human emotion and empathy. Through imagery, music, literature, and performance, artists expose injustice, challenge authoritarian narratives, and give voice to those silenced by oppression. By presenting truth in visceral and accessible ways, art educates and enlightens, encouraging people to question power and see the humanity in others. In doing so, it not only resists fascist control but inspires critical thought, compassion, and the possibility of social change.

It is in this spirit, that I create my work.

In Oct of 2024, we presented a large scale mural of a girl from Gaza wearing a keffiyeh and heart-shaped sunglasses, and also illuminate the mural at night with with the Palestinian flag, islamic geometry and other vivid shapes and patterns using state of the art laser projectors.

although imperfect and incomplete in our view as artists who understand what our capabilities are, we were still able to create a work that left a lasting impression for thousands of people who attended BLINK 2024.

Due to the onset of the holidays, and winter, followed by an extremely rainy spring, and a very thunderous stormy summer, bringing the true and completed vision of this work to full fruition had been on hold until the alignment of all factors required to begin work could fall into place.

The pause and restart of the project, and the need to shift and adapt to ever-changing logistical operations and expenses, had caused the budget of $55k I had originally outlined to swell to $80k. As an artist, and as a Palestinian, I put my money where my mouth is, and self-funded the financial gap of the project through completion for a cause that I truly believe in.

Now that the work is complete, my hopes are that the publicity and attention these large scale work tend to create, helps drive dialogue and discourse about Palestine in a positive and constructive direction, and also drives donations to the remarkable organizations on the ground in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine who serve to provide humanitarian aid and medical assistance to those in need.

I strongly encourage all those who read this, to prioritize making a donation to Palestine Children's Relief Fund. As well as A New Policy - which is a Political Action Committee founded by my personal friends, Josh Paul and Tariq Habash, who both publicly resigned from the Biden Administration in protest of the administration's policies in Gaza. Their new organization is focused on shifting U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine in Washington D.C., which is a key element to truly improving the lives of the Palestinian people back home.

If you would like to express your appreciation for my work and our creative efforts through a donation to this GoFundMe, I would be deeply appreciative, and will happily send donors a 16x12 print of my work.

To receive a print:

After making a donation, please send a screenshot of your donation confirmation to my email, which can be found on my website, https://www.welcometojaffa.com/, along with your name, and mailing address. Please allow me a reasonable amount of time to consolidate orders and handle the logistics on my end. I'm just one guy doing this in my spare time, but I assure you, I will make it happen.

With much love and appreciation,

-Jason Alghussein

Below continues the original fundraiser description:

We are a group of artists and collaborators raising funds to have several new rouge art exhibitions representing the people and culture of Palestine during this year's BLINK 2024 event in Cincinnati, OH.

BLINK is the largest music, arts and lights festival in the United States of America, and is expected to draw a crowd of over 2 Million people over the weekend of October 17th-20th

The funds are needed for surface prep, paint, materials, and technical equipment required to paint a large scale mural (40ft tall x 70ft wide) of a girl from Gaza who got dressed up wearing a bright green jacket and heart shaped sunglasses with a bow in her hair to celebrate Eid, despite the ongoing atrocities in Gaza that have been unfolding over the past year.

New mural location:

(surface preparation work has already begun 10/3/2024)

After the mural is painted, it will then be illuminated at night with state of the art laser projectors and animation and music during the weekend of Oct 17th - 20th. These funds will be used to cover the cost of technical equipment required to execute large-scale art installations and to fairly compensate the co-artists, technicians, and contractors working under the direction of the principal artist, Jason Alghussein, who will be donating his time, labor, and technical & creative project management and mural painting at no cost. A small allocation of these funds will also be used for other various smaller-scale illuminated exhibits during the BLINK event.

Jason (Yacoub) Khaled Alghussein is the principal artist and muralist overseeing and co-ordinating this effort with various other artists, animators, theater set producers, and software engineers.

Jason is the son of a Palestinian refugee and Nakba Survivor, born in 1932 in Ramleh, Palestine, and forced to flee their home like many other Palestinians during the 1948 Nakba of Palestine, following the Deir Yassin Massacre.

He is known for a previous mural titled, "Welcome to Jaffa," a 50 foot tall painting of the famous Palestinian Jaffa Oranges, also in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Featured in Cincinnati Magazine, and City Beat.

Our goal of these large scale art exhibitions and collaborations is to educate others on the history and plight of the Palestinian people, foster a shared spirit of empathy and humanity, and serve as a means to subsequently highlight and promote the invaluable organizations doing humanitarian work on the ground in Palestine, like the Palestine's Children Relief Fund. Through our coordinated digital media efforts following the completion of these art installations and exhibitions, we hope to further drive donations to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

If you are considering making a donation for this artistic endeavor, we ask that you also consider a parallel donation to the Palestine's Children Relief Fund directly through their website .

As artists, creators, and collaborators, we are united and collectively opposed to all forms of racism, systemic oppression, and war. The work for this new large-scale exhibition will be titled “Focus on Love.”

This will be a large-scale art project, executed on a very tight timeline, requiring the coordinated efforts of many team members working diligently to keep the project on track. As a result, we ask that you help lighten our workload by sharing and promoting this page and project, to help us raise the funds needed. Doing so will allow us to remain focused on the execution of the actual creative and technical work.

If you are unable to donate anything but wish to support our work and this artistic endeavor, the best thing to do is help continually share this project far and wide for us.

Due to the nature of the project, co-artists, collaborators and technicians are providing their support at significantly reduced rates, to maximize the impact of donor funds. The lions share of expenses of this project are directly related to the cost of equipment, heavy machinery and materials. (Boom lifts, projectors, generators, spray guns, scaffolding, paint, supplies, mortar, labor, fuel etc.)

Follow :

@welcometojaffa on instagram to keep track of the progress of this project!

Contact:

https://www.welcometojaffa.com/

Any help locating the original photographer and name of the girl in the photograph would be greatly appreciated.

An example of 2022 previous mural illumination: