Palestine from Above: Examining land and loss in Istanbul

Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

This week, we are telling the tale of two cities: Istanbul and Jerusalem. We explore how memory, resistance and street singers shape the cultural pulse of the cities from the skies over Palestine to the metro halls of Istanbul.

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Nazlan

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1. Leading the week: Palestine from Above

“Al-Buraq un Nabi” (the winged horse of Prophet Muhammad), circa 1920-1940. (Photo courtesy of Nazlan Ertan)

An illustration of “al-Buraq un Nabi,” the winged horse of Prophet Muhammad, greets visitors at the entrance of “Palestine from Above” at ANAMED. Hovering above the city’s skyline, al-Buraq evokes Jerusalem as the third-holiest city in Islam and the first qibla (the direction of prayer), from which the Prophet is believed to have ascended to heaven. In Islamic art, the mi'rajnama tradition dedicated entire manuscripts to this mystical night journey. Today, al-Buraq lives on as both symbol and namesake — found on everything from postal services to public buses and even Pakistan’s first drone.

At first glance, “Palestine from Above” appears to be an exhibit about surveillance, featuring maps, aerial photos and drone footage. But the spectator is quickly drawn into a study of how power observes, controls and reshapes a land — and how its people remember, resist and reclaim it.

First shown in Ramallah in 2021, the exhibition opens at Istanbul’s ANAMED Gallery amid ongoing conflict in Gaza and growing global focus on territorial narratives. Curated by Yazid Anani, Zeinab Azarbadegan, Zeynep Celik and Salim Tamari, the Istanbul edition brings a renewed focus to Palestine’s Ottoman past and includes recent works addressing the events of late 2023. “Every archive has a political perspective,” Celik notes. “We tried to read the gaps — what was silenced, what was left out — and offer a counter-narrative through art.”

Edward Said at the border of Lebanon and Israel, on July 3, 2000. (AFP/Getty Images)

Structured in six sections, the exhibition brings together colonial propaganda, surveillance imagery, archival materials and contemporary installations. One chapter examines the myth of the “empty land,” perpetuated by British drawings, and contrasts it with the Ottoman-era master plan for the empire’s Arab provinces and a map of the Hijaz Railway. In a quieter room, a teacher’s letter on the fall of Jerusalem is heard aloud — a dispatch from 1917 that resonates with today’s headlines.

Another section explores the region’s key historical moments, including a striking photograph of Jerusalem Mayor Hussein al-Husseini standing under a white flag of surrender beside British sergeants in 1917. Nearby, a photo of Palestinian-American academic Edward Said at the Lebanese-Israeli border on July 3, 2000 — arm cocked, stone in hand, ready to be thrown in the direction of an Israeli watchtower — frames the moment of resistance that almost cost him his job at Columbia University.

Location: ANAMED Merkez Han, Istiklal Caddesi No: 181 34433 Beyoglu

Date: Until Jan. 25, 2026

2. Word on the street: Divan Brasserie Beyoglu

A table with a view — Divan Brasserie Beyoglu offers a great wine list and Mediterranean cuisine (Courtesy of Divan website)

After visiting “Palestine from Above” at the ground floor of Merkez Han, browse the great bookstore on the same floor and pick a title, then take the elevator to the terrace to relax at Divan Brasserie Beyoglu. With its sweeping views of the historic peninsula and polished Turkish-Mediterranean menu, it’s a perfect post-exhibit stop. The wine list is strong, the schnitzel and salads are consistently good, and the plum tart is a quiet triumph. 

Sister locations in Bebek and Kalamis offer the same easy elegance.

3. Istanbul diary

Untitled by Semiramis Oner, an artist who went in exile in the Netherlands following the 1980 coup in Turkey. (Courtesy of IBB Metrohan)

• Painter Semiramis Oner’s “Hatıra Kurucular” (“Founders of Memory") transforms Metrohan into a house of memory, combining oil paintings inspired by early 20th-century photographs with objects gathered from flea markets and secondhand shops. Using Northern Renaissance techniques and pigments she creates herself, Oner builds a three-part narrative: portraits based on anonymous photos, a long table of relics featured in the paintings, and an imagined utopia filled with color and hope. Presented with the support of IBB Miras, the Istanbul municipality’s restoration arm, the exhibition is open daily except Mondays through June 29.
• Pilevneli Dolapdere hosts the first Turkish solo exhibition of Irish sculptor Kevin Francis Gray, whose new body of marble works is inspired by his recent visit to Turkey.
• ISTANBUL’74 and Clubhouse Bebek present “Between the Layers,” an introspective exhibition by Murat Yildiz and Burcin Basar that explores perception through subtle floral motifs. The show runs through May 31 in the club’s atmospheric Bosporus venue.