Local archaeologists in Gaza say Israeli shelling damaged the Byzantine church in Jabalia. New York artist Jordan Nassar has made the site part of an exhibition now on view in London. He said the extent of the damage remains unknown: “It has been damaged for sure in the bombing, but we don't know the extent, so it may not be there at all any more.”
Presented by Dubai gallery The Third Line at No 9 Cork Street, the exhibition includes hand-cut glass mosaics inspired by the church. Tatreez panels pair Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery with imagined landscapes drawn from diaspora memories and stories. Nassar's first UK exhibition in a decade puts questions of cultural heritage and conflict alongside work he describes as personal rather than informational.
The Jabalia Church and Cultural Heritage
The glass mosaics depict an orange tree, a lion, a man and patterns from the original church. Nassar said his interest in Byzantine mosaics began after he saw two panels at Ben Gurion International Airport, taken from a church in what is now northern Israel. That encounter led him to investigate “the use of archaeology and antiquities, not only for propaganda, but for land grabbing.”
Nassar also referred to the Roman and Byzantine ruins of Sabastia near Nablus. According to the article, Israel recently announced plans to expropriate and develop the site as a tourism hub. “Israel is claiming that they're preserving a historical site,” Nassar said. “Concurrently, that means that they would have to block off Palestinian access, take more land, and build roads to these sites that then are bifurcating Palestinian land.”
The extent of the church damage remains unclear. Nassar hopes the recreated works can be seen outside politicized contexts, saying they “can just exist as something for themselves for their own sake.” He also said he was taking liberties with the mosaics, rather than trying to reproduce an object that looked 2,000 years old or match every colour.
Diaspora Memory and the Work
Born in Manhattan to a family of Palestinian and Polish heritage, Nassar called the landscapes “versions of Palestine as they exist in the minds of the diaspora.” He described them as dreamlands and utopias that are “colourful and fantastical – beautiful and romantic, but bittersweet.” His 2026 work “They Build Homes with Clouds” shows green, red and purple mountains against an ochre sky and sea, embroidered on canvas and framed by four smaller panels with colourful square patterns.
Nassar designs the panels and commissions embroidery from craftswomen in the West Bank. He said delays tied to Israel's occupation mean he plans for the work to take longer and avoids tight deadlines. He buys specific fabric and ships it to a workshop in Ramallah. A friend collects the finished embroidery and drives it from the West Bank to Tel Aviv and Jaffa, where another friend mails it to the United States. Nassar said the fabric travels in separate boxes through Israel Post and arrives faster than when shipped from Palestine.
Family history shapes his account of belonging, too. Nassar said his paternal grandfather migrated to the United States in the 1910s, helped establish the Arab American community in Yonkers and later sponsored the arrival of hundreds of families displaced by the Nakba. The family prioritized being American. His grandfather opened a cafe selling hamburgers and milkshakes, but didn't teach his children Arabic. Nassar described the family’s approach this way: “we're American now, so we speak English.”
Nassar said he doesn't speak Arabic fluently and natively, and that family recipes changed across generations. He calls his work “very American,” and wanted to make art rooted in his culture in his own way. “It's about daily life and human connection,” he said, rather than informational work about Palestine.