“Good Thing There Was A Painter There”: An Exhibition Recreating the Signing of a Petition for World Peace in Old Akko in the 1950s One day, in 1953, members of the Galilean kibbutzim Ein Hamifratz and Kfar Masaryk set up a simple wooden stand in the city of Akko. On the stand was a petition addressed to the five world superpowers demanding world peace. Around the stand crowded men and women, Jews and Arabs who came to sign the petition. Two painters also arrived: Shimon Sabar and Gershon Knispel; artists who apparently felt the magnitude of this moment, and created a real-time record. Knispel created oil paintings. The signing event in Akko was one of the thousands of petition events held in Israel and around the world in response to interlocal radicalization and fears of a third world war. Thousands of signing events took place in Israel in the first half of the 1950s, which were organized by the “Committee for Peace in Israel” and other political and non-political bodies. In 1952, after 400,000 signatures were collected, a petition was submitted to the Knesset. The petition was denied. In the year 2022, the cannons are roaring again, the gaze is turned back hopefully to that moment in the alleys of Akko, which without the works of Sabar and Knispel would have remained in the realms of oblivion. On the wooden counter lays a contemporary petition, for world peace, you are welcome to sign. Curator: Yaara Galor Exhibition Designer: Hagar Brotman Exhibition Opening: July 29, 2022, Friday at 11 am When? Exhibition Opens on Friday, July 29, at 11 am! The exhibition will be open until December 31, 2022. Opening Hours: Sunday to Thursday 9:30 am – 4:30 pm, Friday 10:30 am – 1:30 pm, Saturday 9:30 am – 3:30 pm Admission is Free! The exhibition is supported by JNF-USA and the family circle of friends of Dov Shiloah The Works: Gershon Knispel Signing the Peace Petition in the Akko market 1953, 1953-1954 Oil on Canvas, 363X197 Collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Courtesy of the Latin American Memorial. Sao Paulo Brazil Photography: Elad Sharig Shimon Sabar, “Signing the Peace Petition in the Akko Market 1953”, 2002 Grid print on cotton paper, 97.5X79 Source: Gershon Knispel Collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Photo: Tel Aviv Museum of Art