Cyprus

Between 1945 and 1949, 59000 Jewish emigrates came through to Cyprus to the new land of Israel. They were detained in Cyprus by the British authorities, mainly at the Karaolos camp in Famagusta, in an attempt to regulate the numbers flowing into Israel. The Karaolos camp has become a landmark in the history of the establishment of the new State of Israel and is visited and commemorated often by those who were detained there. This people lived under dire conditions, housed in nissan huts and tents provided by the British militia, surrounded by barbed wire and were vigilantly kept under surveillance. The painting is by an artist-detainee who wished to record the adversity of life in the camps. It is early morning. The sun is setting the sky on fire, well captured by the artist in an array of colours ranging from yellow to bright red. At the foreground, the viewer can see the entrances of two nissan huts, doors open, as the inhabitants are setting off on their daily chores. There is not much movement, the scene rather expressing a docile and uneventful mode of life. The artist seems to want to enliven the scene with vibrant colours. Through the sunrise he portrays, he is perhaps alluding to the joyful prospect of an eventual arrival to the Promised Land.