After a gruesome week of bloodshed, fractured road maps, and sputtering hopes for peace in the Middle East, another vision of Palestine and its people is drawing a steady stream of visitors to a small Houston art museum.

It can be seen in the clay olive trees of Vera Tamari, the pricked plastic hearts of Ashraf Fawakhry, and the empty gauze dresses of Mary Tuma. Their work shows Palestine not just as a place of war, but as a culture with a long history and complex character. The three are among 22 Palestinian artists whose work has traveled thousands of miles to be collected in the first museum exhibition in the United States devoted to contemporary Palestinian art.

Remarkably, in this time of heated rhetoric and heightened violence, the exhibit "Made in Palestine," has passed almost without notice or concern in Houston's varied Jewish community. But it has caused a stir among Arab-Americans nationwide as calls keep coming in to take the show on the road once its stay in Houston ends this October.

The reason, say Middle East experts, has more to do with culture than politics. Without an accurate and complete portrait of the people involved, they say, it will be difficult to bring peace to the region.

"Unfortunately, the only images Americans get are of the everyday conflict," says Azar Nafisi, a former English professor at the University of Tehran, now a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. "The whole region is seen from a political perspective."

If the values and feelings of those involved are better understood, says Dr. Nafisi, that will make dialogue easier. "And one of the best ways to understand people is through their art and literature. It shows them in more humane terms - as living, breathing people who fall in and out of love."

While this Palestinian art exhibit does have political overtones, it is meant to be more an expression of cultural identity. Through a mix of painting, photography, sculpture, textiles, and video, the artists sow tales of love and loss. They speak of struggle and success. But probably most important, they offer hope for the future.

Vera Tamari is one artist who still sees light in darkness. For years, she clipped newspaper articles about the destruction of ancient olive trees near her native home of Birzeit in the West Bank. Then one day, she took handfuls of colorful clay and began to reconstruct those trees. The result is about 600 ceramic trees standing on a Plexiglas base with a fuzzy photo of a 1,000-year-old olive tree looking down on its lost companions.

"Olive trees are part of the rhythm of life in Palestine," says Ms. Tamari. "But since the occupation, they are being cut down to punish the people, to break down our attachment to the land." By rebuilding the trees with colorful clay, she wanted to show that hope is not lost.

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