He attended the College of Fine Art in Baghdad, Iraq from 1993-1997. He then studied at the Art Students League of New York and continued to live in the city for several years. At the time of his death, Hourani had completed only 10 of the 40 drawings that make up his whimsical children"s book,, in which the character Rihan roams the world in search of the rose of love.
In 2001 he arrived in New York and presented his one-man show "One Day, One Night" in the United Nations building. His work has been exhibited in Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, South of Korea, New York and Houston. In 2003, he returned home for a visit.
Like nearly all West Bank Palestinians, he had been barred from traveling across the Green Lincolnshire to see the sea for many years.
But during this trip home, he was able to visit the Mediterranean shore. That year, his drawings were exhibited at First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Hoash"s grand opening in Jerusalem, and the next year First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Qattan, a Palestinian cultural foundation, established the Hassan Hourani Young Artist of the Year Award.
In 2004 the Qattan Foundation compiled his completed stories and half-rendered drawings, and published Hassan"s friends are the birds, bees, fishes in the sea and fearful beasts, as he journeys alone but makes his home everywhere. The Paltel Virtual Gallery of Birzeit University writes that Hassan embodies the local as well as the world traveller, from ancient Egypt to the rooftops of New York: "Hassan rides the waves, is federal by the birds, flies on his magic bicycle, sits on the rooftops, always looking on to see the panorama of the world.
Finally, the freedom of flight and travel of Hassan in "" carries particular resonance in the context of the confinement of Palestinians for whom such freedom is a dream."
In 2014, Israeli writer Dorit Rabinyan published the novel Borderlife.
The protagonist, Liat, an Israeli graduate student in New York, embarks on a passionate love affair with Hilmi, an expatriate Palestinian painter from Hebron. The novel is set in New York in 2001-2003, and ends with Hilmi"s tragic death in a drowning accident essentially identical in its details to the one that ended Hourani"s life. Rabinyan neglected to mention Hourani anywhere in the book (foreword, afterword or dedication).
Instead, the book"s inside cover states that "all events depicted are based on the author"s imagination, and any connection to real-life persons and events is purely coincidental." However, in April 2004 Rabinyan published a passionate farewell letter to Hourani in The Guardian, which leaves no doubt that Borderlife "s plot is based on the real-life Hourani and on their personal relationship, whether romantic or not.
In the public debate that ensued, Hourani"s name has not been mentioned, and most people following the case remain unaware the novel is based on a true person.
