Born in 1945, Hisham Halawani is a resident of the Jerusalem city neighbourhood of as-Sowana. He studied electronic engineering at the University of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, and then in Germany. He was sentenced to 75 years in prison in 1974 and was released in a prisoner exchange deal in 1985, after which he worked in his family shop in Jerusalem.

The Hisham Halawani Collection contains several personal photographs and letters between Halawani and his family, which convey his experience in prison in all its forms, and the circumstances that surrounded him during his years of imprisonment, including his feeling of loneliness and news of the strikes that the prisoners went through. It also includes some of the artworks that Hisham made for his wife and son.