Palestine-Mandate

This is the message that was painted in large square bright blue paint on The Wall just beside the concrete guard tower at Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem - the main checkpoint between the West Bank and Israel: CTRl + ALT + DELETE.

Would that it were so easy.

An Israeli friend explained the other day that The Wall is actually a barrier between Israel and the third intifada, which he believes is coming. His only problem is that he believes The Wall should be built not on Palestinian land but only on the Green Line - the line crossed by the Israeli military in the June 1967 war, when they occupied the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip — as well as the Golan Heights.

Meanwhile new Wall art has appeared in Bethlehem:

McClatchy newspapers’ Dion Nissenbaum covered this development in his blog, Checkpoint Jerusalem, yesterday. He wrote: “Welcome to Santa’s Ghetto, a new artistic/political collaboration led by the celebrated/infamous/mysterious British artist known as Banksy.
In what is probably the biggest artistic assault ever on Israel’s separation barrier, Banksy organized a team of artists this Christmas season to transform parts of the towering concrete walls — and the surrounding walls of Bethlehem — into powerful political statements about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…”

Dion’s post continues: “Banksy first came to the Middle East two years ago to put his imprint on the wall … This year, Banksy returned with an artistic posse and decided to bring Santa’s Ghetto to Bethlehem as a way to highlight the political situation…”

Dion reports, on his blog, that “Banksy and the other artists have set up a temporary art space in an abandoned shop on Bethlehem’s Manger Square, right across from the Church of the Nativity where tradition says Christ was born … Banksy’s artistic initiative has helped spark an interesting debate about art on Israel’s wall.  There are some local artists, including Mansour, who feel that painters should not use the wall as a canvas.  Some feel that artists shouldn’t do anything to transform an ugly and divisive wall into something beautiful.  Others think that artists will, in some small way, want to keep the wall standing once they have put their artistic stamp on it.  Those that do use the wall for their art see it as an opportunity to draw attention to the political conflict … If Banksy was there to witness the reactions, few knew: As always, Banksy remains an enigmatic figure who conceals his true identity”.  Dion Nissenbaum’s blog post on new murals painted on The Wall in Bethlehem was published yesterday here.

The original story, apparently, appeared in The Times of London, here, even gives a link to the Santa’s Ghetto website, here :

Today, the Bethlehem-based Palestinian news agency Ma’an covered the story, reporting that “Six new murals by the illusive English graffiti artist known as Banksy have appeared on the separation wall around Bethlehem in the past few days”. Ma’an added that “Banksey” had “moved on to the Palestinian territories in 2005 using the Israeli separation wall as a canvas for nine politically-motivated pieces. His murals reflect Palestinian isolation and the hardships endured under Israeli occupation. He uses his talent to mock Israeli soldiers, depicting them as even inspecting the donkeys at the Israeli checkpoints in the Palestinian territories. Palestinian reaction towards Bansky’s graffiti is mixed, varying between anger and applause. Some Palestinians consider his drawing of an Israeli soldier inspecting a donkey’s identity card to be humiliating to the Palestinian people. Others see it as representing the truth, saying Israeli soldiers treat Palestinians like animals…

The Ma’an report continues: “Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of Bethlehem residents who turned out to see Banksy’s latest art work particularly loved the mural of the little Palestinian girl searching an Israeli soldier”. The Ma’an report is posted here.

This photo from the Santa’s Ghetto website — Actually, I think the little girl doesn’t really look Palestinian — but rather more like a character in a children’s story … like Dorothy from Oz.]

The Guardian newspaper reported about Banksy being back in Bethlehem in an article written from London on Monday. According to The Guardian, the new artwork on The Wall is a “publicity stunt” designed to help increase tourism in Bethlehem as Christmas approaches: “Guerrilla Artist” Banksy has returned to the Holy Land, with his trademark stencils and spray paints, in an effort to revive the tourist industry and stir interest in the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis … Banksy, who has successfully outfoxed the art world over his identity, has ‘tagged’ the 436-mile West Bank wall before. In 2005, he stencilled nine scenes of life beyond the concrete wall, sparking a craze for international graffiti artists to leave their mark on the eight metre-high concrete barrier and winning plaudits from human rights campaigners for his satirical attack on the wall, which borders large sections of the occupied territories. His latest publicity stunt is timed to coincide with today’s opening of an exhibition of his work, and that of other artists, in the city which aims to bring tourists back to Bethlehem over the Christmas period. Banksy said: ‘Because of the troubles Bethlehem is no longer a top tourist destination, but it would be good if more people came to see the situation for themselves … If it is safe enough for a bunch of sissy artists, then it is safe enough for anyone’. Visitors will be able to buy original Banksy works at his Santa’s Ghetto exhibition in the city until Christmas Eve”. The report in The Guardian can be read here.

There have been a number of critiques of the Palestinian negotiating team for not mentioning, for example, The Wall. In a recent conversation about the lack of Palestinian initiative on the subject with Palestinian Authority officials in Bethlehem, I was informed that Palestinians believe this is a matter that the international community should tackle. [But the international community has decided that its conscience has been soothed by long, slow efforts to open a Register of Damages caused by The Wall -- and the Registry is helpfully based at the UN Office in Vienna...]

The Times of London, meanwhile, calls Banksy “the best-known British urban artist”, and has reported that “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are among his growing array of fans, after reportedly spending more than £1 million on his works at a sale at Lazarides gallery in Soho this year”. This Times report can be read here.

The Santa’s Ghetto website says, here, that the point is simply this: “Bethlehem is one of the most contentious places on earth. Perched at the edge of the Judaen desert at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa in the state of Palestine [n.b. -- state? Not quite yet...], it was governed by the British following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. After World War II the United Nations voted to partition the region into two states - one Jewish, one Arab and there’s been fighting ever since. It’s obviously not the job of a loose collection of idiot doodlers to tell you what’s right or wrong about this situation, so you’re advised to do further reading yourself (this month’s National Geographic has an excellent article all about Bethlehem). We would like to make it very clear Santa’s Ghetto is not allied to ANY race, creed, religion, political organization or lobby group. As an organisation the only thing we’ll say on behalf of our artists is that we don’t speak on behalf of our artists. This show simply offers the ink-stained hand of friendship to ordinary people in an extraordinary situation“.