In 2005, the street art icon hacked the separation barrier in Israel’s West Bank with an explosion of powerful imagery. His work on the highly politically debated wall is now part of a large collection of Palestinian and Israeli graffiti there. The wall has become a kind of unwritten forum for citizens to speak their minds and send out their messages through their artwork. Banksy’s contribution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict debate on the separation barrier is a prime example of site-specific work – the location of the artwork is the origin of the meaning. Though some of his pieces are primarily aesthetic, it is clear that the images he created on the Israeli barrier are examples of political activism.
Although Banksy’s artwork on the barrier are simplified and open for interpretation, his message that many Palestinians are being negatively affected by its presence is clear. “The murals focused international attention away from the street protests and towards the Palestinian cause of the immediate conflict, the West Bank Wall. The protests showed that the presence of the wall now disturbed the settlement movement for the Israeli citizens as well as inhibiting the freedoms of the Palestinians”.1 Above all, is work reminds us not to forget that through any political conflict, innocent people are always harmed.
In a private interview with pop artist Shepard Fairy on the topic of creating these particular images, Banksy explained his neutrality:
I have sympathy for both sides in that conflict, and I did receive a lot of support
from regular Israelis, but if the Israeli government had known we were going
over there to do a sustained painting attack on their wall, there’s no way that
we’d have been tolerated. They are very paranoid. They do not want the wall to
be an issue in the West. On the Israeli side of the wall they bank it up with soil
and plant flowers so you do not even know its there. On the Palestinian side it is
just an f**king huge mass of concrete.2
Banksy created a total of nine images on the Israeli separation barrier during his visit to the West Bank. His work there is striking and extremely controversial. The “graffiti” works on the wall have become a reason for pilgrimmage and tourism to the sites. “Tour guides in the West Bank, where Banksy recently decorated the enormous Israeli security wall, report that they now have as many requests to see his paintings as they do Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity”.3
1 Moscovitz, Talia H., "Through the wall : the West Bank wall as global canvas" (2007). Honors Junior/Senior Projects. Paper 54. http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d10006333
2 “BANKSY; the Man, the Myth, the Miscreant.” Swindle, no 8, p.91.
3 Addley, Esther. “Esther Addley speaks to people behind a new love affair with graffiti.” The Guardian. Saturday 30 September 2006. p. 42.
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