writing on the walls: resistance art in...
TRANSCRIPT
Kelsey Sheridan
Loras College
12/15/2011
2011Writing on the Walls: Resistance Art in Palestine
Writings on the Walls: Resistance Art in Palestine 1
“A country is not only what it does, it is also what it tolerates.” – Kurt
Tucholsky. This quote is spray painted across the Israel/Palestine Separation
barrier, or as it is commonly referred to in this paper, the Wall. While this
quote is interesting and thought-provoking in its own right, it is its placement
of the quote that is most intriguing of all. Not only is this Tucholsky quote
found on the Wall, it is found first and foremost in the Yad Vashem Holocaust
Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel. The irony of this quote being in both places is
that it is used to highlight the injustice done to people; in the case of Israel it
is used to highlight the injustice done to the Jewish people by Germany
during the Holocaust, and in the Palestinian case it is used to highlight the
injustice done by Israel in the Israel/Palestine conflict. However it is out of 1 Israeli Separation Barrier, Palestine. Personal photograph by John Eby. Nov. 2011.
the Israel/Palestine conflict and because of the oppression of the Palestinian
people by the state of Israel that a style of creative and non-violent
expression came to flourish – resistance art. Through the various styles of
resistance art, graffiti and murals, the Palestinians found a peaceful and
artistic way to discuss and represent their struggle.
Palestinian resistance art comes in a variety of forms, the ones that will
be discussed specifically in this paper are the artworks on the Wall, graffiti
works and mural works throughout Palestine. The resistance art of Palestine
is exhibited in a variety of venues, such as buildings, houses, businesses and
the Separation barrier, and the choice made by the artists for the location of
the venue for their work is essential to the content of the message being
portrayed. Several themes appear as particularly important to visual
representations of dissent and resistance in Palestinian territories. Peace,
Right of Return, Equality, and Resistance are essential messages that
characterize the public art of Palestine. These messages vary, however,
depending upon the venue of public art. While images on the Wall reflect
messages of equality and resistance, other public venues emphasize the
importance of the Right of Return and the promulgation of injustice upon
Palestinians. The character of Palestinian public art reflects the social
consensus on the approach to resistance, which is to opt for non-violent
means. This is shown especially in contrast to the public art of Northern
Ireland at the height of the Troubles, where themes of armed resistance
were prominent.
Only recently has resistance art, especially the resistance art in
Palestine, become a topic of discussion amongst cultural anthropologists,
historians and scholars. While there have been various discussions about
Palestinian art, mostly about art following the fall of the Ottoman Empire,
resistance art such as graffiti and murals have been relatively untouched by
scholarly debate. Now while Palestinian art has been a topic that has been
researched, as of 1987 it was a relatively unique discussion. Gannit Ankori,
an Associate Professor of Art History who teaches at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, whose book Palestinian Art discusses the idea of Palestinian
identity represented through art, discusses this issue of a lack of research on
Palestinian art. She writes about the struggle in the preface of her book,
talking about how she was invited to take part in a conference in 1986 whose
theme was ‘Jerusalem in Art’ and how she decided to look at images of
Jerusalem painted by Palestinian artists. She writes that
I had approximately one year to prepare my lecture. Naively, I was certain that I would find numerous books on Palestinian art from which I could choose images of Jerusalem that I would be able to study and analyze. Little did I know that this could not be done for the simple reason that there was then virtually no research literature on Palestinian art.2
Much like Gannit Ankori there were issues finding reliable and relevant
sources discussing the historiography of resistance art in Palestine, thus for
this paper the majority of historiography came from sources discussing the
general background of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The general
historiography of the conflict obviously does not pay much attention to art,
2 Gannit Ankori, Palestinian Art. (Reaktion Books, 2006) 3.
instead it focuses on primary documents and the discussion of memory.
Memory as a topic of discussion, mostly regarding memories as a primary
source of information, mostly focuses on the research of 3 people; Benny
Morris, Lila Abu Lugod and Ilan Pappe.
Benny Morris is known as the founder of the New Historian approach.
This approach finds faults with the Israeli military and their practices during
the 1948 war and subsequent years. Instead of the Old Historian approach
which viewed the tactics of the army as justified the New Historians looked
at the Israeli military documents once they were declassified, and criticized
the decisions that were made and the treatment of the Palestinians during
their expulsion from Israel. Unlike most New Historians, however, Benny
Morris does not believe that memory is a valid source for information. He
thinks that memory is tainted by personal experience and trauma, detracting
from the relevance of the information that memory can provide.
On the other end of the memory-debate spectrum is Lila Abu Lugod.
Abu Lugod wrote a book called Nakba: Palestine, 1948 and the Claims of
Memory. In the book she writes about what the Palestinians refer to as the
“Nakba;” the expulsion of Palestinians from their land by the Israeli military.
The importance of memory is emphasized in this book, and Abu Lugod relies
heavily on the testimony of Palestinian people to create her argument. She
writes that memory is, “the product of fragmentary and personal collective
experiences”3 and that to remember is “to reconstruct, reinterpret and
represent events for specific audiences and in specific contexts.”4
When Ronald Reagan asked Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down a wall it
became one of the most widely quoted speeches in history. In a speech in
West Berlin in 1987 these words symbolized the desire for democracy to
penetrate behind the cement wall that had kept East Germany isolated and
controlled by the USSR for almost 30 years. When the wall finally came down
it was one of the most memorable and momentous events in American
history. Today it seems crazy that something like the Berlin Wall could have
existed and been allowed to exist for so long; what sense of justice is there
in building walls around people.
That is exactly the question that Palestinians ask themselves daily as
they are forced to live behind Israeli-built cement walls. Since 2002 Israel
has been constructing a concrete wall around the occupied Palestinian
territory, effectively sealing the West Bank and Palestinians off from the rest
of the world. The Wall, as said by street artist Banksy, “stands three times
the height of the Berlin Wall and will eventually run for over 700km – the
distance from London to Zurich. Palestine is now the world’s largest open-air
prison and the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti artists”.5 Israel
views the Wall as a security measure that is vital to their nation’s safety and
the safety of their people. Palestinian resistance groups have adopted violent 3. Lila Abu-Lugod, Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007) 208. 4 Abu-Logod, Nakba, 208. 5 Bansky, Wall and Piece (London: Random House UK, 2007), 136.
measures such as suicide bombings as a way to fight for their freedom and
their land. By building the Wall and installing check points where the Israeli
army monitor the people entering and exiting Palestine into Israel they are
limiting the ability of suicide bombers or people with weapons to inflict
violence on other citizens. Since the Wall has gone up the number of suicide
bombings have decreased, but whether that is because of the Wall itself or
because Palestinians have decided to resist in a different way cannot be said
for sure. Either way Israel says that the Wall is a necessary measure in
providing a safe environment for their people. On the other side of the
conflict the Palestinians view the Wall as a strategic attempt by Israel to
continuously encroach upon their land and systematically destroy the morale
and spirits of the Palestinian people. They see the Wall as a jail cell and as a
way for Israel to keep oppressing them. The Wall separates the Palestinian
people from their farm land and their livelihood, limiting their ability to do
their jobs and provide for their families. However by constructing the Wall
the Israeli government has unwittingly given the people of the West Bank a
giant canvas upon which to exhibit their feelings; feelings about Israel, about
the Wall, their situation, their resistance, and essentially about whom they
are as a people. The walls of the barrier are covered with Palestinian images
of identity and resistance.
It has been said that people are a product of their environment.
However in the West Bank you can say that the environment is the product
of the people. Since the beginning of construction on the Wall almost a
decade ago the Palestinian people have created a visual exhibition of their
oppression. All along the length of the Wall there are murals, paintings, and
graffiti. However these are more than just pretty pictures or the graffiti of
angsty teenagers looking for a way to rebel, they are pictures of a homeland
lost, dreams of the future, images of despair and words of peace, hope,
anger and loss. They are symbols of Palestine. In his book, Against the Wall,
William Parry writes that, “the Wall has become an enormous visual petition,
an ephemeral forum, a pictorial rant and reprimand, calling for resistance,
justice, freedom and solidarity, and a plea for understanding and humanity”.6
When the people or artists of Palestine create the images that decorate the
Wall they are in essence putting pieces of themselves on the wall, they are
manifesting their identity through art.
While there are hundreds of various images and graffiti messages
covering the walls of the West Bank separation barrier, the one that
embodies the identity of the Palestinian the most is a simple slogan, “to exist
is to resist.” To the Palestinian people a major part of who they are as a
people and a nation is their continued existence in defiance of the Israeli
people and the Israeli state.
6 William Parry, Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine (Lawrence: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011) 10.
7
This theme of “to exist is to resist” is a central part of Palestinian identity
and life. Because of the Israeli governments continued efforts to relocate the
people of Palestine from their land and to create a purely Israeli state the
continued resistance of Palestinians against these efforts is essential to their
survival as a people. The Palestinians know that in order to keep the land
they have now and to regain the land that has been lost to encroaching
settlements they must resist the Israeli government, army, and sometimes
even people. Every day the Palestinian people fight to keep their way of life,
and it is because of this fact that the “to exist is to resist” mentality has
been adopted as a part of Palestinian life and identity. This image is
reminding the people of Palestine that just by living their life and continuing
7 Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine, by William Parry. (Lawrence: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011) 133.
to inhabit the land they are fighting back against the oppression of the state
of Israel, because for years the Israeli government and army have been
chasing the Palestinian people out of their homes, limiting where they live,
restricting where they are allowed to go and confining them behind
enormous concrete walls, trying to remove them and create a purely Israeli
state.
Despite all of this the Palestinian people continue to occupy the land
that they have been living on for thousands of years. When asked how they
endure what Israel puts them through a Palestinian man named Mohamad
Issa responds, “it’s the Palestinian spirit. They can build walls around us,
they can subject us to this every day, but they can’t break our spirit”.8 For
the people of Palestine “to exist is to resist” is more than just a catchy
saying sprayed onto the walls surrounding them, it is a sentiment that lives
within each and every Palestinian and it is the embodiment of their way of
life. Not only is existence part of resistance for these people, but resistance
in turn is part of their existence. Muhammed Jayyousi, a Palestinian youth
coordinator in the village of Jayyous, puts it perfectly when he says, “to resist
is to exist or we will lose more of our land. We need to come back for as long
as it takes to show Israel that we won’t accept the Wall, we won’t live in a
ghetto, we won’t be refugees in our own land. It’s our only choice.”9 When
Palestinian people write this on the Wall they are reminding the Israelis, the
world, and themselves that they are not going anywhere, that they will 8 Parry, Against the Wall, 91. 9 Parry, Against the Wall, 188.
continue to live on that land and fight for their freedom for as long as it
takes. Different aspects of Palestinian identity can be seen in the recurrence
of symbols and/or themes in the artwork and graffiti along the Wall. Parry
writes that from the artwork on the Wall people can see that there are,
“symbols central to Palestinian identity, denoting resistance, liberation,
affinity to the land, Palestinian refugees’ ‘right to return’ and national unity”. 10 These symbols are all featured in artwork and graffiti along the Wall, the
Palestinian artists are heavily influenced by these ideas and themes and
incorporate them in the images and phrases they create. Resistance is a
theme that is heavily showcased by Palestinian artists in their artwork,
whether the work is advocating violent or non-violent resistance, the
defiance of Israel is the main idea that artists are trying to exhibit in their
work. One example of resistance in graffiti is a phrase written in English
saying “the only peace Israel wants is a piece of my land.”
11
10 Parry, Against the Wall, 10. 11 Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine, by William Parry. (Lawrence: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011) 126.
This image does not scream resistance or a desire to continue to struggle. It
is written in English, it is not a large piece of work, it is subdued and quiet
against some of the other images that are featured on the Wall. However, it
continues to advocate the continued fight of the Palestinian people against
their Israeli oppressors. By stating that Israel is not interested in peace, but
only in land, the creator is saying that Israel constantly claims that it wants
peace; however the actions of Israel directly contradict these hopes of
reaching peace with Palestine. Through actions such as settlement of
occupied areas, the construction of the Wall and trying to block Palestine’s
entry into the United Nations Israel continues to act in a way that does not
promote peace between itself and Palestine in the perspective of the
Palestinians. It is important to think about the way the artist presents their
work to the intended audience. It is also important to consider why the artist
would want to present their work in such a subdued manner. The subtleness
of the image and its message leads us to infer that the artist wants the
Palestinian people to resist peacefully, to not resort to acts of violence or
totally succumb to their feelings of rage and anger towards Israel. Like the
phrase “to exist is to resist” the artist is advocating that just by living their
lives and standing up for their rights peacefully that they will eventually
overcome the oppression.
While violence does seem to be the obvious choice for resistance or
defiance of Israel, this is not a major theme that can be seen in the
artwork of the Wall. Most artwork advocating for the Palestinian people to
resist Israel promote messages of non-violence. This can be seen in an image
of a piece of artwork taken from the wall in which a raised fist is holding a
human heart with the words ‘your heart is a weapon the size of your fist,
keep fighting, keep loving,’ written on the wrist of the arm.
12
12 Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine, by William Parry. (Lawrence: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011) 73.
There are two ways for the audience to view this image, and it all depends
on perspective. At first the image seems to promote love as a solution,
showing that the artist believes that violence will in no way help the situation
between the two states, and that in order to solve the problems that have
erupted between Israel and Palestine that peace must be a priority as well as
a method to achieve an agreement. It seems as though the artist is not
advocating the supremacy and control of the Israeli state over Palestine, but
that their message is one of peaceful resistance, not of violence and
retaliation. However, the more one looks at the image another meaning can
be seen presenting itself. Instead of the peaceful resistance that is first
imagined, the image could be advocating a more defiant resistance to Israeli
occupation. The fist can be seen as a symbol of power and determination, of
a continued fight while the heart can be seen as a symbol of courage.
Looking at these images together from the second examination of the
artwork the message seems to be that of the artist telling the people of
Palestine to be brave be strong and to continue fighting. While the image is
not overtly demanding a violent resistance against the Israeli’s it does
advocate a continued defiance of Israeli oppression; that the love they have
for their land and their commitment to resistance will one day free Palestine.
On a part of the Wall there is an image of a cactus, wearing the
traditional keffiyeh of the Palestinian men. To a non-Palestinian this picture
would seem strange, but to a Palestinian it is a symbol of resistance. The
sabra, or prickly pear cactus (sabr means patience), has come to symbolize
Palestinian steadfastness and resistance. In his book Parry writes about the
symbolism of the sabra, saying…
The cactus is able to survive the harshest conditions and it regrows if cut. In the Palestinian villages that the Israelis depopulated and destroyed in 1948, often the sabra cacti are all that remain – the cacti were used to protect against trespassers and to demarcate borders around homes. Jewish militias demolished many of the buildings but the sabra remain, revealing the boundaries of the homes dispossessed.13
14
13 Parry, Against the Wall, 186. 14 Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine, by William Parry. (Lawrence: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011) 186.
This image is a constant reminder to the people of Palestine of what they
have lost, but also of how they persevere. Like the sabra cactus they survive
in the most difficult of conditions, continuing to thrive even though they have
been driven out of their land, kicked out of their homes, and enclosed behind
a wall. The picture reminds them to continue to resist, waiting patiently for
their time of freedom to come. This image embodies both messages of the
Palestinian right to return and resistance.
These images of resistance inspire the people of Palestine to not give
up hope for freedom. They remind the people that resistance is a part of
their identity, and just by living they are fighting against Israel. It can clearly
be seen that resistance is a major part of the Palestinian identity through the
artwork and graffiti of the Wall.
The artwork on the Wall is not the only form of artistic expression that
the Palestinians use to resist Israel and to offer messages of hope,
remembrance and defiance. Starting with the First Intifada in 1987 graffiti
became a way for Palestinian people to connect with their communities. Not
only were the walls of the occupied territories covered with graffiti art but
also with news about the Intifada. The Palestinians took control of their
environment and worked it to their advantage, decorating the walls of
Palestine with news and messages for people. In The Writing on the Walls:
The Graffiti of the Intifada the author discusses the Palestinian use of graffiti
as a news source. He writes that,
Popularly dubbed a ‘war of stones,’ stone-throwing images dominated the Intifada’s public presentation. Indeed it was a war of stones, but stones were more than weapons of defense: they were print weapons as well. With its preponderance of stones and stone walls, the landscape provided readymade, easily accessible weapons of communication, assault and defense.15
This idea of Palestinians using the walls and graffiti as a way to inform the
people about what was happening is echoed in a book about the graffiti of
the Gaza Strip by Mia Gröndahl. Gröndahl writes that during the Intifada the
Israeli’s censored the Palestinian newspapers, and because there was no
Palestinian TV or radio with which to communicate the events of the Intifada
people were not aware of what was going on. She says that,
The walls became the self-evident communication channel – a place to create newspapers that could reach everyone in Gaza. In graffiti, the Intifada’s activists had found a way to inform Gaza residents about what was happening: the walls told them who had fallen in battle,
15 Julie Peteet. “Writing on the Walls: The Graffiti of the Intifada.” Cultural Anthropology 11 (1996): 139.
summoned them to take part in new protests, and encouraged them to continue resisting.16
Not only was graffiti a way to inform people about what was going on but it
soon became a way for the Palestinians to upset the balance of power
between themselves and the Israelis. In her article Peteet says that, “for
Palestinians, graffiti was an intervention in a relationship of power,”17 and
that “both the act of writing and the reading of its content disrupted
dominant-subordinate relations in various ways.”18 By creating this graffiti
the Palestinians were able to upset the traditional domination of Israel over
the Palestinians; Israel was trying to keep the people uninformed, to limit
their knowledge about what was going on, but the Palestinians disrupted
their attempts by writing on the walls and telling the people about what was
going on. Just like today, during the First Intifada graffiti was a symbol of
resistance. Even the use of landscape became an act of resistance when it
came to writing graffiti. The Israeli soldiers made sure to try and limit the use
of graffiti, making people immediately wash their walls when it showed up.
While sometimes the message of the graffiti was that of resistance, the
action of writing graffiti itself was more the act of defiance or resistance
against Israel. Peteet writes,
Graffiti suggested and beckoned for people to resist, to take action. Private property in the form of walls – which demarcated residences or businesses – was mobilized. Aside from declaring the popular communal nature of the uprising, taking over privately owned walls for inscription was also an act of internal politicization and mobilization,
16 Mia Gröndahl. Gaza Graffiti: Messages of Love and Politics (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2009) 10. 17 Peteet, Writing on the Walls, 139. 18 Peteet, Writing on the Walls, 143.
since owners of walls of print would be confronted by soldiers demanding erasure and payment of fines of roughly 700 Israeli shekels (about $350).19
Gröndahl also mentions the Israeli policy of removing graffiti immediately.
She says that the Israeli military would often invade a Palestinian refugee
camp and order the people living there out of their houses and force them to
wash the walls of their homes clean of graffiti. However, “as soon as the
soldiers had disappeared in their jeeps, the graffiti activists returned with
their battery of paint can and sprayed new slogans in the fight for a free
Palestine.”20 Graffiti became an integral part of the resistance movement in
Palestine, and continues to play a major role in the struggle against Israel.
What is interesting about the graffiti of Palestine today is that it has
not only been adopted by the people as an act of resistance, but also by the
political parties. Hamas and Fatah have really embraced this idea of using
the walls to broadcast messages of defiance and hope to the Palestinians.
Graffiti has become such a part of the Palestinian identity that Hamas and
Fatah train their graffiti artists in design, painting and calligraphy so that
they can spray paint messages for those parties around the city. Each
political organization has its own staff of calligraphers in Palestine, because it
is not enough to just spray paint on a wall, the ability and the art of writing
beautifully is essential.21 It is important for the artists to be skilled in
calligraphy; otherwise the message could be lost among all the other graffiti
that covers the walls of Palestine. For quite some time there was 19 Peteet, Writing on the Walls, 143. 20 Gröndahl, Gaza Graffiti, 10. 21 Gröndahl, Gaza Graffiti, 28.
competitiveness between the two parties, each trying to outdo each other
creatively, while still respecting each other’s territory; they refrained from
painting on walls belonging to the opposite party. However that changed
after Hamas won the election in 2006 and came to power in Gaza. Hamas
was “aware of graffiti’s power, [and] the political party toke sole control of
what was painted on the walls.”22 From then on the only political messages
permitted were those of Hamas, and Fatah was limited to writing harmless
messages just trying to inform people of their continued existence.
The act of creating graffiti may be an important part of Palestinian identity
and resistance, but the context behind the phrases and slogans of the graffiti
cannot be over looked. Much like the artwork on the Wall graffiti continues to
have the main themes of resistance, Palestinian identity and right of return.
On a wall in Palestine there is an image of a city surrounded by walls with an
open door way. Scrawled across the wall is the phrase “we are returning”
with an image of a key dangling from the letter “n.” The graffiti is written in
the Ruq’a script, one of the 6 different types of scripts used in graffiti. Unlike
other scripts used specifically for literature or quotes from the Qur’an Ruq’a
is an easily readable script that is used for all kinds of messages.
23
22 Gröndahl, Gaza Graffiti, 14. 23 Gaza Graffiti: Messages of Love and Politics, Mia Gröndahl (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2009) 147.
The graffiti clearly states the message of the artwork, we are returning.
Because the artist used the Ruq’a script, which is able to be read by all
Palestinians the message is meant for all the people of Palestine. The use of
the image of a key is important. The key is called the ‘key of homecoming’
and it is a visual symbol of the right of return. The right to return is an
essential part of Palestinian identity. It is the driving force behind the entire
Palestinian resistance; the land is what they’re fighting for; the land that has
their homes, their farms, their culture. If the right to return was not such a
major aspect of the identity of the Palestinian people Israel would have taken
over all of Palestine long ago. This image is reminding the people of Palestine
what they are fighting for, what they’ve lost and what they one day will have
back.
Another image that also incorporates this theme of right to return in
graffiti is taken from a piece commissioned by the PFLP, a left-wing
organization within the PLO. Written on the wall in red and yellow paint and
outlined in black the text reads “we return to resist” on the top row in Naskh,
which is a popular style for graffiti, and “no compromises” on the bottom row
in free-style script.
24
24 Gaza Graffiti: Messages of Love and Politics, Mia Gröndahl (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2009) 75.
Interestingly the themes of resistance and right of return are incorporated
into one statement in this piece. Instead of being two separate ideas of
Palestinians returning home to their land and resistance against Israel this
slogan of “we return to resist” creates a new aspect of Palestinian resistance.
The message that the PFLP is sending is that not only should Palestinians
have the right to return to their land, which could be seen as a peaceful
return, but that they are going to return to the land that was taken from
them and they are going to resist the nation of Israel anyway they can. The
statement “no compromises” builds on this theme of resistance against
Israel because it is saying that one way or the other Palestine is going to
take their land back, no matter what. Palestine has tried to compromise with
Israel in the past and each time Israel has not honored their agreements, and
Palestine has gotten tired of it. Not only does this statement point to Israel
not honoring agreements, but it also points to the perceived weakness of
Fatah in negotiations with the Israelis. Fatah was the party that took part in
the negotiations during the Oslo Accords, and they compromised a lot in
order to reach an agreement with Israel; in the view of a lot of Palestinians
they compromised too much. This image is also a criticism of Oslo. The PFLP
is saying that Palestine will no longer compromise with Israel, that the time
for compromise is over and that it is time to get their land back.
Along a wall there is the word “Palestine” scrawled in beautiful graffiti
in red paint with yellow, black and green outlining it. Just one word, but that
word is powerful. This example of resistance graffiti25 doesn’t seem very
defiant about the struggle against Israel, but it doesn’t have to be. The word
itself is a symbol of resistance; it inspires the love and devotion of a whole
nation of displaced people and reminds them that the treatment they endure
is for something. It reminds them of who they are, where they come from
and what is important. It symbolizes what they have been missing and
hoping for these last 60 years. The word “Palestine” is especially powerful
and meaningful to the people who identify as Palestinians because many
Israeli’s do not even acknowledge the reality of a “Palestine.” Instead of
accepting the reality of Palestine those aforementioned Israeli’s refer to the
north of the West Bank as Samaria and the south as Judea, using the names
that they would have been called in biblical times, when the Jewish people
occupied the area.
26
25 Gröndahl, Gaza Graffiti, 151. 26 Gaza Graffiti: Messages of Love and Politics, Mia Gröndahl (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2009) 151.
Graffiti has become a part of Palestinian identity and resistance. The writings
on the wall “encouraged resistance, cajoled, demanded, critiqued and
provided running political commentary.”27 The graffiti that Palestinians
create are more than just words sprayed upon a wall; for the Palestinians it is
a way “to express your feelings and thoughts.”28 One young graffiti artist
named Maysa said that the reason she does graffiti is because, “I want to tell
the whole world that even though Israel is trying to destroy our lives and kill
us, we will never give up and forget Palestine.”29 This sentiment is echoed in
every Palestinian heart and all along the walls of Palestine, and the colorful
messages remind them of that.
Covering the surfaces of walls, houses and businesses of Palestine are
murals. Much like the artwork of the Wall these are large, colorful images
whose purpose is to send a message. However there is a difference between
27 Peteet, Writing on the Walls, 143. 28 Gröndahl, Gaza Graffiti, 132. 29 Gröndahl, Gaza Graffiti, 132.
the murals on the Wall and the murals on the buildings of Palestine. As we
have seen landscape plays an important part in Palestinian resistance, the
landscape is the canvas on which the artists create their work and share
their messages. The Wall is a major part of the Palestinian landscape, but it
is also a symbol, not just a symbol of oppression for Palestine but a symbol
of injustice all over the world. Because of this artists and tourists who come
to visit Palestine like to leave their own individual artwork or message on the
wall; messages and images calling for peace, messages calling for freedom
and messages of solidarity with the Palestinians, making the Wall an
international canvas. The artwork of the Wall is not entirely Palestinian,
which creates a distinction between murals there and murals around
Palestine itself. It is with this distinction in mind that we can focus on the
murals of Palestine.
Outside of a school in Hebron, where the tensions between the
Palestinians and Israelis are at the highest, a mural is painted on a wall. On a
background of blue there is a rising sun, and in the middle of that sun is an
image of a city surrounded by olives. Flanking the sun are two white doves
each carrying a branch, of what can be assumed to be an olive tree, in their
beaks. Underneath the birds the words “free Palestine” are written, with
something written in Arabic next to the sun.
30
The messages of peace and freedom are blatantly obvious in this mural.
However a more subtle message is really the focus of this piece. The city
inside the rising sun represents Palestine. The olive, one of the staples of
Palestinian life for food and farming, frame the image of the city, making the
connection that the city is Palestine. It is important to see that Palestine is
inside the rising sun, because the message that is being portrayed here is
30 Palestinian Wall, Palestine. Personal photograph by John Eby. Nov. 2011.
that Palestine will one day rise again. For over 60 years Palestine and it’s
people have been oppressed and mistreated by the nation of Israel. Their
land has been taken from them, their families torn apart, and their way of life
altered by the encroachment of the Wall. The days of once glorious Palestine
with its vibrant culture and people have been diminished severely since the
creation of the Israel. However, the artist of this mural is saying that those
days will one day return, and that Palestine will take its place among the
nations of the world. But the artist isn’t saying that the coming-age of
Palestine should be achieved through violence, it can only be done through
peace. The use of the doves carrying the (olive) branches solidifies this
message.
At least 40 clouds float in the sky on a mural painted at one of the
Palestinian refugee camps. Inside each of these clouds is the name of a
village that has been lost to Israel and Israeli settlements. Underneath the
clouds an image of a typical Palestinian village is painted. A mosque, families
playing, homes and animals can all be seen in the mural. It paints quiet the
pretty picture of life before Israel started to remove the Palestinians from
their land.
31
31 Palestinian Refugee Camp, Palestine. Personal photograph by John Eby. Nov. 2011.
Where better to paint a picture representing the loss of land than at a
refugee camp? Its placement among the homeless citizens of Palestine is
poetically fitting. How many of the refugees living in the camp can find the
name of their village or of a village they knew in this mural; most likely a
vast majority of them can. The loss of land is a common theme in Palestinian
art, both mural and graffiti, and it is also a part of Palestinian identity. This
mural serves the dual purpose of reminding the refugees of the homes and
villages they once lived in, of a better time and a better place where they
could live on the land that their ancestors had lived on for generations. But it
also reminds them of what they are fighting for, what they can gain back as
long as they resist Israel’s attempt to acquire all their land.
In the same refugee camp there is a mural that symbolizes another
aspect of Palestinian identity, the right to return. The image shows an outline
of what used to be Palestinian territory. Painted in stripes of black, white and
green a hand emerges from the outline of Palestine, holding up a peace sign.
Next to the representation of Palestine there is a key, and twining around
this whole image is barbed wire.
32
32 Palestinian Refugee Camp, Palestine. Personal photograph by John Eby. Nov. 2011.
The message that can be seen here is that of a peaceful return of Palestine
to the land they once called theirs. The image of the key can be seen in
works of art all throughout Palestine, and it represents the right to return of
the Palestinian people. However the hand holding out the peace sign reflects
a desire for a peaceful return of Palestinians. The barbed wire symbolizes the
captivity of the people of Palestine behind the Separation Wall and in the
refugee camps. But this message of oppression is not overtly blatant; at first
glance the barbed wire is hardly seen, meaning that the message of this
peace is not the oppression Palestinians suffer, but their desire for peace and
to return to their homes.
The genre of resistance art is not unique to the country of Palestine.
Graffiti and mural art is an art form that occurs all over the world, from the
neighborhoods of Chicago to the walls of buildings in South Africa. However
half a world away from Palestine we find a country with a similar history;
politically, socially and artistically. Much like Palestine the country of
Northern Ireland has embraced this tradition of resistance art and made it an
integral part of their culture.
We can see this connection between the two countries not only in this
shared artistic tradition, but also in their support of each other through their
resistance art. Both Palestine and Northern Ireland advocate for the end of
each other’s oppression on the walls of their lands, however before this
aspect of their relationship can be discussed, evidence of their connection
must first be examined, and how environment plays a role in the portrayal of
the message. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this relationship
between the two countries is the way that violence and/or non-violence can
be advocated in these murals.
33
Along a stretch of the Wall surrounding the occupied territories of Palestine a
simple message is spray painted in green, “our revenge will be the laughter
of our children.” This quote was uttered by Irish hunger striker and member
of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, Bobby Sands. As a prisoner of the
British government in 1981 Sands decided to conduct a hunger strike over
the removal of Special Category Status from prisoners of The Troubles, which
lead to his eventual death after 66 days of striking. As a proponent of non-
violent resistance this quote from Sands fits right in among the other images
33 Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine, by William Parry. (Lawrence: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011) 117.
and messages of non-violence that adorn the Wall. In this context, amongst
messages of peace and hope this image and quote also becomes a message
of hope and peace with its focus on the future of the children of Palestine.
One could say that it even evokes a sense of happiness, the future happiness
of the children of Palestine once they break free of the oppression of Israel.
34
Here we have the same quote from Bobby Sands, but this time it is in a
much different context. This image is painted on a wall in Northern Ireland,
its location and connotation completely altered by its change in
environment. On the Wall in Palestine this quote stood for a bright future of
freedom from Israeli oppression, here in Northern Ireland this quote stands
for all that Northern Ireland has lost and suffered at the hands of the British
and Protestant enemies. Because of the situation between the Protestants
34 Dr. Jonathan McCormick, CAIN Mural Directory. Aug. 2001. <http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/mccormick/photos/no1083.htm#photo>
and the Catholics the emphasis seems to be on the word revenge, with
allusion to retaliation. Incorporating the image of Bobby Sands only solidifies
the feeling of loss and suffering; this image does more than just evoke those
feelings, there is an actual reminder of one who has perished because of the
conflict between the varying factions in Northern Ireland. That is one of the
issues with this Northern Irish mural art, the message behind the image is
not one of hope or the right to return, it is a constant everyday reminder of
who has died, only continuing and fueling the feelings of animosity and
hatred between the Protestants and the Catholics.
Through the analysis and interpretation of the previous 2 images a
difference can be seen between the messages of the artwork in Palestine
and Northern Ireland. Unlike Palestine who uses the resistance art to
advocate a message of non-violent resistance the walls of Northern Ireland
suggest themes of accusation, death, violence, anger and hatred which
vastly differs from the Palestinian themes of loss, despair, hope or the right
to return.
35
35 Dr. Jonathan McCormick, CAIN Mural Directory. Sep. 2006. < http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/mccormick/photos/no2750.htm#photo>
The idea of violence is clearly obvious in this image representing the Battle
of the Bogside in Northern Ireland. In the mural there is a young man
wearing a gas mask and holding a Molotov cocktail, which is more or less a
bomb, a weapon of violence. Behind the man there are what appear to be
police officers, which based on history would most likely be Unionists, ready
with their helmets and shields, typical riot gear. The police officers are
standing in front of burning houses, smoke billowing into the air behind the
young man. This image is so drastically different than any images from
Palestine analyzed in this paper; this image is screaming violence and
retaliation for the events that happened during the Battle of the Bogside.
Here there is no symbol of peace of hopeful inference of the people returning
to their land, which can be seen in the resistance art of Palestine. Instead all
that can be inferred from the image is destructiveness and disorder,
completely different than the murals of Palestine.
Violence and attack are constant and pervasive themes in the
resistance art of Northern Ireland. These themes can be seen in an image of
a poster hung on a lamppost in one of the 6 counties of Northern Ireland. The
poster is of a member of the Irish Republican Army, the IRA as they are most
commonly referred to as, who fight for the freedom of Northern Ireland from
Britain and the United Kingdom.
36
36 Dr. Jonathan McCormick, CAIN Mural Directory. Dec. 2000. < http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/mccormick/photos/no749.htm#photo>
The message of violence is even more abundantly clear in this image than
the previous one. Here there is a picture of an IRA soldier, specifically a
sniper, pointing a gun directly at the viewer, with the obvious intention of
shooting down Unionist enemies. In Palestine the majority of images dealing
with soldiers are ones whose messages are highlighting the unfair treatment
of citizens from the Israeli soldiers or who are mocking them. Extremely and
blatantly different from Palestine, Northern Ireland’s images of soldiers are
those involving weapons and threats, emphasizing the themes of violence,
retaliation and aggression.
While the emphasis of violence in Northern Irish resistance art is
opposite of the non-violent Palestinian emphasis, the connection and sense
of community that Palestine and Northern Ireland have for each other and
showcase in their work is something quite fascinating. In an article by Jack
Santino he acknowledges this identification that these two peoples have for
each other. He writes, “among northern Irish Catholics a considerable
identification with… Palestinian people”37 and that “today the Palestinian flag
flies over working-class nationalist estates in Belfast.”38
In the Northern Irish capital of Belfast there is a series of murals on a
wall highlighting the injustices done around to people around the globe. One
panel of the wall has a mural dedicated to the Israeli oppression of Palestine.
The image states “Free Palestine from 60 years of Nakba!”, “end this
barbarian Israeli agresson!” and “this is a war crime!” Accompanying these
phrases is an image of a young boy staring at the Separation Barrier with a
city burning behind it.
39
37 Jack Santino. “Public Protest and Popular Style: Resistance from the Right in Northern Ireland and South Boston.” American Anthropologist 101 (1999): 10. 38 Santino, Popular Protest, 10. 39 Belfast Wall, Northern Ireland. Personal photograph by author. Jan. 2010.
This image represents the sense of community that the Northern Irish and
Palestinians have for each other perfectly. The words on the mural such as
“barbarian Israeli aggression” show the Northern Irish Catholics view of the
Wall in Israel/Palestine. As a country that also has a wall dividing the
communities to try and dissuade aggression between parties they are
strongly against it. They see the wall as a human rights violation, specifically
calling it a war crime. They also use the word “slaughtered” to talk about the
number of Palestinians who have died since the start of the Israel’s capture
of Palestinian land, labeling the deaths as inhumane, and since the
insinuation is that the Israeli’s are to blame for this, also labeling the Israeli’s
as inhumane.
The resistance art movement in Palestine started off during the First
Intifada with the use of graffiti to convey news and information to the people
of Israel, today it has transformed itself into a cultural phenomenon, and has
become part of Palestinian life and identity. The images and messages that
are decorating the walls, houses, buildings and the Wall in Palestine are an
artistic manifestation of the Palestinian peoples’ hopes and dreams. They
convey messages of loss, resistance, longing and desire. The resistance art
of Palestine has become an outlet for the people to express their emotions,
to discuss their feelings against Israel, to remind the world that they are still
here. Through the various styles of resistance art discussed in this paper,
specifically the art of the Israel/Palestine Separation Barrier, graffiti and
murals, the Palestinian people have discovered and embraced a peaceful
and artistic way to discuss and represent their struggle. The resistance art
that Palestinians create are more than just beautiful images or ornately
designed graffiti messages, they represent the identity and dreams of a
nation of people that are lost.
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