BETHLEHEM, Palestinian Territories: A manger scene juxtaposed against concrete blocks seemingly pierced by a mortar shell: with Christmas looming, the latest Bethlehem offering by secretive artist Banksy appeared Saturday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Dubbed the “Scar of Bethlehem,” the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph are backlit through damaged concrete, chiseled pockmarks exploding out from a gaping hole in four directions to approximate the Christmas Star.
The work is installed at Banksy’s Walled-Off Hotel, where all rooms overlook a concrete section of the barrier built by Israel to cut off the occupied West Bank from Israeli territory.
“Love” and “peace” are respectively graffiti tagged in English and French on the artistic installation’s concrete blocks, while three large wrapped presents are at the forefront of the scene.
“It is a nativity,” the hotel’s manager Wissam Salsaa said after the piece was installed. “Banksy has his own contribution to Christmas.”
“It is a great way to bring up the story of Bethlehem, the Christmas story, in a different way — to make people think more” of how Palestinians live in Bethlehem.
Salsaa calls the Israeli wall a “scar” that should induce “shame in anyone who supported” its construction.
Israel began building the separation barrier — in parts concrete, with other stretches consisting of fencing — in 2002 during the Palestinian uprising, or intifada.
Built mostly inside the West Bank, Israel says it is necessary to prevent attacks, but Palestinians label it an apartheid wall, separating them from Jerusalem.
Traditional Bethlehem Christmas festivities will take place next week at the church built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born.
The manger scene and hotel — an establishment opened two years ago — are far from Banksy’s only West Bank imprint.
In 2007, he painted a number of artworks in Bethlehem, including a young girl frisking an Israeli soldier pinned up against a wall.
In 2005, he sprayed nine stenciled images at different locations along the eight-meter-high (27-foot) separation barrier.
They included a ladder on the wall, a little girl carried away by balloons and a window opening onto a peaceful mountain landscape.
Palestinian graffiti artists, too, have made the separation wall a place of political and artistic expression.
Like elsewhere in the world, Banksy’s works in the occupied territory have become tourist attractions — in part due to him often ghosting in to create his works in the dead of night.
The identity of the world’s best-known graffiti artist remains a mystery and he was not present during the revealing of his latest work.
“Banksy is trying to be a voice for those that cannot speak,” Salsaa said.
He “is creating a new model of resistance through art.”
Banksy rose to prominence after his subversive artworks started to appear in public spaces in the United Kingdom in the early 2000s, and he has long worked on themes of violence and conflict.
Scar of Bethlehem: Banksy unveils dark nativity in Israeli-occupied West Bank
https://arab.news/wjm92
Scar of Bethlehem: Banksy unveils dark nativity in Israeli-occupied West Bank
- The work is installed at Banksy’s Walled-Off Hotel, where all rooms overlook a concrete section of the barrier built by Israel
- Israel began building the separation barrier in 2002 during the Palestinian uprising
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
