2.3.

2 Street art – Text 11

   
  Tourism  in  the  Holy  Land:  Taking  a  'Banksy  Tour'  in  Bethlehem  
  Michael  Scott  Moore  (Spiegel  Online  International)  
  2008  
   
  In  the  West  Bank,  Israel's  security  barrier  has  started  to  resemble  the  western  side  of  
  the  Berlin  Wall.  The  Israeli  side  is  bleak  and  clean,  but  on  the  Palestinian  side  graffiti  
  can  flourish.  I  knew  the  British  painter  Banksy  had  tagged  the  wall  a  few  years  ago,  
  but  I  had  no  idea  where  his  stencils  were.  At  first  I  didn't  care  -­‐-­‐  I  was  just  here  to  see  
5   Bethlehem  -­‐-­‐  but  my  taxi  passed  a  stencil  I  had  seen  in  news  reports,  a  dove  wearing  
  a  bulletproof  vest.  So  I  snapped  a  picture.  
   
  My  driver  got  excited.  "You  like  Banksy?"  he  said.  "You  want  a  tour?  I  can  show  you  
  all  the  pictures."  
   
  I  had  stumbled  on  one  of  Bethlehem's  new  tourist  attractions:  the  unofficial  Banksy  
10   tour.  In  the  year  since  he  tagged  buildings  around  Bethlehem  -­‐-­‐  and  the  three  years  
  or  so  since  he  painted  famous  trompe  l'oeil  stencils  of  holes  in  the  massive  wall  
  around  the  West  Bank  -­‐-­‐  Banksy's  images  have  become  part  of  the  landscape.  They  
  even  help  bring  a  little  money  into  Bethlehem's  tourist  economy,  which  was  crushed  
  when  Israel  built  the  security  wall  in  2002.  Israel  argues  that  the  wall  has  stopped  
15   suicide  bombings,  which  have  largely  been  replaced  by  regular  missiles  from  Gaza.  
  But  Palestinians  say  their  livelihood  has  been  squeezed,  and  now  "Banksy  tours"  are  
  a  moneymaking  venture  for  some  taxi  drivers.  
   
  Ahmed  was  lean,  close  to  50  years  old,  with  a  crevassed  face  and  a  thin  salt-­‐and-­‐
  pepper  mustache.  He  said  he'd  helped  drive  "colors"  across  the  border  -­‐-­‐  paints  -­‐-­‐  for  
20   Banksy  when  he  and  a  few  other  artists  mounted  a  project  to  stencil  wall  surfaces  
  and  buildings  around  Bethlehem  late  last  year.  
   
  "The  people  on  our  side  like  his  pictures,"  he  said,  "because  they  can  see  what  he  
  mean"  -­‐-­‐  and  because  the  artist  raised  money  last  Christmas  for  Palestinian  kids  
  through  a  temporary  gallery  called  "Santa's  Ghetto"  on  Bethlehem's  Manger  Square.  
  "Except  for  two  pictures,"  Ahmed  went  on,  "-­‐-­‐  two  they  washed  away.  Because  they  
25   didn't  know  what  it  meant.  One  was  a  donkey  being  checked  by  an  Israeli  soldier  for  
  passport.  They  didn't  know  if  that  meant  donkeys  also  should  have  papers.  They  
  thought  this  is  no  good  for  the  Palestinian  people,  so  they  clean  it  off."  
   
  In  fact,  last  year  a  story  went  over  the  news  wires  that  locals  had  painted  over  the  
  donkey  mural  because  they  had  felt  offended.  Irony  doesn't  always  translate  into  
30   Arabic,  and  instead  of  a  jab  at  the  Israeli  regime  of  border  controls,  Palestinians  
  worried  it  was  a  joke  against  them.  "We're  humans  here,  not  donkeys,"  restaurant  
  owner  Nasri  Canavati  had  told  a  Reuters  reporter.  "This  is  insulting.  I'm  glad  it  was  
  painted  over."  
   
35   The  punch  line  is  that  a  BBC  correspondent  has  been  riding  a  donkey  across  the  Holy  
  Land  this  month,  following  the  route  taken  by  Mary  and  Joseph  according  to  the  
  Gospel  of  Luke.  He  had  to  replace  his  animal  after  Israeli  soldiers  at  a  West  Bank  
  checkpoint  refused  to  let  it  through.  "They  informed  us,"  reported  the  
40   correspondent,  Aleem  Maqbool,  "that  our  donkey  did  not  have  the  correct    
   

 
    
  paperwork."  
   
  'The  Angel'  
   
  The  unofficial  Banksy  tour  has  no  set  itinerary,  and  no  set  script.  A  total  of  twelve  
  images  went  up  around  Bethlehem  last  year;  Ahmed  showed  me  four.  
  One  was  a  painting  of  two  donkeys  bearing  cities  on  their  backs,  by  two  artists  who  
45   had  worked  with  Banksy,  Sam  3  and  Erica  il  Cane  ("Eric  the  Dog").  There  was  also  
  the  armored  peace  dove,  which  we  saw  first,  and  a  now-­‐famous  image  of  a  girl  
  patting  down  an  Israeli  soldier.  "The  meaning  of  this  picture,"  said  Ahmed,  "is  that  
  kids  stop  the  soldiers  and  take  their  guns.  So  if  you're  strong  today,  not  all  the  time  
  you're  strong."  
   
50   Sometimes  his  explanations  were  trenchant;  sometimes  they  were  bizarre.  Well  
  outside  the  town  we  stopped  in  front  of  a  huge  stencil  of  the  "Flower  Chucker,"  one  
  of  Banksy's  best-­‐known  images,  on  the  side  of  a  building  that  was  being  demolished.  
  It  showed  a  masked  Palestinian  hurling  a  colorful  bouquet  of  flowers.  Ahmed  said  
  locals  had  agitated  to  keep  the  one  wall  intact  because  this  image  is  the  best-­‐loved  
55   Banksy  stencil  in  Bethlehem.  It  reminded  locals  of  a  bronze  angel  on  a  church  nearby,  
  he  said,  at  Shepherd's  Field.  In  fact,  they  called  this  stencil  "The  Angel."  
   
  "They  understand  what  Banksy  is  saying,"  Ahmed  said,  "because  this  picture  is  also  
  in  front  of  the  church."  
   
  "What,  the  same  picture?"  
   
60   "The  same,  yes."  
   
  "What  church?"  
   
  "I  can  show  you."  
   
  We  drove  to  a  small  church  outside  the  village  of  Beit  Sahour,  in  Shepherd's  Field.  It's  
  one  of  two  rival  locations  where  a  host  of  angels  is  said  to  have  sung  to  shepherds  on  
65   the  occasion  of  Jesus'  birth.  It's  therefore  a  destination  for  pilgrimages  and  Catholic  
  bus  tours.  An  angel  cast  in  bronze  over  the  church  entrance,  with  its  arms  raised  in  a  
  certain  posture,  seems  to  have  reminded  locals  —  or  at  least  local  taxi  drivers  —  of  
  the  Flower  Chucker.  
   
  Ahmed  insisted  that  Banksy  knew  about  this  statue  and  was  quoting  it  in  the  "Flower  
70   Chucker"  painting,  and  because  of  this  connection  to  local  art  and  lore,  the  concrete  
  wall  had  been  saved.  
   
  But  the  statue  and  painting  looked  nothing  alike.  
   
  "Do  people  really  call  that  Banksy  picture  'The  Angel'?"  I  asked.  "Is  that  really  the  
  title?"  
   
75   "Yes.  It's  a  picture  of  this  angel."  
   
  "But  it's  not  an  angel."  
   

 
    
  I  wanted  him  to  admit  that  it  was  a  picture  of  a  Palestinian  militant.  I  also  wanted  to  
  suggest  that  a  picture  of  a  militant  throwing  a  bouquet  of  flowers  was  so  absurd  it  
  worked  as  an  ironic  comment  on  violence  in  the  West  Bank.  
   
80   Ahmed  shrugged.  "I  don't  know.  People  just  like  the  picture."  
   
  On  our  way  back  toward  Bethlehem  we  passed  the  towering  security  wall.  Ahmed  
  waved  dismissively  at  the  jumble  of  graffiti.  "Kids,"  he  said.  
   
  So  Banksy's  stencils  have  taken  up  residence  in  the  West  Bank,  and  the  people  revere  
  him  as  an  artist  —  but  on  their  terms,  not  his.  Arab  culture  is  not  ironic,  and  his  
85   humor  can  be  confusing.  But  even  rough  stencils  and  splatters  of  paint  are  better  
  than  a  plain  ugly  wall.  On  the  Israeli  side,  the  only  bit  of  color  to  relieve  the  
  unrelenting  concrete  at  the  crossing  was  a  monumental  work  of  propaganda,  a  
  banner  rich  with  unintended  irony,  since  no  one  in  the  West  Bank  sees  the  security  
  barrier  as  anything  but  a  prison  wall.  
   
90   "Peace  Be  With  You,"  it  says  in  three  languages.  "Israel  Ministry  of  Tourism."