Rescripting Resistance: Jerusalem, Palestinians and the Wall Craig Larkin
Conflict in Cities: Europe and the Middle East
This photo-essay seeks to probe beyond the dominant narratives and popular accounts of ‘stop the wall’ resistance to explore alternative Palestinian forms of confronting and resisting the barrier through graffiti, protest art and commercial innovation. Such oppositional practices employ the wall as both a site of public contention, but also a space to be reclaimed or re-scribed through text, image and discursive narrative. At the same time, it is important to question whether such practices may actually reify the wall’s presence and permanence, and equally whether they encourage a further physical and discursive colonialisation of Palestinian space by Western graffiti artists and Israeli left-wing activists. The photos and interviews were taken between 2009 and 2011 along various sections of the wall in the area of Jerusalem (Abu Dis, al-Ram, al-Ezariyya, Shu’fat Camp and Bethlehem) and include a wide range of Palestinian actors affected by the wall – shop owners, community leaders, students, civil and political activists and other key informants. They reveal a complex and dynamic engagement, reflecting competing and contradictory notions of resistance and everyday survival.
‘Graffiti is not a solution but sometimes it is the only way to be heard - to cry out, shout, dream, fight back!’ (University Student from Dahyet al-Barid)
‘All this graffiti that you see on the wall, even when it’s not political is not an act of adjustment - it’s an act of resistance.’ (Shopkeeper from Al-Ram)
‘Palestinian art is still constrained by the victim and hero narratives. It is difficult to challenge beyond these stereotypes but we must. Wall graffiti by Palestinians reflect these constraints – Handala, the Dome of the Rock, olive trees, old women in traditional clothes. We need space and courage to move beyond these images and reflect current struggles and complexities.’ (Youth Activist)
Western street ar tists have received a mixed reception from local Palestinians. Some welcome the gesture of international solidarity, the global media coverage their murals generate a n d t h e ‘ Wa l l t o u r i s m ’ i t encourages. Others criticise their artistic interventions for b e a u t i f y i n g t h e Wa l l a n d obfuscating Palestinian issues with universalising peace discourses.
‘It is good that foreign tourists come to support the local people, but often they write what is in their heads, not exactly the thoughts of local Palestinians. They want the wall to fall but they don’t understand the details of occupation. They fail to see t h e w i d e r picture.’ (Shopkeeper in Bethlehem)
‘Someone bricked up the window Banksy painted on the Wall. Maybe they didn’t like his work, or the idea of a beautiful landscape. For me the issue is not about rejecting the view but whether it’s the right time to imagine i t .’ ( S t u d e n t f r o m Bethlehem)
Global Palestine: ‘If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. If you have come because your LIBERATION is bound with mine then let us work together.’
Arabic graffiti: 'Take your share of our blood and leave'. The wall has become an iconic global message board – a medium for international greetings, solidarity support, marriage proposals, political critique, alongside local responses, challenges and debate. The messages are polysemic in nature, targeting multiple audiences and eliciting diverse readings.
One Palestinian initiative, Sendmeamessage, (2005-2010) was created to enable anyone to post a message on the wall via an internet site. The ‘you pay, we spray’ project, entailed a 30 euro donation, used to support grassroots charities, and involved local volunteers spraying the received personal messages on the wall and then sending the recipient three digital images of the graffiti. In the words of one of its founders, ‘The focus of the project was marketing Palestine globally, to present the Palestinian struggle to the world using creative and new forms.’
‘Advertising [On the Wall] is only a natural response – how can we say this is right or wrong, it doesn’t matter about positions, it’s about the reality of life. The wall is there and people use it for everyday functions; nothing remains static.’ (Political activist)
‘It angers me to see advertisements and personal numbers – are we turning this into a public notice-board? And then foreign activists come and write slogans. That long one apparently took one month and cost 12,000 euros. For what exactly? What is the point of it? No–one even reads what it says! People are poor here why not spend the money on schools, infrastructure, hospitals.’ (Local Print Shop Owner, al-Ram)
‘Cu s t o m e r s c o m e t o o u r restaurant as a way of challenging the wall. They liked the idea of putting a menu on the wall, using humour to defeat it… We put up a screen to show the World Cup; many local people came to watch the games, perhaps we will do that again, show something else on the wall.’ (George Hasboun, The Wall Café)
‘ Yo u h e a r s t o r i e s o f Palestinian workers who help place the concrete barriers in the ground and then they took out spray can and wrote: "Down with the Wall, The Wall must fall". How can this be? I suppose survival is the main thing; money matters’ (resident of al-Ezariyya)
‘When the wall was being built in Jerusalem we went to protests in Abu Dis and Al-Ram. We thought maybe we could change something. But now we feel defeated there is no point going to these protests, we have too much to lose…What does resistance mean these days, I’ll tell you what it means - survival. Being willing to stay and not leave for Ramallah or another country that’s the greatest act of resistance for East Jerusalemites.’ (Resident of Sheikh Jarrah)
Conflict in Cities and the Contested State research project, supported by the ESRC (grant number RES-060-25-0015)
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