Urban Allusions in Contested Cities - Britt Baillie

Urban Allusions in Contested Cities Britt Baillie

Conflict in Cities: Europe and the Middle East

Graffiti, murals, museum panels, and restaurant names in cities in conflict often allude to other divided cities or ethno-national conflicts. Here, allusions function as a form of political commentary and a means of socio-political expression. Allusions are economical devices which draw upon the viewer-reader’s ideas, cultural memes, or emotions already associated with the topic—in this case contested cities. It is precisely the shared aspect between the location one is in and the location that is alluded to that is so evocative. The use of the allusion by the author shows an expectation that the viewer-reader will be familiar with the references made, otherwise the effect is lost.

The producers intent is to stimulate ideas, and associations in the viewer-reader’s mind contextualising the city that they are in to enhance the viewer-reader’s understanding and appreciation of the urban conflict that they are witnessing. These urban allusions make the unfamiliar familiar, knowable and meaningful.

They allow the authors to highlight particular dimensions of the conflict which might otherwise remain unseen by the viewerreader. A core-question of the Conflict in Cities and the Contested State research project asks what one can learn from examining contested cities in a comparative fashion. These selected photographs allow one to glean how citizens and visitors to these cities compare, contrast and perhaps ‘learn’ from other contested cities.

This piece of graffiti on the Separation Barrier in Abu Dis warns viewers of the historic and contemporary dangers of urban segregation.

In 1940 the Jews of Warsaw were rounded up and herded into the Ghetto which was closed off from the outside world by a wall topped with barbed wire. In response to the Ghetto Uprising, after 1943 the Ghetto was systematically burnt and destroyed. The population was executed on the spot or deported to Nazi concentration camps.

In 1967, Abu Dis a Palestinian neighbourhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem, was captured in the Six-Day War by Israel. Today Abu Dis is the home of the main campus of al-Quds University. Since the signing of the Oslo Accords it has been administered by the Palestinian Authority. In 2004, the Israeli Authorities built the Separation Barrier cutting off the residents of Abu Dis from Jerusalem—the city which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital.

In this mural the artist depicts the parallel between instances of educational segregation in Little Rock, Arkansas and Ardoyne, Belfast. Linking these two events the artist calls upon the viewer to appreciate the gravitas of Belfast’s Holy Cross Dispute.

In 1957 the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students, were prevented from entering a segregated school by the Arkansas National Guard from September 4th-September 24th. This was despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision declaring all laws allowing segregated schools unconstitutional. An armed escort was provided by the government to enable the students to enter the school on September 25th. This victory has been deemed one of the most significant events of the AfricanAmerican Civil Rights Movement.

Ardoyne was segregated during the Troubles. Yet, the Catholic Holy Cross School found itself on the ‘wrong side’ of the Peaceline. In 2001, Loyalists began blockading the school, verbally and physically abusing parents and children who walked the gauntlet. In November 2001, the police were called in to escort parents and children to and from school. Since 2003, the area has been quiet.

The ‘Solidarity Wall’ is a Peacewall on Falls Road, Belfast. This area was the scene of a major conflict between the British Army and the IRA in 1970.

Subsequently, the neighbourhood saw some of the worst violence of the Troubles.

This wall features murals dedicated to the Basques, Kurds and Palestinians. This particular section is adorned with a mural which shows Palestinian refugee children. One holds a key: the symbol of return. The other looks longingly over the Separation Barrier at Jerusalem. Adjacent to this image is a depiction of the Falls Road ‘son’ Brendan Hughes, an IRA prisoner in the Maze Prison who led the first of the infamous hunger strikes.

The Abu Jihad Museum for the Prisoners Movement Affairs at al-Quds University is located in Abu Dis—a Palestinian village cut off from Jerusalem by the Separation Barrier. This panel draws attention to the fact that in 1980 seven Irish Republican prisoners in the Maze Prison and 74 Palestinian prisoners in the Nafha prison went on hunger strike. This tactic was used by prisoners in both locations in protest of their imprisonment and the conditions under which they were held. By referencing the Irish hunger strikers, this panel calls for solidarity between the two groups and suggests to the reader that the two strikes were of similar historical and political importance.

Issawiya is a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem located between the Israeli settlement of French Hill and the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus. The neighbourhood does not receive the same services as adjacent Jewish residential areas: the roads are not paved, the sewage system does not function, there is no playground, nor are there any street lights. The frequent land expropriations and housing demolitions carried out here by the Israeli authorities has made the neighbourhood a flashpoint in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

This stencil on the Separation Barrier which separates Palestinian Bethlehem from Israeli-held Jerusalem forces the viewer to draw parallels between three ‘failed’ urban uprisings.

The 1944 Warsaw Uprising in which Polish Resistance forces tried to free the city from the Nazi forces resulted instead in the loss of over 150,000 civilians and the systematic destruction of 35% of Warsaw.

The LA riots following the acquittal of the officers who had beaten Rodney King resulted in the deaths of 53 people and nearly $1 billion in damages and financial losses.

The seizure of Bethlehem’s Municipal building on Manger Square by members of the al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade in 2005 resulted in a further reduction in the number of tourists who visited the city which in turn led to heightened economic difficulties for its inhabitants.

Until 1974, Kyrenia was a predominantly Greek Cypriot city (capital of an eponymous district) on Cyprus’s north coast. In July 1974, The Turkish Army invaded and seized control of the town ridding it of its Greek Cypriot inhabitants.

The Kyrenia Municipality building depicted in this image is located in the Greek Cypriot side of Nicosia. Its purpose is to serve Greek Cypriot refugees from the area of Kyrenia and to physically attest to their right to return.

Palestinian movement in the divided city of Hebron is limited to the area referred to as H1. In H2, the movement of Palestinians has been heavily restricted due to the presence of approximately 500 Israeli Settlers who receive protection from the Israeli Defence Forces. This image depicts a checkpoint which leads from H1 to the highly contested Jewish/Islamic holy site of the Cave of the Patriarchs/ Ibrahimi Mosque. The plaque on the wall denotes the distance to the contested city of Jerusalem. It reminds Palestinians of their ties to both cities.

The city authorities in Greek Cypriot Nicosia refer to the city as the ‘last divided capital’.

The owner of this Kebab house located on the Greek Cypriot side of the Buffer Zone (which physically cuts Nicosia into two) has capitalised on this notion, branding this restaurant ‘The Berlin Wall’. Here the owner makes use of an iconic symbol of the twentieth century to contextualise the lesser-known contestation which Nicosia is experiencing. Through this tongue in cheek gesture the owner hopes to draw in tourists who wish to experience ‘divided Nicosia’.

This image serves as a nod to the fact that as contested cities become iconic symbols of 20th and 21st century conflicts, they have also become hotspots for tourists seeking ‘authentic’ dark heritage experiences.

A DVD stand in Sarajevo sells stories of the collapse of the former-Yugoslavia. A number of the items for sale focus specifically on the battles for Vukovar , Sarajevo, Mostar and Tuzla —all cities which are perceived by Croats and/or Bosniaks as ‘victims’ in the fight for ‘Greater Serbia’ or ‘Greater Croatia’.

The East-Side Gallery is a 1.3 km long section of the Berlin wall which has been preserved as a memorial to freedom. In 1990, approximately 100 artists adorned this section of the wall with a variety of art works inspired by peace.

The wall has subsequently accrued a vast amount of graffiti. Originally this piece depicted a German flag overlaid with and Israeli flag to honour the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany. By 2007 it had been altered so that half of it was repainted as a Palestinian flag overlaid with a slogan asking 'who [will] stop the war?'. The original artists were asked to repaint their sections in 2009. Already, this section of the wall—reminiscent for many of the Separation Barrier being built in Israel/Palestine—has been tagged with new graffiti addressing the Israel/Palestine situation.

This item of graffiti on the Separation Barrier in Bethlehem notes that the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. It calls for the removal of the Separation Barrier in 2010.

On 26th April 1937 Guernica, the epicentre of Basque culture, was subjected to aerial bombing by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of Spanish Nationalist forces. In response, Picasso created an arresting work entitled ‘Guernica’ which highlights the ills of urban warfare. Today the original canvas resides in Madrid, although Basque nationalists have repeatedly called for it to be permanently displayed in the Basque country.

The Peacewalls of Belfast served as iconic backdrops to the Troubles. In 2007, Danny Devenny a former Republican prisoner in H-Block and Belfast’s most prolific muralist, and Mark Ervine, son of the late David Ervine (head of the Progressive Unionist Party), joined together to paint a mural of Picasso’s Guernica in an effort to ‘paint across communities’. Ervine noted 'What was a complex and disturbing portrayal of war has since become a symbol of peace, something we can fully relate to in Northern Ireland.'

Conflict in Cities and the Contested State research project, supported by the ESRC (grant number RES-060-25-0015)

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