graffiti.

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Well-known UK graffiti artist Banksy hacks the Wall
Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada, 2 September 2005


The Wall around Qalqiliya. A twenty-five foot high concrete cage cuts
residents off from their agricultural land, necessary for their
survival, and prevents you from traveling even 5 minutes out of the
City. A single gate, open at the whims of the occupying army, controls
100,000 residents.
Photo: StopTheWall.org

Whitewashing the Wall
In
June 2003, I received an e-mail in EI’s inbox from a Nathan Edelson,
who introduced himself as “a design critic whose features on
architecture have been published in major U.S. newspapers,” which a
Lexis-Nexis newspaper database supported. He was writing a story “about
architecture in Israel, with emphasis on the new security ‘fence’ which
you rightly call a wall.” His request was for larger images of the
Israel’s West Bank barrier for study, and explained that “the premise
of my article is that one can argue about the desirability of a wall,
and certainly where it runs, but if it is going to be built it should
not be an aesthetic monstrosity.”
As you can imagine,
we get a lot of crazy mail at EI, ranging from the fundamentalist who
has for years been weekly mailing Zen-like one-liners such as “Biblical
Christianity will one day return to the Holy Land,” to the ex-Israeli
soldier who sent photos of him in service across the occupied
territories with accompanying narratives of how much he enjoyed
mistreating the Palestinians he came across. But somehow, this e-mail
from internationally-respected design critic Nathan Edelson won my vote
for the most clueless communication that info@electronicIntifada.net
has ever received.
Usually, all correspondents to EI
receive a polite response with links to more information. But when a
clearly educated person tries to get you to swallow soup with a turd in
it, there’s got to be a cut-off point for pleasantries.
“That's
a little,” I replied, “like arguing for nice faux painting on gas
chamber walls or calling for Martha Stewart torture chamber bed sets.
Clearly ethics play no part in your school of design criticism.”
Edelson’s
reply was truly surreal. “I could accuse you of having no ethics
because you want the security wall to be as repulsive as possible so it
will stir up the maximum possible resentment, which will translate into
more violence.”
“I care very much about where the
security wall runs,” he continued, “as well as how it looks. My
upcoming article will hopefully elicit meaningful conversation between
the sides based on a joint desire to make a bad thing better, and this
can help create the trust which can change not only the look but the
routing of the barrier.”
Of course, the second the
beautification of the barrier is complete, the Israelis, who bulldozed
and confiscated countless acres of Palestinian land to build the wall,
cut off thousands of farmers from their sole livelihood and, in one
example, surrounded a single Palestinian family home in a mini-wall,
will sit down for a meaningful conversation with their new Palestinian
friends about the route of the finished barrier! I was also chastised
by Edelson for being less than “civil” in my response to him.
“There
is nothing you can do aesthetically,” I wrote in my reply to Edelson,
“which will make this wall benign. There is no making it ‘better’. Want
a big picture of the wall? Here's one attached. Do you think a nice
mottled green would help it blend in to the indigenous landscape
nicely? Or perhaps some arches and battlements for a more traditional
medieval flavor?”

This
satellite image of Qalqilya and Israel's West Bank Barrier surrounding
the city was taken on 7 June 2003. The progress of construction of the
barrier can clearly be seen, ultimately cutting off residents from
their surrounding agricultural land. See here for before & after images. (Photo: Space Imaging/NTA Space Turk)
“If
you actually intend to actually write an article arguing for this
monstrous whitewashing of a visible human rights violation -- and it
says so much about the state of ignorance in America that you are even
thinking of it or if indeed there is any likelihood any serious
newspaper would print it -- I would suggest you first get on a plane
and go visit Qalqiliya and Rafah and see the reality for yourself.
Speak to the people who live there. See how the thing plays out on the
ground.”

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