New artwork by British artist Banksy in Bethlehem.
(Flash90/Yossi Zamir)
A little girl with pigtails in a pink dress has an Israeli soldier standing spread-eagle against a wall as she frisks him for weapons.
Down the street, an Israeli soldier has stopped a donkey and is checking his ID.
Nearby, a large rat holding a slingshot looks as if he is prepared to launch a few stones at Israel's towering concrete wall separating Bethlehem from Israel.
Welcome to Santa's Ghetto, a new artistic/political collaboration led by the celebrated/infamous/mysterious British artist known as Banksy.
In what is probably the biggest artistic assault ever on Israel's separation barrier, Banksy organized a team of artists this Christmas season to transform parts of the towering concrete walls -- and the surrounding walls of Bethlehem -- into powerful political statements about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Along with the girl frisking the soldier and the soldier interrogating the donkey, there is a solitary leg that appears to be breaking through the wall, a dove wearing a flak jacket with a sniper's target aimed at its heart, and more.
For the past five years, Banksy and other artists set up Santa's Ghetto in London as a way to challenge people's ideas about Christmas.
"I felt the spirit of Christmas was being lost," Banksy told The Guardian last year. "It was becoming increasingly uncommercialized and more and more to do with religion, so we decided to open our own shop and sell pointless stuff you didn't need."
Banksy first came to the Middle East two years ago to put his imprint on the wall.
Back then, he did a series of provocative works including this one on the wall around Bethlehem that shows two overstuffed chairs bookending a bucolic landscape.
This year, Banksy returned with an artistic posse and decided to bring Santa's Ghetto to Bethlehem as a way to highlight the political situation.
"If it's safe enough for a bunch of sissy artists then it's safe enough for anyone," he told The Times of London.
Banksy and the other artists have set up a temporary art space in an abandoned shop on Bethlehem's Manger Square, right across from the Church of the Nativity where tradition says Christ was born.
One of the centerpieces of the exhibit is a collaborative piece by Banksy and others called "City of Sorrow."
The piece, which can be yours for $175,000, is a large olive wood carving of Jerusalem's Old City that features a dozen or so gray pillbox watchtowers.
Another prominent piece is a painting by Palestinian artist Suleiman Mansour showing an elderly farmer carrying the Old City on his hunched back.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi bought the original painting in 1973, but it was destroyed in the U.S. bombing of Tripoli in 1986.
Banksy's artistic initiative has helped spark an interesting debate about art on Israel's wall.
There are some local artists, including Mansour, who feel that painters should not use the wall as a canvas.
Some feel that artists shouldn't do anything to transform an ugly and divisive wall into something beautiful.
Others think that artists will, in some small way, want to keep the wall standing once they have put their artistic stamp on it.
Those that do use the wall for their art see it as an opportunity to draw attention to the political conflict.
The exhibit, which officially opened last night, has been met with the expected mix of wonder and confusion. Some locals were quite perplexed by some of the pieces. Others were amazed and amused.
If Banksy was there to witness the reactions, few knew: As always, Banksy remains an enigmatic figure who conceals his true identity. There is continued speculation, educated guesses and even a recent photo said to capture Banksy at work at a London street corner.
But, for now, his confirmed identity remains a mystery.
I for one think this banksymania a tad overblown...who cares who he is? his anonymity just a marketing device...besides,just how does painting on a wall change things...really?
Posted by: jaded2 | July 23, 2009 at 06:03 AM