Graffiti on Walls

I was not able to open or view the content of the article entitled “Old and New walls in Jerusalem”.

Regarding the Julie Peteet article, “The writing on the Walls: The Graffiti of the Intifada” is a very interesting article. As a Palestinian youth born and raised in Palestine and the occupied territories, this is not a new thing for us. As Peteet said, almost every inch of the walls of the stores, houses, etc have something written on them. It is a way to let others see and remember what is going on, or what have happened. Some of the writings could be statements about the conflict, names of martyrs who were killed by the Israeli occupation forces, or a name of a political party, etc. Although it might not look “nice” for some people, including me personally, but the writings have served during the past periods of the two Intifadas in 1987 and 2000. As some times writing on the walls will deliver some kind of messages to either the Palestinians themselves or the occupation forces when they invade the city/village.

One can also find not only writings or statements or names, but drawings. For example, after Mahmoud Darwish the Palestinian well known poet died, many people went after his funeral and start drawing his pictures and writings under it on walls. Another example is after the death of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, pictures of him, and his sayings were all over the place. Drawings of the map of Palestine with the Palestinian flag, etc can also be found on the walls. And now, after the eruption of the Apartheid Wall within the West Bank, Palestinians, Israeli peace activists and American activists started writing and drawing on the wall with statements as “the wall will fall”, or “ we need bridges not walls”, etc.

Peteet mentioned the relationship between graffiti and resistance. And I think this is very interesting and true to a great extent. Graffiti on the walls are now seen as part of the Palestinian struggle and resistance against the occupation, also a sign of international solidarity by non-Arabs who come to the oPT that draw and write on the wall as a sign of sympathy and solidarity with the Palestinian people.  Looking at the web site, one can see some examples of drawings and writings on the walls in Palestine. The videos in the site explain the exact message behind writing on walls.

It might look somehow “not civilized” or “not accepted” to draw on walls. Imagine going on campus and drawing on some walls, that does not sound a good or something to be done. But for the Palestinian conflict, it served its context, it delivered a message and now it is a sign or international solidarity against the occupation.

 This quote is written on the apartheid wall between The city of Ramallah, all the way to the wall at East Jerusalem, cutting through the main road that used to connect Ramallah with Jerusalem. This quote was said to be the longest quote on a wall ever, taken from some speech of Nelson Mandela at the time of apartheid.

This is another graffiti writing on the apartheid wall on Qalandia checkpoint, that separates Ramallah from Jerusalem. Many of the drawings are funny as this one.