A concrete canvas: Palestine before the war
By Harriette Puddy-Jones
My father travelled the world over the course of 3 years. During that time, although I probably should have been predominantly working on my A-Levels and GCSEs, it was much easier to disappear to the other side of the planet for a brief amount of time and step out of reality. My father had certain countries he was desperate to knock off his ‘been’ app, Israel and Palestine being two of them. So, about a month before the war broke out in autumn 2023, we took a connecting flight from Turkey to Tel Aviv to get a taste of the Middle East. If I’m honest, Israel had never been on my list of places to visit – I just associated it with the nativity and had no intentions of embarking on a pilgrimage to Jesus’ stable. As for Palestine, I’d never even heard of it.
Before we left, I remember being reluctant to visit these countries – I hadn’t ventured into the Middle East before, and there was an unsettling feeling of the unknown. Despite this, I decided that I’d rather go travelling than write a geography essay.
Although I probably should have been predominantly working on my A-Levels and GCSEs, it was much easier to disappear to the other side of the planet for a brief amount of time and step out of reality
We’d travelled around Tel Aviv for a few days, going to various spice markets and popular landmarks, and walking along the coastline. I remember going on a run, as I believe it’s the best way you can fully explore a city, and I ran for about eight miles along the promenade. Anytime I’ve ran along the beach in the UK, I’ve encountered roughly four or five people on my journey. In Tel Aviv, this felt like an encounter of five hundred people, all running at the same time, with every kilometre having a ‘beach gym’ filled with people working out. This is something about Tel Aviv that really struck me – it was full of people who were more motivated and active than any country I’d been to before. I think the best way to describe it is Los Angeles, but if people went on runs along the beach instead of coffee runs to Dunkin’ Donuts.
We decided we wanted to travel down south through the country. We entered Jerusalem, a beautiful walled city, which is like walking through time, despite being maze-like and sometimes extremely difficult to navigate. It took us about an hour to find the location of our hostel! We visited the Wailing Wall and then had the opportunity to cross into the country of Palestine.
About a half hour’s drive from the centre of Jerusalem, we arrived at a very different wall: the ‘segregation’ wall; over 450 miles long and 38ft high. And despite this building being deemed illegal by the international Court of Justice when it was built in 2002, construction was completed by the Israeli government. This wasn’t like the Wailing Wall, and had no religious connotations. This was barrier much like one that separates a lion from its visitors at a zoo. Just in front of the wall is an entrance gate containing a tiny border control office and a bag security check. And as simple as it sounds, you’re in Palestine.
It felt exactly how travelling to any other country in the world feels; an instant hassle of ‘taxi’ mutters and locals willing to be your tour guide for a ‘good price’. We were surrounded by about fifteen taxis until we gave in to what we thought was a tourist trap.
Famously, Banksy stated that the segregation wall “essentially turns Palestine into the world’s largest open prison”, which is completely accurate
This area of Palestine is known as the West Bank, which is the larger of the two Palestinian territories that make up the state of Palestine. It’s most famous for being home to the city of Bethlehem. Reluctant to embark on our tour, our driver was knowledgeable, and informed us that he had been sleeping in his taxi since 2 a.m. to ensure he’d be parked closest to the tourist entrance. He showed us the key sites – including the stable where Jesus was born – meaning it was a quick visit and exit from our halves!
So instead, we went on a Banksy tour of paintings which had been put up throughout the West Bank during 2005. He also opened a hotel here in 2017 called the “Walled Off Hotel”, which is both a protest and an art exhibit. Famously, Banksy stated that the segregation wall “essentially turns Palestine into the world’s largest open prison”, which is completely accurate. Various murals are painted on the wall, including a broken crack in the grey wall, which opens onto an exotic sandy beach with blue waters and palm trees. Another includes a crack opening onto a mountainous landscape. It’s a bit like those fake windows you can buy which show a beautiful scene of somewhere far away which is a lot better than the reality that is outside your bedroom. I don’t really understand why people buy these, but I imagine it’s something to do with wanting to escape, and I guess that’s the way Banksy imagines Palestinians feel within their ‘prison’, as he puts it.
There are other murals too, including a ladder up to the top of the wall, and a girl floating away attached to a bouquet of balloons. But the most memorable painting for me is one titled “Love is in the Air”, depicting a young man wearing a backwards baseball cap and bandana drawn in black and white. He is depicted as though about to launch a colourful bouquet of flowers in his right arm, in place of a grenade. This image is painted on the side of a garage, and I was told to walk round the side whilst our driver put fuel in his taxi. I think it’s very impactful to see something that political in Palestine before the war started. Of course, there’s been disputes between Israel and Palestine for many years, but when I was there, I had no clue that Banksy’s call to spread love “in the air” was so necessary. Both Israel and Palestine are just countries, filled with normal people, who were living completely normal lives, running taxis and along coastlines.
After we returned to England, I tried to not give too much thought to my experiences. It’s quite difficult to hear opinions about places you’ve visited and experienced first-hand before a war breaks out, especially somewhere which is now a breeding ground to produce a political view.
The location was written as ‘Jerusalem, Israel’. But it wasn’t. It was Palestine
Later that year, we were away in France and decided to take a day trip across to Amsterdam. There was a museum called Mooch, which has locations all around the globe, including one opposite the Van Gogh Museum in central Amsterdam. And it happened to be hosting a Banksy exhibit for a limited time. I went into the museum and saw the various wall murals, until I finally found a print of “Love is in the Air”. But there was something incorrect. The small signs that museum’s place beneath artifacts which usually include a title, date and location was wrong. The location was written as ‘Jerusalem, Israel’. But it wasn’t. It was Palestine.
This did upset me slightly. A key message of this mural is to represent the country’s struggle; if Banksy was advocating for political change in Israel, he would have painted this there. I don’t know why the museum choose to write this, perhaps it is because of a political view, but I’d rather imagine it’s just a lack of geographical knowledge.
Image credits: Harriette Puddy-Jones
