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Home , Hafrada, Palestinian art, Sumud

GRAFFITI

Sumud: The of Existence

REBECCA GOULD

ETHLEHEM, —At the intensely for decades. He had managed edge of , a few blocks to save enough to build a home not only Bfrom Gilo terminal, past one of for himself and his family, but also to add the checkpoints where anyone who needs a two-bedroom guesthouse. He was now to reach must pass, is a small apart- seeking a tenant. ment—its view obstructed by the Barrier. The price of living in Bethlehem is of- The home was recently built by its Pales- ten a commute to . Two decades tinian Christian owner, Adnan, from money earlier, the commute would have been easy, he had saved while working for a foreign for it is a mere 15-minute ride from the company in Jerusalem. His permit had Bethlehem border to central Jerusalem. recently expired, though, and he was no But the recent proliferation of checkpoints longer able to work in Jerusalem. Still, Ad- has radically obstructed movement within nan, who asked that his name not be used the Occupied Territories, as well as between

KATE GOULD KATE in this explosive environment, had worked Israel and the West Bank. Now, the act of

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crossing the narrow border is counted in homes in its path, this structure leaves a terms of hours, not minutes. Random clo- different impression. For the majority of sures, sometimes related to current events, its route through the Occupied Territories, and sometimes without any explanation, the Barrier consists of electrified barbed often keep the checkpoints closed for days wire and trenches. In other parts, most without any advance warning. No one, not notably urban centers in the West Bank, even the soldiers who stand guard, knows such as Qalqilya and Bethlehem, the Bar- whether the checkpoints will be open rier consists of concrete slabs 25 feet high, or closed on a given day. Living near the more than twice the average height of the checkpoint slightly eases the commute into Berlin Wall. In Bethlehem, these concrete Jerusalem for the few Palestinian workers slabs slash straight through the heart of who are able to cross the border, but it is this ancient city. never easy. Of course, the complications for Declared illegal under international foreigners who cross into Israel pale in com- law in an advisory opinion issued by the parison to , who may be fired if UN’s International Court of Justice in they cannot make it to work on time. 2004, the Barrier is just over 60 percent To the northwest of the checkpoint is complete. In the years since its construc- Gilo, a settlement established in 1973 with tion began in 2002, Israel’s Supreme Court a population today of some 40,000, and of- has received hundreds of civil lawsuits from ten informally considered part of greater Je- Palestinians protesting the path of the Bar- rusalem. Beyond Gilo’s alabaster and lime- rier through their land and homes. Occa- stone terraces is central Jerusalem. Dividing sionally—although not in Bethlehem— Gilo from the center is the Barrier, referred the Barrier had to be rerouted to cut less to locally as the jidar al-fasl al-unsuri (wall deeply into Palestinians’ houses and back- of segregation) and by the Israeli state as the yards. The Barrier is a site of continued hafrada geder (separation fence). The archi- contests, not only with respect to how it tects of the Barrier argue that it is essential is defined, but also the path it follows, and if terrorist attacks are to be prevented. especially the images that are painted on From Bethlehem, it is hard to under- it. Alongside the many conflicting agendas stand how this structure, made of concrete surrounding this structure, the Barrier ex- lined with barbed wire, could be described acerbates the tension within Israel between as a mere fence. Viewed from outside the the judiciary and military over issues per- Occupied Territories, however, the label taining to the occupation. makes more sense. The wall appears less Already nearly 500 miles long, the intimidating from the vantage point of an Barrier is more than twice the length of Israeli road, where it resembles a highway the , which has served as Israel’s barrier looming in the distance, or a mirage internationally recognized border with the that flickers according to the angle of the West Bank since 1949. Fully 85 percent of sun. When its concrete slabs cut through a the Barrier crosses through, and not mere- backyard, and serve as an excuse to destroy ly alongside, Palestinian territory. Even

Rebecca Gould is an assistant professor at Yale-NUS College (Singapore). Her first book, The Literatures of Anticolonial Insurgency, is forthcoming from Yale University Press.

100 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 19, 2014 GRAFFITI greater than the damage from preventing increasingly suffocating the West Bank. Palestinian access to Israel is the effect of the While the Barrier has bisected the region Barrier in keeping Palestinians from visit- for over a decade, the checkpoints that be- ing family and friends, schools, and places of gan to proliferate in the 1990s now num- work in neighboring Palestinian cities and ber well over 700. The Barrier has proven villages. And in many instances, the paths particularly damaging to Bethlehem’s closed by the Barrier have deprived Palestin- tourist-based economy. It has diverted ians of their very livelihoods. tourism to Israeli tour guides and buses, given special access by the Israeli authori- ART FORMS Flourishing along the length of the Barrier is a form of art, com- monly known as graf- fiti. My window looked out onto a mural, comprised of a blank book with salam, the word for peace, inscribed on it. In the mural, a dove hovers above the word, hold- ing an olive branch in its beak. Between the book and the dove soars a rainbow with clouds on one end and green leaves on the other. Such hopeful and meticulously crafted art has no guarantee of preservation on a surface where it was almost certain to be washed away, or even wiped out, in the full- ness of time. But this mural is only one part GOULD KATE of a far broader pat- tern. On walls, windows, and doors, art in ties to this territory, even as local Bethle- Bethlehem is everywhere. Not many cities hem residents are refused entry to Israel for are as suffused with art as Bethlehem. such basic needs as work, medical care, and Much of this art was created in re- education. Meanwhile, checkpoints sever sponse to the enclosure policies that are West Bank villages from each other.

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Both checkpoints and the Barrier er of the transience of the medium used to work in tandem to break the Palestinian compose this art. In block roman letters, economy and to isolate Palestinians from a sign points to Jerusalem, and in Arabic, each other and from the world. Such are to Rachel’s Tomb and Bethlehem’s City the conditions where art is being willed Center. Sponsored by the Palestinian Au- into existence in the shadow of and on the thority’s Ministry of Tourism and Attrac- very Barrier itself. Yet curiously, much of tions, this sign is a holdover of an era long- the art both on the Barrier and on homes gone, when tourists flocked to this sacred near the Barrier touches on themes that and prosperous city in search of the sites appeared to have nothing to do with the named on the sign post. At the time, none occupation. The mural near my window is was obstructed by an immovable wall. As a case in point. What do a dove, a rain- with so much of Bethlehem’s graffiti, this bow, and a book with the word peace in- sign does more than offer an example of scribed on its blank pages have to do with art imitating life. Here, on this innocuous Palestinian resistance? In Bethlehem wall, life has imi- fact, by combining politi- tated—and ironized—art. cal activism with artistic vi- much of this Although Banksy’s mu- sion, these signs and sym- art was created ral, by a foreign visitor to bols have a great deal to say Bethlehem, may not reveal about the contemporary in- in response to much about the Palestinian teraction between Palestin- the enclosure experience, it does suggest ians and . policies that something important about Many of the murals the relation between art and painted by foreign visitors are increasingly politics. The impermanence are more straightforward, al- suffocating the of this mural, which has though never entirely trans- been impeccably preserved parent in their meaning. west bank. for several years, is central Consider the image just a to its meaning, suggesting few blocks away, past the blank book in- the hope that inversions of reality, like the scribed with peace. A Palestinian girl is girl frisking a soldier, will not and cannot frisking an Israeli soldier, the pair paint- last forever. ed by the British graffiti artist Banksy in 2007. By casting a small girl in the role of TRAFFIC STOP the occupier and a uniformed soldier in the Viewed historically, the Barrier is the cul- role of the occupied, Banksy’s mural clev- mination of a lengthy effort to cut traffic erly subverts the victimization narrative between the West Bank and Israel, as well that is all too frequently invoked to ex- as within the West Bank. Before the Bar- plain this conflict. The picture makes the rier itself was launched, population move- point that Palestinians are not in control ment was controlled exclusively through of their own condition—the very inversion checkpoints, which were opened in earnest of power exposing the imbalance between following the of 1993 and Israelis and Palestinians. 1995. These created the Palestinian Au- To the right of the frisking scene is a thority, giving the new government lim- faded building façade, serving as a remind- ited control over certain portions of the

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West Bank. Such early checkpoints were a series of enclaves, surrounded on all sides constructed as temporary sites designed by Jewish settlements. to be dismantled following a more perma- This process of turning a contiguous nent peace. Since the 1990s, however, these territory into a series of fragmented vil- structures are increasingly, like the Barrier, lages was already underway with the debut built of material intended to endure—con- of the checkpoint regime. The Barrier has crete, metal, barbed wire, and stone. Mean- considerably advanced the Israeli state’s while, chemical advances allow the art that strategic fragmentation of historic Pales- adorns these walls to be more easily washed tine, which extended from the Mediter- away from public memory. ranean to the Dead Sea. According to the Although as a physical structure the Office of the Coordination Barrier is barely 12 years old, its concep- of Humanitarian Affairs, the Barrier would tion dates back to 1995. It was then that deprive Palestinians of approximately 10 Prime Minister , arguing in percent of their remaining land. favor of “separation as a philosophy” that When the construction of the Barrier required “a clear border,” proposed the stirs controversy within the international erection of a physical structure to keep in community, the Israeli government re- place borders the Oslo Accords established. sponds that it is essential to prevent suicide Although the Accords are still hailed as a bombings. The sequence of events, as well landmark effort in the direction of peace as the Barrier’s path, suggest another story. by American policymakers, they are at the The years following the beginning of the source of many of the current problems in construction of the wall were marked by the West Bank. One example is the Bar- a reduction in suicide attacks (down from rier’s trajectory, which entrenches and ex- 55 in 2002 to 14 in 2005). This reduction pands the fragmentation of the West Bank may have had more to do with ’s that was set into motion at Oslo. moratorium on suicide bombings in the According to this system, three-quar- West Bank beginning in 2005 than with ters of the West Bank, known as Area C, the wall itself. Furthermore, notwithstand- fell under Israeli control until sovereignty ing its 20 miles of concrete, the Barrier in could be handed over to the Palestinian its present state has many gaps. Its walls Authority in 1999. Since this transfer of have also been regularly scaled, not by ter- sovereignty never took place, Palestinians rorists, but by Palestinians who enter Israel remain excluded from the majority of their through these illegal means because they land—unable to move between neighbor- are desperate for work. ing cities. Under the Oslo Accord, the The path it follows also casts even fur- designation of the three different areas was ther doubt on the narrative of the Barrier intended to be a temporary arrangement as an antidote to terrorism. According to prior to the establishment of Palestinian the Israeli human rights organization, sovereignty. One effect of the Barrier is to B’tselem, the route was based on consider- make these divisions a potentially perma- ations “completely unrelated to the security nent feature of the Palestinian landscape. of Israeli civilians,” and was instead driven That Areas A, B, and C are not contiguous by Israeli politicians’ desire to secure the means a barrier built to mark these borders future expanded borders of the Israeli state. has the effect of breaking up into In the case of Bethlehem in particular, the

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path followed by the Barrier diverges from his creation by the Palestinian political car- any plausible goal of guarding against ter- toonist Naji al-Ali in 1969. ror. The Barrier wraps directly around Ra- chel’s Tomb, a sacred site in Judaism and, LIVING IMPACT prior to the wall’s construction, a major The impact of the Barrier, and its art, on source of revenue as a tourist site for the Palestinian lives cannot be grasped in isola- Bethlehem municipality. Unfortunately tion from other aspects of the occupation, for Palestinians who happened to reside namely the checkpoints and the ID and per- near Rachel’s Tomb, the occasion of the mit system. In many respects, the Barrier Barrier’s construction was is only the latest iteration of used to annex this sacred a process that was initiated site to Jerusalem, even at the much of the with the proliferation of the cost of preventing Bethle- commentary checkpoint system in the early hem residents access to the 1990s, officially with the on- wider world. on the israeli- set of the Gulf War. During Given their close rela- palestinian that war, permission to move tionship to the Barrier, it divide is between Gaza and the West is appropriate that some of Bank, a right Palestinians had the most militarized check- based on the possessed since 1972, was re- points, such as Gilo, are cov- assumption voked. Prior to 1972, even ered with art. One particular- when conditions were far from ly striking photograph that that both ideal, Palestinians did have combines art on the check- peoples are relative freedom of move- point with the place of this instrinsically ment, in the sense that they art in Palestinian life shows could travel from Bethlehem a woman gazing towards opposed to each to to Gaza without Bethlehem from the Gilo other, whether needing to pass through doz- checkpoint. To her left is a through ens of checkpoints. skillfully drawn male head, In the wake of Oslo, the his spiked hair arrayed along their culture, checkpoint system func- one side of the open passage- religion, tioned for Israel as a tool of way, his searching eyes peer- blunt diplomacy. When Is- ing from the other side. In- language, raeli negotiators were pleased tentionally or not, the man’s or genes. with Palestinian concessions, spiked hair evokes what is more permits would be is- arguably the most nuanced image along sued. When the Palestinian Liberation Or- the main section of Barrier near downtown ganization insisted on Palestine’s political Bethlehem. This image depicts the Statue autonomy, the number of passes granted of Liberty mourning the death of her son. to Palestinians was reduced. Yet, in hind- In turn, the Statue of Liberty image encom- sight, such disciplinary tactics represented passes two others—the Madonna weeping the good old days, for as many as 200,000 over her crucified son in a postmodern Pie- permits were granted every year to workers ta, and Handhala, a cartoon figure who has in the 1990s. This number pales in com- symbolized resistance-through-satire since parison to the 40,000 permits granted to

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West Bank Palestinians in 2012, out of a The first graffiti is in Spanish, and total population of over 2.5 million. was probably added by a visiting activist. Now that diplomacy is increasingly “Porque la Paz no es mas difícil de alcanzar seen by the Israeli government as offer- que la guerra,” it reads in dark green. “Be- ing no solution to its security concerns, cause peace is no more difficult to realize the checkpoint has ceased to serve as a than war.” The second is on a section of the tool of diplomacy and has, along with the Barrier covered with Arabic graffiti, likely Barrier, become a means of entrenching added by a local Palestinian. A quotation the existence of the occupied territories. from Mahatma Gandhi, this graffiti reads: This transformation is reflected in the “Victory attained by violence is equal in changing architecture of the most recent value to defeat because it is momentary.” checkpoints, with Gilo’s opening in 2005 The Israeli side is hardly reluctant to the first such example. Known as termi- pursue the battle conducted with spray nals, these checkpoints, 10 in all, are sig- paint. “Seek revenge for blood spilled,” a nificantly larger than their predecessors. tribute to the “eye for an eye” imperative Their construction, coinciding with the in the Book of Genesis, is scrawled at one arrival of the Barrier, follows its path and point. Even more direct, “Kill the Mus- are clearly built with a long-term per- lims,” exhorts another spray-painted con- spective. One example of this intention tribution—designed to instigate violence. is on the Israeli side of the Barrier—a Such slogans may seem removed from passage that reads. “Non-Jews must re- the daily lives of Palestinians and their main outside.” At the same time, though, everyday struggles, as well as any efforts there is graffiti that argues for a different of Israel to live free of terrorist attacks. future: “Jews and Arabs refuse to be en- Still, their presence in the heart of the emies.” Both are indicative of a complex West Bank suggests a relation, however political reality best captured in artistic tenuous, between the long-term fight for self-expression. social justice and everyday struggles to survive. When Palestinians invoke such CHECKPOINTS AS ART statements, they are envisioning a life, and Even here, on the cold and harsh exteriors a future, that cannot be destroyed by the of the Gilo checkpoint, the impulse to in- occupation. For Israelis, such graffiti seem fuse art into the occupation is in evidence. to suggest a far less than existential threat. Graffiti and other imagery adorn one of Waiting at the Gilo checkpoint one the checkpoint’s watchtowers, adding new afternoon is Ahmad—doctor and self-pro- textures and colors to the grey concrete. claimed communist—who’d invested his As with the artists who decorate the life in fighting for Palestinian liberation. Gilo terminal, Palestinians and other ac- Yet, he insisted, “I’m neither a nationalist tivists transform the architecture of oc- nor an Islamist. A communist is someone cupation into an art of existence through who cannot be pressured into following counterintuitive and iconoclastic imagery. other peoples’ rules.” He finds the expres- Often, the words of historical figures or sions of transnational solidarity painted on anonymous slogans are invoked to suggest the wall inspiring, though he knows that, a sophisticated understanding of the ma- by themselves, they could not wipe away chinery of war and the politics of peace. the many forms of suffering and degrada-

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tion that the Barrier had inflicted on his more than the art that will live forever. friends and family. Palestinian strategies of creative resistance and Israel’s struggle, surrounded by real or INTRINSIC OPPOSITES perceived enemies, suggest that, for all the Much of the commentary on the Israeli- damage these fears have wrought, the sta- Palestinian divide is based on the assump- tus quo is not, and can never be, complete. tion that both peoples are intrinsically op- The works of art that Palestinians have posed to each other, whether through their created in connection with the Barrier can culture, religion, language, or genes. Yet certainly be read as expressions of resistance, it’s striking how much Israelis and Pal- the Israelis that of fear and anger. Each ex- estinians have in common, though many press rejection of the terms of how the land are often unaware how much their cultures has been divided, including its habitual share. Neither willful ignorance nor coer- commodification of human life, and its lit- cive cohabitation is likely to lead to mu- eral and figurative forms of imprisonment. tual understanding. In earlier generations, Yet the artwork that adorns Bethle- Palestinian workers would learn Hebrew hem’s Barrier and its checkpoints speaks of as a matter of course. Now, they are more another response to the division of these likely to learn their neighbor’s language territories that is at least as powerful as the in prison. Among the younger generation impulse to resist—one that is simpler, and of Palestinians, the proportion who un- also arguably more universally applicable derstand Hebrew or who are able to visit because it is deeply integrated into daily Israel continues to fall. Equally damaging, life. This is the impulse to exist, a power- Israelis are more likely to encounter Pal- ful emotion on both sides of the Barrier. estinians in militarized contexts of check- Palestinians have a word to denote points. Above all, the Barrier and other this art of existence. They call it , architecture of the occupation have kept literally meaning “steadfastness.” Sumud Palestinians and Israelis divided against appears in the name of several Palestin- each other and against themselves. ian peace organizations. Sumud is symbol- The astonishing creativity that has ized by the olive tree, which stands firm been lavished on the Barrier—the most amid climactic upheavals. Sumud is the visible symbol of the Israeli occupation best way of characterizing the personality and the most notable stain on the Palestin- of our Palestinian communist doctor who ian landscape—conflicts profoundly with refuses to toe any party line, including the implication that either Palestinians or those of the nationalists and the Islamists, Israelis are simply victims of the broken who are inconsistent with justice for all. system in which they reside. Palestinians Sumud is freedom, but it is not un- and Israelis can and do respond to what conditional, because its attainment is pre- respectively is described as occupation or mised on justice for everyone. It is the only disputed territory, by among other ways, solution there will ever be to a conflict that creating art. Not all the art they create is of has claimed so many lives that forgiveness enduring value. In many respects, the art is out of the question, sadly on both sides, that is destined to fade away matters even as reflected in the art mirroring life. l

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