Banksy in the West Bank

Adrian Margaret Brune
[with photos] HuffPost 11 July -- ...Banksy, the subversive British artist who started his career with a can of spray paint and a graffiti rat tag, has become as popular around the West Bank as Naji Salim al-Ali, the iconic and martyred political cartoonist. In fact, even more so, if imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery. It takes a trained eye to spot the real Banksy from his legion of protégés, who have colored their side of the 425-mile-long Geder Hafrada (separation barrier) -- or as the Palestinians call it, "jidar al-fasl al-'unsuri" (racial segregation wall) -- with an incredible panoply of resistance art. In many ways, it's difficult to know who inspired whom. In 2005, Banksy traveled for the first time to the West Bank and painted, in Bethlehem, the trompe-l'oeil scenes of a beaches peeking through smashed holes in the wall. They were a huge hit with the Palestinians -- not so with the Israelis, who fired their guns in the air to scare off the enigmatic, misanthrope who already relishes in disdain.
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