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News Archive |
LAST UPDATE
December 18, 2006
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| December 15, 2006 |
Murals from Peace Boat hung on the "Apartheid Wall" in Palestine |
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| Basel and the Mural |
In a symbolic action of resistance against the so-called "Apartheid Wall", which the Israeli government is building around the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, former Peace Boat International Student Basel Nasr of Ramallah, Palestine hung murals painted onboard Peace Boat on a section of the wall near Abu Deis village, close to Jersusalem. |
site design imagesparkle.com
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| The mural is dwarfed by the "Wall" |
Basel, who hung the murals in early October, had hoped to have school children participate in the event, but local schools were closed due to strikes as teachers and government workers were left without salaries for months due to economic sanctions imposed on Palestine by Israel and some western nations following the Hamas election victory.
The murals were created in a workshop run by Basel onboard Peace Boat's 54th voyage, when he asked participants to draw images they felt Palestinian children would want to see on the wall. As Basel explains:
"People reject it [the Wall] by drawing on it. Everywhere you go the wall is covered with graffiti; the names of martyrs, messages from the first intifada, drawings of keys which are significant because they symbolize refugeesÅf keys to their homes, or the Palestinian peopleÅfs key to the homeland that is being taken from us. The wall also acts as a newspaper. If something happens, the next day there is news of it on the wall. All the political groups write their statements on the wall. There are many maps of Palestine, always drawn in the shape it was before Israel started their occupation."
Basel runs an arts studio in Ramallah to initiate a nonviolent cultural movement of expression-cum-empowerment, especially for children.
Read more about Basel's art workshop onboard and his reflections on the mural
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