Palestinians woke up on Friday morning to see two big murals in the part of the Israeli Apartheid Wall that runs through Bethlehem, parodying the US President Donald Trump.
On the concrete barricades erected by Israel around parts of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, giant spray-painted images of Trump have given constricted Palestinians some comic relief.
The first mural shows Trump wearing a Jewish skullcap and placing his hand on a wall and addressing it saying: “I am going to build you a brother.” This scene was taken from Trump’s visit to Jerusalem’s Western Wall, which Jews claim as their holiest site.
"I'm going to build you a brother" @realDonaldTrump #bethlehem #palestine #buildthewall pic.twitter.com/FFBu8smjaC
— LUSHSUX (@lushsux) July 31, 2017
The artist, who goes by the alias @LushSux and who Australian media have said comes from Melbourne, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The second mural shows Trump hugging and kissing an Israeli watchtower built into the wall; his left arm reaching around the tower with little pink hearts coming out of his mouth.
On Thursday, the Washington Post published a transcript of a conversation in which Trump pressured Mexico not to publicly oppose his plan to have it pay for a border wall that he says is needed to stop illegal immigration to the United States.
Tag in someone you love more than Trump loves walls ? #Donaldtrump #trump #palestine pic.twitter.com/J92lTYGG07
— LUSHSUX (@lushsux) August 4, 2017
“You know, you look at Israel – Israel has a wall and everyone said do not build a wall, walls do not work — 99.9 percent of people trying to come across that wall cannot get across and more.”
Trump told Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, according to the transcript of the phone call in January.
“Bibi Netanyahu told me the wall works,” he added, using Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname.
The Bethlehem wall has become a showcase of protest art voicing Palestinians’ fears that Israel’s West Bank fence-and-concrete barrier is a land grab that may deny them a state. Israelis deem the project a bulwark against Palestinian attack.
Wisam Salasaa, the owner of The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, whose paintings were designed by Banksy said: “We cannot give any information [about the murals] at this time.”
Since Israel started its construction of the Wall in 2002, many Palestinian and international artists have displayed their art on it, protesting against its existence. The Palestinians and their supporters the world over often refer to the wall as the Apartheid Wall, the Separation Wall and the Racist Wall. In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that this wall is illegal and should be dismantled.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)