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The Writing on the Wall
Palestinian youth activists Yousef Nijim and Faris Arouri, in
collaboration with the Dutch NGO "Send a Message Foundation," are
engaged in a nonviolent campaign to combat the oppressive
infrastructure of Israeli occupation. Setting their sites on the
separation barrier which destructively meanders through Palestinian
life and land, they assert their international solidarity and national
identity through graffiti art.
Jul 29, 2009
Palestinian youth activists Yousef Nijim and Faris Arouri, in
collaboration with the Dutch NGO "Send a Message Foundation," are
engaged in a nonviolent campaign to combat the oppressive
infrastructure of Israeli occupation. Setting their sites on the
separation barrier which destructively meanders through Palestinian
life and land, they assert their international solidarity and national
identity through graffiti art. Stenciling words, images and ideals
loftier than the heights of their concrete canvas, they hope to draw
international attention to the plight of the Palestinian people. In an
article on the Palestine News Network,
Nijim notes that "The messages bond people to this place." He believes
that engaging with the Wall is the best way to resist it. "If you don't
deal with it, it won't be gone," he adds.
For around $40, anyone in the world can have a message or slogan
painted on the wall, as long as it is not an incitement to hatred,
violence or otherwise contrary to the peaceable objectives of the
project. The money is used by Arouri and his volunteers for spray
paint, gas for their car, and for community-development projects in
Palestinian neighborhoods designed to increase youth participation in
volunteer activities. According to TIME magazine,
nearly 850 messages, ranging in content from the juvenile romantic to
the politically poetic, have already been painted. (Check out www.sendamessage.nl to see some works in progress and to find out how you can send your own message.)
This artistic and creative approach to resisting the occupation and
denouncing the wall has led to confrontation with Israeli Occupation
Forces, yet Nijim notes that the army is generally reluctant to
interfere with their projects. "I would say [there have been] a few
face to face encounters," he says. "But the whole project is about
media, so they stay way from us." Criticism of their work is not
exclusive to Israeli forces, but also comes from Palestinians who
believe they are trying to capitalize on the Wall. On the whole,
however, local sentiment continues to be encouraging and supportive of
the work that Send a Message is doing.
I recall the moments of my work organizing protests and
demonstrations against the wall in Qalqilya and Jayyous with the
International Solidarity Movement. I remember the bouts of frustration
that led many youth to attempt to dismantle portions of the wall, only
to be met with harsh reprisals and collective punishment by the Israeli
Occupation Forces. As in Jayyous and other rural areas of the West
Bank, not all portions of the barrier are concrete but rather chain
link fences reinforced with steel and barbed wire. Graffiti is not an
option there. Soldiers would often close the barrier's entry/exit
points and deny farmers access to their lands if they found evidence
that locals were attempting to tamper with or destroy any portion of
the barrier.
But Palestinians must continue to imbue their own lives with meaning
in the ways that they see fit given their circumstances. And those
struggling in the path of nonviolence must be even more creative,
patient and enduring. The fact remains that the Wall must fall. Whether
concrete or fence, none of it is morally sustainable nor can it resist
the tides of justice. The writing on the wall reminds us all.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Palestinian youth activists Yousef Nijim and Faris Arouri, in
collaboration with the Dutch NGO "Send a Message Foundation," are
engaged in a nonviolent campaign to combat the oppressive
infrastructure of Israeli occupation. Setting their sites on the
separation barrier which destructively meanders through Palestinian
life and land, they assert their international solidarity and national
identity through graffiti art. Stenciling words, images and ideals
loftier than the heights of their concrete canvas, they hope to draw
international attention to the plight of the Palestinian people. In an
article on the Palestine News Network,
Nijim notes that "The messages bond people to this place." He believes
that engaging with the Wall is the best way to resist it. "If you don't
deal with it, it won't be gone," he adds.
For around $40, anyone in the world can have a message or slogan
painted on the wall, as long as it is not an incitement to hatred,
violence or otherwise contrary to the peaceable objectives of the
project. The money is used by Arouri and his volunteers for spray
paint, gas for their car, and for community-development projects in
Palestinian neighborhoods designed to increase youth participation in
volunteer activities. According to TIME magazine,
nearly 850 messages, ranging in content from the juvenile romantic to
the politically poetic, have already been painted. (Check out www.sendamessage.nl to see some works in progress and to find out how you can send your own message.)
This artistic and creative approach to resisting the occupation and
denouncing the wall has led to confrontation with Israeli Occupation
Forces, yet Nijim notes that the army is generally reluctant to
interfere with their projects. "I would say [there have been] a few
face to face encounters," he says. "But the whole project is about
media, so they stay way from us." Criticism of their work is not
exclusive to Israeli forces, but also comes from Palestinians who
believe they are trying to capitalize on the Wall. On the whole,
however, local sentiment continues to be encouraging and supportive of
the work that Send a Message is doing.
I recall the moments of my work organizing protests and
demonstrations against the wall in Qalqilya and Jayyous with the
International Solidarity Movement. I remember the bouts of frustration
that led many youth to attempt to dismantle portions of the wall, only
to be met with harsh reprisals and collective punishment by the Israeli
Occupation Forces. As in Jayyous and other rural areas of the West
Bank, not all portions of the barrier are concrete but rather chain
link fences reinforced with steel and barbed wire. Graffiti is not an
option there. Soldiers would often close the barrier's entry/exit
points and deny farmers access to their lands if they found evidence
that locals were attempting to tamper with or destroy any portion of
the barrier.
But Palestinians must continue to imbue their own lives with meaning
in the ways that they see fit given their circumstances. And those
struggling in the path of nonviolence must be even more creative,
patient and enduring. The fact remains that the Wall must fall. Whether
concrete or fence, none of it is morally sustainable nor can it resist
the tides of justice. The writing on the wall reminds us all.
Palestinian youth activists Yousef Nijim and Faris Arouri, in
collaboration with the Dutch NGO "Send a Message Foundation," are
engaged in a nonviolent campaign to combat the oppressive
infrastructure of Israeli occupation. Setting their sites on the
separation barrier which destructively meanders through Palestinian
life and land, they assert their international solidarity and national
identity through graffiti art. Stenciling words, images and ideals
loftier than the heights of their concrete canvas, they hope to draw
international attention to the plight of the Palestinian people. In an
article on the Palestine News Network,
Nijim notes that "The messages bond people to this place." He believes
that engaging with the Wall is the best way to resist it. "If you don't
deal with it, it won't be gone," he adds.
For around $40, anyone in the world can have a message or slogan
painted on the wall, as long as it is not an incitement to hatred,
violence or otherwise contrary to the peaceable objectives of the
project. The money is used by Arouri and his volunteers for spray
paint, gas for their car, and for community-development projects in
Palestinian neighborhoods designed to increase youth participation in
volunteer activities. According to TIME magazine,
nearly 850 messages, ranging in content from the juvenile romantic to
the politically poetic, have already been painted. (Check out www.sendamessage.nl to see some works in progress and to find out how you can send your own message.)
This artistic and creative approach to resisting the occupation and
denouncing the wall has led to confrontation with Israeli Occupation
Forces, yet Nijim notes that the army is generally reluctant to
interfere with their projects. "I would say [there have been] a few
face to face encounters," he says. "But the whole project is about
media, so they stay way from us." Criticism of their work is not
exclusive to Israeli forces, but also comes from Palestinians who
believe they are trying to capitalize on the Wall. On the whole,
however, local sentiment continues to be encouraging and supportive of
the work that Send a Message is doing.
I recall the moments of my work organizing protests and
demonstrations against the wall in Qalqilya and Jayyous with the
International Solidarity Movement. I remember the bouts of frustration
that led many youth to attempt to dismantle portions of the wall, only
to be met with harsh reprisals and collective punishment by the Israeli
Occupation Forces. As in Jayyous and other rural areas of the West
Bank, not all portions of the barrier are concrete but rather chain
link fences reinforced with steel and barbed wire. Graffiti is not an
option there. Soldiers would often close the barrier's entry/exit
points and deny farmers access to their lands if they found evidence
that locals were attempting to tamper with or destroy any portion of
the barrier.
But Palestinians must continue to imbue their own lives with meaning
in the ways that they see fit given their circumstances. And those
struggling in the path of nonviolence must be even more creative,
patient and enduring. The fact remains that the Wall must fall. Whether
concrete or fence, none of it is morally sustainable nor can it resist
the tides of justice. The writing on the wall reminds us all.
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