Banksy and the Bethlehem Donkey

Last weekend, at a symposium to accompany the opening of the Contemporary Art Iraq exhibition at the Cornerhouse in Manchester, I encountered someone who was possibly the most breathtakingly rude, arrogant and self-aggrandising journalist I have ever had the misfortune to meet. Which was a pity, because the symposium was fairly interesting (although the speaker count was pretty much halved by the effects of the Icelandic ash cloud) and this woman's aggressive, narrow-focused interrogation of the presenters racked up the tension amongst speakers and audience so much that little real debate seemed possible. It was also a pity because she had some really useful insights and very interesting experiences and information - she just chose to present them in such an exclusionary way that engaging with her was impossible. She is on the editorial team of a magazine I've long respected and have written for in the past; I suspect I won't be going near it again, and from the conversations I've had subsequently, she comprehensively alienated a room full of people who should have been amongst her publication's target market.
However, I should be grateful to her for one thing. She reminded me that I should write up a little anecdote I've been trotting out for a while as an example of the confusions which can plague political art.
On a return visit to the West Bank in spring 2009, my friend Samer pointed out to me the places near Bethlehem checkpoint where graffiti artist Banksy had left his mark. Several of Banksy's wittier contributions to the many murals, stencils and tags on the Israeli military's Separation Wall remained but, as reported widely in December 2007, an image depicting a donkey being id'd by an Israeli soldier had been painted over by irate locals.
According to Samer, Banksy's images had heightened debates amongst locals over whether drawing, painting and spray-painting on the Wall was an act of defiance or a beautification of the unforgivable, something to make the Wall easier to live with and detract from its role in wrecking the Palestinian economy, cutting people off from jobs and hospitals and educational opportunities, and stealing large areas of Palestinian land.
But the donkey cartoon had been singled out for particular criticism by some Bethlehemites. To call someone a donkey the Middle East is excruciatingly insulting, and locals felt that the image compared them with the creature depicted. Hence the mural's fate under a layer of new paint. And, on the roundabout heading into Bethlehem from the checkpoint, even fourteen months later in 2009 and unnoticed by the reporters who initially recorded the story, several concrete blocks bore the sinister message 'R.I.P. Banksy.'

Blog also posted at Menassat, the Arab media community.