Banksy Opens ‘Walled Off Hotel’ Promoting ‘Conflict Tourism’

The near-mythical Bethlehem we imagine with reference to the story of Christmas is an idyllic village with little huts scattered around under a star-lit sky approached by travellers riding on mules. Joseph and Mary also came to take refuge here for their son, the son of God, to be born in a manger. The town of Bethlehem as it exists today is a far cry from that tiny village, congested as it is with buildings both medieval and modern lining its narrow streets and wide squares clogged with ubiquitous traffic. But, refugees form a considerable portion of the population even today as the town has always been and looks like it always will be at the centre of conflict. Tourism being the main economic activity here owing to the town featuring prominently in the shared religious history of Christianity, Judaism and Islam alike, Bethlehem has lodges and hotels, big and small, where tourists wishing to visit places of religious significance as the Church of the Nativity or Manger Square stay.

A 25 ft. high concrete wall that snakes its way around much of the town, dividing it from its sister city of Jerusalem, is a grim reminder of the perennial conflict that one can’t wish away. Peace protagonists and anti-war activists have expressed their displeasure by covering this wall in protesting graffiti, and so also has Banksy. He undertook this project around 2005 when he is supposed to have painted around nine graffiti images on the wall and several others in different parts of the city and the region. One of the most poignant of these images is that of a white dove of peace welcoming visitors with an olive branch, but dressed in a bullet proof vest alluding to the constantly threatened status of peace here.

 Seemingly not satisfied with these artistic efforts at drawing attention to the problem, Banksy has taken upon himself the task of forcefully driving home the fact of the futility of strife by showcasing its ill-boding images in his new venture, “The Walled Off Hotel”. This modest sized lodging of nine rooms, most of them with a view of the wall, faces, and therefore squarely addresses, the contentious, divisive wall – what he refers to while advertising the place as “the worst view in the world”.

The British colonial style that most of its interior and exterior décor assumes is an acknowledgement of the significance of British presence in the region around the beginning of the 20^th century. There is, in fact, a mock-up wax statue of the signing of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 through which the British enabled the formation of Israel as a native homeland for the Jews on lands so far occupied by Palestine. Even the doorman at the entrance accompanied by the statue of a liveried chimp handling world war era luggage bear the stamp of colonial insignia.

The rooms, lobby and dining areas all are used as display spaces for pacifist and anti-war graffiti, art and sculpture. One of the most attractive suites in the hotel is the Banksy room where the wall above the king-sized bed bears his painting of a Palestinian and an Israeli locked in combat, albeit with pillows. Some walls in a special gallery room display surveillance cameras lined up like taxidermic hunting trophies along with pick-axes and sling shots among other weapons. The same room has a chandelier of suspended winged cherubs breathing from oxygen masks and a female Greek bust seeming choked by the surrounding smoke from a tear gas shell.

One can find different styles of treatment within the framework of this décor, like the Presidential Suite which has a look of Retro-chic. While the primary focus of the place is to make the guests face the ironic, ugly and futile exercise that the region’s conflict is, it also has the responsibility to ensure the comfort and convenience of the guests in some measure of luxury. So, the art doesn’t simply hang on the walls here, but also permeates to the balance between art and comfort, socio-political awareness and aesthetic décor that has so delicately been achieved at ‘The Walled Off Hotel’.