Not everybody likes Banksy’s hotel in the West Bank

Elusive British artist Banksy has made another statement about Israel-Palestine with his latest project—a hotel cozied up to the separation wall in Bethlehem. The point of the hotel, though Banksy has kept consistent with his tendency to refrain from commentary, seems to be to highlight what life is like for residents of Bethlehem—namely Palestinians—with an intrusive, authoritarian wall looming in the distance wherever you turn.

On social media, there was plenty of praise for the new project. Take this woman's response to a video on the hotel posed by Channel 4 News: 

Some users saw the hotel as a new tool to shed light on the current state of affairs in the West Bank:

فندق WALLED OFF بجانب الجدار الفاصل في #بيت_لحم، والذي أشرف عليه الفنان العالمي المتخفّي "بانكسي" مسلطًا الضوء على المعاناة الفلسطينية بفنّه pic.twitter.com/L4vpo9fUXp

— صورة فلسطين (@PalestinianPic) March 4, 2017

The hotel 'Walled Off' next to the separation wall in Bethlehem by the hidden Banksy sheds light on Palestinian suffering with his art.

However, some users had a more negative view of the hotel, claiming that it actually normalized the separation wall:

اللوحة الترحيبية في فندق "بانكسي" ولا اَي ذكر للاحتلال وكأنه الجدار عبارة عن تضاريس طبيعية مثلا ! وطبعا مش محتاجة الواحد يعلق اكثر ع المحتوى pic.twitter.com/B4d661zsbX

— Fidaa Zaanin (@FidaaZaanin) March 4, 2017

The welcome sign in Banksy's hotel makes no reference to the occupation [of Palestinian land], and it's as if just a normal piece of the landscape! And nobody even needs to comment on the inside of the hotel...

This user felt that the project trivialized the Israel-Palestine conflict:

تتحول فلسطين الى theme park بثيمة "الصراع", تماما كديزني لاند و رحلات سفاري افريقيا للرجل الابيض الباحث عن المغامره. #بانكسي #Banksy pic.twitter.com/BB8ifNJy2c

— Adele Jarrar (@AdeleJarrar) March 5, 2017

Palestine has been turned into a theme park with the theme 'conflict', just like Disneyland or safaris in Africa, for the white man searching for adventure. #Banksy

And then there were some, like the Twitter user below, who did not see why anyone would take a negative view of the hotel:

اعذروا جهلي.. وين الاشي العاطل في فندق بانكسي؟؟؟ وين الاشي المش وطني؟

— أحمد.. (@aaburayya) March 4, 2017

Pardon my ignorance, but where is the problem with Banksy's hotel? What part of it is anti-patriotic?

Israel has been condemned internationally for its continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Additionally, high profile cases of the persecution of Palestinian citizens and subsequent lenient consequences for Israeli perpetrators have sparked ire among human rights groups. Though the injustice continues, at least some people see through the hollow excuses provided by the Israeli government for crimes committed against Palestinians.

Though Banksy might not have tackled the issue in the way that everyone could have hoped, the fact that his project is not blatantly political could draw in tourists ignorant of the struggles of Palestinians and get more people to recognize the wrongs committed by the Israeli state. Hopefully, initiatives like these can lead to a solution for this protracted problem.

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