Banksy Bombs Bethlehem

Graffiti artist Banksy is staging his Santa's Ghetto art exhibition in Bethlehem this year, in an attempt to shine a spotlight on the plight of the town believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.

A Palestinian boy in the West Bank town of Bethlehem takes a closer look at one of the new graffiti works by British artist Bansky on Tuesday. A Palestinian boy in the West Bank town of Bethlehem takes a closer look at one of the new graffiti works by British artist Bansky on Tuesday.

Banksy has set up his annual month-long Santa's Ghetto exhibit — featuring his own art and pieces by local artists and European colleagues — in a shop opposite the Church of the Nativity in the town's Manger Square.

The “guerrilla artist” Banksy has helped to transform the security barrier that surrounds the town with more than a dozen satirical images painted, plastered and sprayed on to the 8m-high (26ft) concrete. The work winds a trail to the heart of the city at Manger Square, where more than a dozen pieces are housed directly across from the Church of the Nativity.

[...] The seasonal exhibition, entitled Santa’s Ghetto, began life six years ago as
an “anarchic concept gallery” above an East End pub, and has become a London
institution. By taking the idea to the West Bank, the artist hoped to shine
a light on the plight of Bethlehem. Less than three weeks before Christmas,
its shops remain boarded up. Since construction of the security barrier
began in 2002 tourism has plummeted. Officials estimate that more than half
of the city’s population does not have a job.

The main exhibition is three floors of striking artwork by Palestinians and foreign artists in a building marked Santa's Ghetto on Bethlehem's Manger Square. Outside, by way of welcome, stood a donkey whose rider was a stuffed but empty headed dummy wearing traditional Palestinian dress - an artwork by the American Mark Jenkins. Inside, there were several small military watchtowers carved out of olive wood.

I asked the Palestinian artist Suleiman Mansour what he made of the graffiti on the wall. "For some people it could be a gimmick, for others it might make a difference," he said. Mansour has been working as an artist since the 1960s and remembers a time when Palestinians were banned from painting in red, green or white - the colours of their flag. "The Palestinian problem is full of contradictions and strange things: it's like heaven for artists," he said. "For westerners it's important they see the Palestinian problem interpreted through art. It's not like newspaper articles or speeches, art is something much stronger in getting a message to people."

We would like to make it very clear Santa’s Ghetto is not allied to ANY race, creed, religion, political organization or lobby group. As an organisation the only thing we’ll say on behalf of our artists is that we don’t speak on behalf of our artists. This show simply offers the ink-stained hand of friendship to ordinary people in an extraordinary situation.

Every shekel made in the store will be used on local projects for children and young people. Not one cent will go to any political groups, governmental institutions or, in fact, any grown-ups at all.