These are the two sides of the electrical box next to emic’s large wildflowers mural, presumably also by emic (ig). Above is the kingfisher on the Collingwood side and below are the flowers the embankment side. The kingfisher or cruıdín is common throughout Ireland (BirdwatchIreland), including Belfast. Here are two videos of kingfishers on the Lagan: Tom McClean | Tony Dalton.
Here are seven pro-Palestinian posters on a planter outside the Royal in west Belfast.
The “Rise Up Against Genocide” poster is from ‘Love Letters From Palestine’ (ig). “Birds Not Bombs” is by Dani Knight (ig). “Boycott Apartheid Israel” is by Chris Hutch (Palestinian Poster Project). The “Save Gaza” poster is by Pakistani designer Hazem Asif (ig | web). “Unity In Confronting Zionism” is by Deliberately/Collectively Anonymous (PPP) “Palestine Will Be Free” is by Josh McPhee (ig) “Free Palestine” ?
The launch event for the Painting For Palestine project (Fb) took place on March 3rd. A large paper Palestinian flag (with the cartoon character of resistance Handala (WP) on it) was used as a cover over the mural of three children – Irish, Palestinian, and South African – and unveiled by local children who had worked on the piece.
For the launch of the murals painted in the Painting For Palestine project (Fb) a red ribbon with the words from Palestinian writer Refaat Alareer’s poem “If I Must Die” was added to the ten consecutive panels below the ‘republican museum’ panel.
If I must die, you must live to tell my story to sell my things to buy a piece of cloth and some strings, (make it white with a long tail) so that a child, somewhere in Gaza while looking heaven in the eye awaiting his dad who left in a blaze —
and bade no one farewell not even to his flesh not even to himself — sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above and thinks for a moment an angel is there bringing back love If I must die let it bring hope let it be a tale
The Palestinian West Bank is surrounded by, and in some places penetrated by, a system of barriers 440 miles long. In some places it takes the form of multiple fences, in others, of a concrete wall reaching to a height of 30 feet/9 metres. (Here is WP’s map of the wall in the vicinity of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, also showing the Israeli settlements in this part of the West Bank).
In this mural, a Palestinian stands on top of the wall and looks towards (Christian) Church Of The Holy Sepulchre and the (Islamic) Dome Of The Rock in old Jerusalem and imagines themselves a phoenix, a symbol representing rebirth and persistence, well known from (Irish) republican muraling (Peter Moloney Collection | Extramural collection).
The mural is on the International Wall, west Belfast, part of the Painting For Palestine project (Fb). The original artist is unknown.
This is one of five pieces by digital artist Saïd Hassan (ig) that is being painted on the International Wall as part of the Painting For Palestine (Fb) project. It shows a family of refugees living in a tent; the female adult is cooking over an open flame while three children look on.
This is the last (right-most) of the 12 murals.
The images above and immediately below are from February 14th. The ‘in-progress’ images below are in reverse-chronological order.
The first (left-most) mural of the Painting For Palestine project (Fb) reproduces a piece that once stood in a Gaza school, called The Land Is Ours, by Mohammed Alhaj, Abdullah Al Najar, Rami Al Safadi, and Abdel Hamid Fares. It shows a human figure holding a Palestinian flag that wraps around an olive tree and the Dome Of The Rock temple in Jerusalem.
Siblings Soso and Omar Ashour were brought to a Gaza hospital in the first week of the Israeli attack. Artist Raed Yousef Qatanani (ig) took them as subjects (ig photo | ig video of the pair) for a painting which has in turn been reproduced on the International Wall in west Belfast as part of the Painting For Palestine project (Fb).
This mural is based on an original by Ahmad Shaweesh (ig) which shows a group of people, perhaps a family, in distress. The piece, both original and reproduction, is deliberately left unfinished, presumably to represent the unfinished lives of the Gaza dead.
Extramural Activity 