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.
Sinn Féın leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill intend to travel to the USA for St Patrick’s Day, despite US support for Israel in its sustained attack on Gaza (Indo). The SDLP has said that it will not travel to the White House (Bel Tel). Sinn Féın say they will use the trip to promote business opportunities in Northern Ireland. The Taoıseach will also be in DC, while the Tánaıste will be in Vancouver (Breaking News).
“Tell your politicians… boycott the White House. We’re all running out of time to be on the right side of history. Don’t let genocide-mongerers be pandered to in your name.”
“Don’t look away. 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza. End the genocide.”
“Boycott genocide Joe. No greenwash at the White House. Leo/Mıcheál/Mary Lou stay away from St Patrick’s Day celebrations! Solidarity with Palestine.”
“Tell local politicians… Boycott the White House or… we will never forgive you. We will never vote without recalling which politicians partied with the gleeful killers of thousands of Palestinians. We will never forget. We will never let you forget.”
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).
Two days of public hearings were held on January 11th and 12th and the ruling on the 26th directed Israel to take “all measures” to prevent any acts that could be considered genocidal, though it did not order a halt to Israel’s attack on Gaza (Al Jazeera | WP).
Sınn Féın moved in the Dáıl that Ireland join South Africa as a plaintiff in the full case, but the motion was defeated (Irish Times).
The image above shows, on the left, three children from Ireland, Palestine, and South Africa holding hands, and, on the right, dead Palestinian children flying to heaven over stripped and kneeling Palestinian prisoners. The flying children are based on an image by Taqdees Fatima (ig) and the kneeling prisoners on an image by Saïd Hassan (ig). The source for the three children is unknown.
“Since 1948”. This is an interesting board in a comic-book/graphic-novel or movie-poster style with a montage of striking imagery and patterning crammed together, revealed by pseudo-tears, and overlaid lettering in multiple fonts and colours.
The imagery and references are threatening: included are air-jacker Leila Khaled and a rioter with a catapult (who completes the slogan “from the river to the sea … Palestine will be free!”; the lower part of the face of the main figure (and of the face in the bottom-right corner) is covered; we also see “Rebel With[out] A Cause” the 1955 film. in the top left “Struggle Continues – Since 1948” in the style of a fashion emblem, and in the bottom right, “1948” in the style of a mid-century house-number font or perhaps the 1984 film version (with John Hurt and Richard Burton) of Orwell’s 1984.
The other piece – a large bird in the colours of Palestine – is a poster by Videndomen (PPA).
The title is the Arabic translation of the Irish “Tıocfaıdh ár lá” taken from a Belfast mural, Freedom In Arabic. (“Tıocfaıdh ár lá” is commonly given in English as “our day will come”; Google reverses the Arabic into English as “Our day is coming”.) At the other end of the block (and above Fight The Rich, Feed The Poor) is a French or Spanish “Viva la resistance”; presumably intended to be “Vive la résistance” or “Viva la revolución”. But it’s a principle of interpretation at Extramural that the spelling (or the quality of the art) is not the point when people feel they are not being heard. In this case, the message is clear: “Free Palestine”.
The inverted red triangle has become a symbol of support for Palestine and Hamas, apparently because of its use in Hamas videos to indicate Israeli targets being blown up (Middle East Monitor | Al Jazeera video), as though a kind of cross-hairs.
In this Derry art, the red triangle has been given a Banksy-style presentation as the balloon of a child (reminiscent of Girl With Balloon in London and, given the context, Flying Balloon Girl in the West Bank) walking beneath the Lecky Road underpass.
Extramural Activity 