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).
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.
“In memory to all who fought and gave their lives.” This is the tribute to the Ulster Division at the Carrickfergus Rangers Supporters’ Club, citing the words of Wilfrid Spender “I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday, the First of July [1916], as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world.” (For more of Spender’s tribute to the 36th Division, see I Am Not An Ulsterman.)
This Glen Road, Derry, streetart was painted by Peaball (ig) (with Glen Development Initiative) in September, 2021, and reflects the duality of experiences in living through the covid pandemic.
“Let others come after us – we welcome the chase.” The exterior wall of the Carrickfergus Rangers Supporters Club presents a gallery of the club’s managers from 1899 to 2018. In order they are William Wilton, Bill Struth, Scot Symon, David White, William Waddell, Jock Wallace, John Greig, Graeme Souness, Walter Smith, Dick Advocaat, Alex McLeish, Paul Le Guen, Ally McCoist, Stuart McCall, Mark Warburton, Pedro Caixinha, Graeme Murty, Steve Gerrard (and since then, there have been Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Michael Beale, and (currently) Philippe Clement).
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 