British street artist Banksy has created a new outdoor piece in South London of three military drone-like aircraft stuck to a red ‘stop’ sign. The work, which appeared today on his Instagram page as well as his official website, does not explicitly support a particular cause, although it comes as international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza grow. According to The Guardianthe work was removed less than an hour after it was erected.
The same work was also posted on the artist’s business page, Gross Domestic Product, with a peace symbol. Banksy’s representatives declined to comment.
Banksy has a long history of working in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, first creating a series of murals on the Palestinian side of the West Bank barrier in 2005. The works – many of which have since been removed – include a silhouette of a girl floating up holding a bunch of balloons and a boy holding a bucket and shovel looking through a huge hole in the wall. In 2004, the United Nations declared Israel’s 425-kilometer-long wall illegal. Banksy said the barrier “essentially turns Palestine into the world’s largest open prison.”
Other jobs like Stop and searchpainted in Bethlehem in 2007 of a girl in a pink dress caressing a soldier, alludes to the oppressive power of the state while a rat holding a slingshot has been read as a protest against the Israeli occupation.
In 2017, Banksy opened the Hotel Walled Off directly across from the West Bank barrier, so every room faces concrete slabs topped with barbed wire: “the worst view of any hotel in the world,” the artist said at the time of its opening. The hope was that the hotel would bring some much-needed tourism to the devastated area and expose people to the reality of living in the shadow of the wall. The pension has been closed since October 7.
