You Must Decide
This is a controversial image. Street Art by definition is subversive, a point blank interrogation of the received, official interpretation of events.
The war between the IDF and Hamas grinds on. “Grind,” is the word. The densely populated landscape of Gaza continues to be pulverized by artillery, by IDF airstrikes in order to eliminate Hamas. An estimated twenty thousand Palestinians have been killed in the assault. Sure a few of the dead are certain to be Hamas fighters, but the majority were civilians who were unable to avoid the shrapnel, and the concussion of bombs or missiles. The PM Benjamin Netanyahu says that he intends to widen the war. He believes the October assault by Hamas which killed 1,200 and took 240 hostages, justifies the unlimited killing, maiming of Palestinians in the effort to eliminate Hamas. “We are not stopping. The war will continue until the end, until we finish it, no less,” – Netanyahu.
A quote from a resident of Gaza:
“Seventy-five years of suffering, our rights taken, our country seized, and our people slaughtered. Our rights, as people, are justifiable. What can we do?” said Mariam al-Omsi, walking along an alleyway after an air strike in Shaboura camp, near the town of Rafah in southern Gaza.
The Street Art is by a Norwegian based artist who goes by the name AFK. He entitled his art ‘The Boy in Stripped Pajamas-2022’. The image is derived from the film of the same title without the date, which was based on a novel by John Boyne. As with all story telling, the story-teller, film director, and the artist is creator, controller of all elements of his/her work in order to make his/her point. Fact as we understand the term is irrelevant to the artist’s intent.
The image is considered Antisemitic by some. Here is one such assessment.
Decide for yourself.
I say that the Israeli kid facing the child wearing the keffiyeh is on the wrong side of the wire.
3 thoughts on “You Must Decide”
A few questions and a couple of comments.
Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel on a daily basis. To what end except to aggravate the situation? Hamas continues to declare that Israel has no right to exist and must be obliterated. Do the inhabitants of Israel say, “Fine by us”?
I am not intending to justify the loss of life and the suffering inflicted on the everyday Palestinians, but when do you or the world at large hold Hamas to account for the rocket attacks and for their attitude towards Israel and Jews in general?
Another thought.
What if the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) had declared 30 years ago that Israel had a right to exist. That perhaps they weren’t thrilled with the outcome, but nonetheless that’s where things were. That Yasar Arafat would have then said, “Let’s work together to build a stronger, healthier, and more economically viable Middle East.” Can you imagine where the Palestinian people would be today? Certainly not being bombed and starved.
I agree. Everything would be different today. Nonetheless Arafat did not compromise, and perhaps he could not for any number of possible reasons. Perhaps that was the final small crossroad, a road not taken. And then the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. another “window of opportunity” closes. As excruciating as it certainly will be, peace means relinquishing some of the occupied territories, and acceding to an autonomous Palestinian state. The alternative is murder on a mass scale, old testament style tribal warfare.
I am not Jewish and thus I have no standing to advocate doing a difficult thing. But maybe then, Hamas could be called to account, individuals brought to trial for their atrocities?