This entry chronicles (in reverse order/from latest to earliest) the painting of one of Saïd Hassan’s (ig) contributions to the Painting For Palestine (Fb) project that is currently transforming the International Wall on Divis Street in west Belfast. The piece appears to be inspired by the mass grave in Khan Younis (in the Gaza Strip) in which more than 100 corpses were buried in November (Al Jazeera video | Reuters gallery).
Hassan’s instagram post of his original artwork cites a few lines from Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani (WP): “Let’s plant them as our martyrs in the womb of this soil thickened with bleeding … there is always room in the ground for another martyr.”
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).
Here is a completed mural from the Painting For Palestine project (Fb) on the International Wall, Divis Street, Belfast, showing a man holding an injured child against a backdrop of razed buildings in Gaza. It is now 125 days since Israel began its war on Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7th and images of parents carrying their dead and injured children, and of the devastation of Gaza’s buildings, are now all too common – here is an Al Jazeera gallery from December.
In January 2024, in response to the prolonged Israeli attack on Gaza, many murals on the “International Wall” on Divis Street were painted out and work began on reproductions of artworks by artists from Palestine and elsewhere in the region. The project was called Painting For Palestine and a Facebook page and GoFundMe page were launched.
According to Bill Rolston (Fb) (who can be seen in the second image, below), there was a plan last Autumn that Palestinian artists would create their own “international wall” and include murals designed by CNR artists. The Hamas attack on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli invasion on Gaza – now ongoing for 108 days – put paid to that project, and instead art by Palestinian painters is being painted in Belfast in support of Palestine. (Here is an NVTv segment on the project.)
The first (left-most) panel will reproduce a mural called ‘The Land Is Ours’ by Mohammed Alhaj, Abdullah Al Najar, Rami Al Safadi, and Abdel Hamid Fares that once stood in a Gaza school; the second, next to the first, is currently blank (see the image above).
The grid and cartoon for a mural from digital artist Saïd Hassan (web):
Another image by digital artist Saïd Hassan, showing soldiers standing over dead children:
Four murals are being painted over what were previously Lenár Linn and Hunger Strikers (1916). The originals for these were designed by Ahmad Shaweesh (ig), Raed Qatanani (ig), ? [please get in touch], and Saïd Hassan (web).
Shaweesh’s piece is a deliberately unfinished image of a group of people, perhaps a family, in distress. Qatanani’s image is a portrait of Soso and Omar Ashour as they sat in a Gaza hospital during the first week of the Israeli invasion.
The original artist of this figure with a phoenix is unknown.
The last of these four murals is by Hassan and shows a woman cooking over an open fire in front of a tent in a refugee camp.
“Free Palestine”. Tears of blood flow from a face that is shrouded by a Palestinian flag and behind barbed wire. The writing at the bottom is a quote from Malcolm X: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the oppressor.”
Lower Stanfield St, Markets, south Belfast. Almost a decade old – this mural was launched 2014-07-29.
The slogan “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty” has been used in loyalist responses to Brexit and the NI Protocol, in Lurgan, Ballyclare, and Moygashel (one | two). It is used here in reference to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. PFLP (in the bottom-left corner) is the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine (WP) (seen previously in The Popular Front | Solidarity With Palestine | Resistance Is Not Terrorism and murals showing Leila Khaled); in the bottom-right is the emblem of the INLA – starry plough, red star of socialism, Tricolour, and fist holding an assault rifle.
Unlike the book of Lamentations (see Our Homes Have Been Given To Foreigners), the book of Jeremiah contains a promise that the peoples of Judah and Israel will return from Babylonian captivity and that the palaces of Judah will be rebuilt. In the New Living Translation, Jeremiah 33 v6 is rendered as, “Nevertheless, the time will come when I will heal Jerusalem’s wounds and give it prosperity and true peace.”
In addition to the Ulster Banner and Israeli flag (in the shape of hearts) we also see the emblem of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) – צבא ההגנה לישראל/Tzva Hahaganah leYisrael – and below that אי כניעה or “no surrender” in Hebrew.
“We are at war and we will win” was Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas attack of October 7th (Times Of Israel)
The corner at Limestone Road and North Queen Street has been finding a biblical passage to express the jubilations and tribulations of God’s chosen people since 2016, when Revelations 18:4 was cited on the gable wall in support of Brexit; in 2021 this was changed to Psalms 95:7 – visible in the images in the wide shot, below – in reference to the chosen people’s soccer team, Rangers.
The lower wall used Genesis 38:28 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation (2017), along with Luke 1:31-33 and 2 Samuel 7:16 to proclaim the everlasting Christian order; then in 2018 John 15:13 was used to mark the centenary of armistice that ended WWI in 1918; and in 2020 2 Chronicles 7:14 was deployed as an exhortation to pray to the Lord for relief from Covid-19.
And this brings us to the newest quotation, which places an Israeli flag above Lamentations 5:1-2: “Remember, Lord, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace./Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners” (NIV). The lamentation is for Jerusalem, which in 589-586 BCE was besieged and overrun by the Babylonians and the Jews exiled to Babylon. The present-day analogue would presumably be the Hamas attacks on October 7th, 2023, against communities and bases near the Gaza Strip, in which around 1,200 people were killed (Reuters) and approximately 240 people were taken hostage (NYTimes).
It is not clear whether a further analogy with the Protestants of Northern Ireland is intended. This one might be simply to express support with the Israelis.
The UN Security Council last night passed resolution 2712 (UN), calling for extended humanitarian pauses in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The resolution was proposed by Malta, who wrote the resolution to focus on the plight of children. Today’s images show a selection of the teddy bears and other soft toys that have been placed on fences and lamp-posts in CNR west Belfast in memory of the children who have been killed in Gaza. It is estimated that a child dies in Gaza every 10 minutes (Reuters) and that 4,600 children have died so far (UN).
“United in struggle for freedom and sovereignty. Beir bua! #BDS #FreePalestine. www.32csm.org” — Palestinian and Irish fists raised together in solidarity.
Divis Street, west Belfast, perhaps using the same stencil in Free Palestine on Beechmount Avenue and in Springhill in 2014 reproducing a Latuff cartoon.
Paddy Duffy Collection 