Some graffiti read like grotesque love notes, written by soldiers who had invaded people's private spaces. “Happy 19th birthday, Hanaa, from the angel man in Khan Yunis,” one soldier wrote, as if terror and occupation could be signed off with a smiley face. Amira, a mother of two, returned to her house in the Al-Amal neighborhood to find a message written with lipstick on her mirror: “This color is beautiful. Why didn't you take it with you when you fled?” It was sinister mockery dressed as intimacy, signing off on an appalling invasion of her home and dignity
someday someone will write more in-depth about the graffiti of gaza, but here are some thoughts i've had on graffiti since the war began:
occupation soldiers leave graffiti in almost every home they enter. they leave other things, such as their own fecal matter. they also take things, such as people's belongings, money and lingerie. some of this graffiti is described in the article above. in my friend's home in khan younes (which he returned to after they left) they left impersonal scrawls of military plans and directions on the partially destroyed walls alongside some token star of davids. this is how people in gaza encounter hebrew, and the only way that people in gaza (most of whom have lived in a locked cage for nearly the entirety of their lives) have ever come to interact with jewish israelis and their language.
since the war began, there has also been arabic graffiti in gaza. here is the graffiti i remember the most:
you might remember these from december 2023. the first reads "omar and osama are under the rubble." the second reads "the children are still under the rubble. omar, abdullah and osama." these were written by their families who were forcibly displaced from their homes. it took over an entire year, until the ceasefire, for their bodies to finally be recovered from the rubble. the families didn't need to do this; almost every bombing results in people trapped under the rubble because israel has blocked the heavy equipment necessary not even to rescue them safely, but just to recover the bodies. but they used the graffiti to make a point. this rubble is not just concrete; it contains the precious bodies of our children. do not just pass by this building; remember my children.
i've said this before, but to speak arabic over the past two years has meant to understand the worst things you can ever hear a human being say, whether from sudan or lebanon or syria or palestine. and yet arabic as a language is the one seen as sinister and foreboding, and not english or hebrew. journalist talia jane was taken for extra screening at the UN for wearing a hat that read "brooklyn" in arabic.
this discrepancy was highlighted by a team of arab artists who made a political statement when they were hired to do set design for homeland, the US tv show, and wrote graffiti that stated "homeland is racist" and "homeland is watermelon" (this might seem like a pro-palestine statement today, but is actually just slang for 'nonsensical').
in doing so, they subverted what one expects of arabic graffiti and how people perceive arabic in general. graffiti is a public art, intended for public consumption. it is usually in the language that the people residing in this environment speak; and if it isn't there is another message in that.
palestinian (and lebanese) fighters also left messages in homes they used while their residents were displaced. these messages were usually written on paper and left for the families to find on their tables, and contained apologies for entering the home and using it, as well as listing if anything was taken or used such as food. the messages are not left via graffiti (and on the rare occasions i have seen them written on walls, they are usually written in careful calligraphy intended not to deface the wall). this is because the medium is also the message.
what the article above does is go one step further and show you what it means for graffiti to be used violently. what is interesting about this usage of hebrew is that it was done inside people's homes, in their most private spaces, in bedrooms and living rooms and kitchens. like most of the violence israelis do to palestinians, it is meant to be an inside joke, between israelis themselves and between israelis and their victims. the wider world, you, were not meant to see it. like all things israelis do to palestinians, it is done loudly and forcefully so that a palestinian MUST see it, but with the belief that nobody else will.
