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kottke.org posts about Palestine

Walls Cannot Keep Us From Flying

posted by Jason Kottke   Jan 20, 2023

Jonathan Mehring's short documentary Walls Cannot Keep Us From Flying follows two young Palestinians who have found freedom in skateboarding while surrounded by walls & barbed wire and facing harassment from Israeli authorities and their own families & communities.

What do I feel when I skate? What do I imagine? I imagine there's no occupation, there's no wall. I feel freedom.

With every new trick, it's like you become aware of a new life, new ideas. It's not something that I can describe, it's something you feel in your heart. It's like when something has been missing and you're looking for it and slowly you find it.

According to one of the young skaters in the film, when a new skatepark opened in the West Bank, the Israeli army came and fired tear gas. And no wonder — when oppressed people start doing things like skateboarding and begin to feel like they are free, authoritarian regimes can't have that — they've got to crack down.

A brief history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

posted by Jason Kottke   Jan 21, 2016

From Vox, a history of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. More here.

The Face2Face Project takes similar photographs

posted by Jason Kottke   Mar 09, 2007

The Face2Face Project takes similar photographs of Palestinians and Israelis and displays them together in pairs. "After a week [in Israel and Palestine], we had a conclusion with the same words: these people look the same; they speak almost the same language, like twin brothers raised in different families. It's obvious, but they don't see that. We must put them face to face. They will realize." (via 3qd)

Gallery of work by guerilla artist Banksy

posted by Jason Kottke   Aug 05, 2005

Gallery of work by guerilla artist Banksy from the West Bank barrier in the Palestinian territories. "An old Palestinian man said his painting made the wall look beautiful. Banksy thanked him, only to be told: 'We don't want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home.'"