User:Teresaul/sandbox

The wall has been used as a canvas for many paintings and writings. It has been called the "world's largest protest graffiti". Some of these (but not all) have been removed by the Israelis, and sometimes by people on the Palestinian side.

Graffiti on the Palestinian side of the wall has been one of many forms of protest against its existence, demanding an end to the barrier, or criticizing its builders and its existence ("Welcome to the Ghetto-Abu Dis" and "Blessed are the Peacemakers" ).

In August 2005, U.K. graffiti artist Banksy painted nine images on the Palestinian side of the barrier. He describes the barrier as "the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti writers", and returned in December 2007 with new images for "Santa's ghetto" in Bethlehem.

The exhibition "Santa's Ghetto in Bethlehem 2007" was co-organized by Banksy and a number of other artists with the aim of drawing attention to poverty in the West Bank and boosting tourism. On the wall, it features, among other images, a peace dove dressed in a bulletproof vest that is being aimed at, a young girl frisking a soldier, a donkey that is facing a soldier who is checking his identity papers, as well as a rat, one of Banksy's recurring themes, with a slingshot. One of Italian artist Blu's contributions to the project, featured a walled christmas tree surrounded by a number of stumps. American contemporary artist Ron English pasted portraits of Mickey Mouse dressed as a Palestinian with the slogan "You are not in Disneyland anymore" on the wall. In an expression of frustration, Palestinian artist "Trash", glued the lower part of a leg on the wall that is appearing to kick through it.

On June 21, 2006, when he visited Israel to give a concert, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters wrote "Tear down the wall" on the wall, a phrase from the Pink Floyd album The Wall.

In 2007, with their project "Face2Face", French artists JR and "Marco", organized what was then (until at least 2010), considered to be the largest illegal photography exhibition ever made. In monumental formats, portraits of Israelis and Palestinians of similar professions and backgrounds were pasted next to each other on the wall. The idea was to highlight similarities rather than differences between the peoples. The project spanned over eight cities on both sides of the wall such as Betlehem, Jericho, Ramallah and Jerusalem. The project was subsequently hosted by a number of exhibitions around the world including the Biennale di Venezia in Italy, the Foam-Musée de la Photographie in Amsterdam,  the summer photography festival "Recontres d'Arles" in Arles, Southern France, Artitud in Berlin, Germany, Artcurial in Paris, France and the Rath Museum in Geneva, Switzerland. JR's work, including "Face2Face" is currently shown at the Watari-Um Museum in Tokyo, Japan.

As part of a Dutch-Palestinian collaboration, led by Palestinian activist Faris Arouri, Internet users were invited to submit 80-character long messages to be spray-painted on the security barrier in exchange for a donation of 30 Euro. Messages that included or incited racism, hate, violence or pornography were rejected. About two-thirds of the money raised was donated to social, cultural and educational grassroots projects such as the renovation of the Peace and Freedom Youth Forum's open Youth Center in Bir Zeit. When the project was ended, it was claimed to have reached 550,000,000 people worldwide and placed 1,498 messages on the wall. One of the organizers of "Send a message", Justus van Oel, a Dutch theater director, commissioned South African anti-apartheid activist and theologian Farid Esack to compose a letter to be placed on the wall in 2009. The result was a 1.998-word letter in English written in a single line and stretching over 1.6 miles near the town of Ramallah, comparing the situation in the Palestinian territories to the South African apartheid era.