Protest Graffiti Art

Time Magazine, In the November 14, 2011 issue speaks of “Protest Graffiti Art in Athens: Works on the streets of the Greek capital reflect anger over the economic crisis.”

A Yahoo photo essay from June 12, 2103 says “Many of the images from the riots in Turkey have featured protesters clashing with police, clouds of tear gas and bright flames, but on the edge of many of these images are snippits of graffiti. For many of the protesters, this has become a powerful form of communication for the world to better understand their plight.” These pictures came from the radical “Occupy” movement.

An Associated Press article on April 1, 2102 detailing strong graffiti in Egypt says “The graffiti piece is the work of the Revolution Artists Association, a group of young Egyptian artists who say the uprising against authorities in the country continues a year after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.”

In August 2005, Banksy, the internationally acclaimed European graffiti artist & political activist painted nine graffiti images on the Israeli security wall which borders the “West Bank.”

On June 21, 2012 the NY Times wrote an article about graffiti in the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv where they detailed artful graffiti. Some of it was Anti-Haredi, and others just cultural mores about Israel – none of it was called terrorism.

While the international media has acclaimed this illegal graffiti as protest, there is an Israeli Cabinet member who would describe it otherwise. Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich called recent offensive graffiti as “terror acts for all intents and purposes.”  While the graffiti Aharonovich refers to is racist and offensive, that’s often what graffiti is – an extreme statement.

Undoubtedly the words, language – and graffiti – is wrong.  Vandalism of this sort to a wall is wrong and when caught these youth should be disciplined. But would Aharonovich argue they should be charged and sentenced as terrorists?

Review how the world’s media describes other protest graffiti – and tell Aharonovich that his words create a bad Public Relations situation for Israel.