Urban Art Association

Banksys pet project of the walled off hotel has worked wonders and the aim of informing visitors through the museum tour and city tours of the struggles of Palestine has met its objectives it seems by this thread.
Hundreds of posts discussing merchandise on multiple threads and the endless chatter about value but hardly any discussion with current events which was the aim of the hotel to highlight.
Any discussions about Israels government policies and stance and automatically it is anti Semitic and a few get their knickers in a twist?

Sensitivity is running high, this was not directed towards you, if you care to read the whole thread.

tab1 it came on the heals of my posts so I assumed you were addressing me. Don't worry, my sensitivity is at a fairly consistent state, right in between zen and curb stomp anger, which is where I like it to be.

brexit, trump, coronavirus, now isreal. Definately not inviting any of you lot over for dinner! 😂

Tab1, I think this quote is way off. I have enjoyed reading Reader’s and Sgolby’s posts as instead of getting personal and rude, they have both been polite and fair with their critiscism and disagreements on views.
This is refreshing for the forum and whatever one’s views are, it is fair to hear and think about other opinions as this helps educate one another.

I don’t think anyone thought it was automatically anti semetic.
We should encourage different views and thoughts. [/quote]

Again not these two! Obviously everyone’s reading the last posts.
We all log in and out of here at different times so not always responding to the latest posts,
If you read back through the thread you will have an idea

😹don’t let the voices win, be safe with your buddies poppit, listen to them and you will be safe . If I’m a crank what the hell are you with all your deluded posts, twit 👻bore off sad lost soul, I’m off to 😿please get out your screen saver and amuse yourself and stop bugging me

My kid brother sent me this which I thought was pretty insightful.

A friend from Israel just posted the following take on the situation in the Middle East, it is a fascinating read & puts the entire nightmare into context

“The current violence in Israel is the result of an organized plan orchestrated by Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu, who is now standing trial for multiple counts of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, has provoked the latest round of violence as part of his desperate attempts to cling to power and sabotage democratic attempts to replace him following the recent elections in Israel.
It is no coincidence that the latest round of violence was sparked just as Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government, and the mandate to put together a ruling coalition passed on democratically to his political rivals.

To prevent the forming of a new coalition that would replace him in power – which for the first time in Israel’s history was to include both Jewish and Arab political parties – Netanyahu worked insistently via his ultra-right wing proxies to escalate violence between Jews and Arabs.

The direct result is the wave of chaos, racist hate crimes and violence that has swept the country, as well as the violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Netanyahu’s plan had several major parts:

1. Provoke tensions in Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque during the Islamic fast of Ramadan.
2. Escalate tensions to boiling point in the Palestinian Jerusalem neighborhood Sheikh Jarah, where Arab-Palestinian residents were to be evicted from the decades-old homes in favor of Jewish settlers.
3. Spark military conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza – a move that Netanyahu’s close political ally Itamar Ben Gvir, Jewish supremacist member of the ultra-right wing party Religious Zionism, is documented to have proposed recently to Netanyahu.
Netanyahu had full knowledge that this series of provocations, which follow 12 long years of anti-Arab incitement on his part, would spark a wave of violence. He was recently documented as saying that in the past he had rejected proposals to use this dangerous tactic. Now, as he facing removal from power, he chose to embrace it.
Here is the turn of events, starting in early April:
• April 6 – Following the results of the latest elections, Netanyahu receives the mandate to put together a ruling coalition. However, he knows his chances are slim.
• April 9 – Israeli police violently attack peaceful demonstrators against the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood Sheikh Jarah. This unprovoked police violence seemed to come out of nowhere and has no recent precedence in the weekly demonstrations in Sheikh Jarah.
• April 12 – Ramadan starts.
• April 13 – Israeli police provocatively blocks entrance to Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, a major public place gathering for Jerusalem’s Arab-Palestinian population. The decision has no clear reason or justification, other than to provoke Jerusalem’s Palestinians. Palestinian youth begin to demonstrate and riot against the decision, some violently.
• April 18 – Jewish supremacists Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezelel Smutrich visit Damascus Gate in a provocative anti-Arab move. In the following days, groups of ultra-right wing Jewish supremacist militants begin marching in the streets of Jerusalem, calling out “Death to Arabs.”
• After two weeks in which Israeli police blocks Damascus Gate, allegedly for “security reasons,” Israel’s Chief Police Commissioner orders the removal of police blockade.
These events in April planted multiple seeds of provocation. The final steps orchestrating the eruption of violence took place in May:
• May 5 – Netanyahu fails to put together a new coalition government. The mandate to negotiate a new coalition passes on by law to his main political rival, Yair Lapid of the opposition party Yesh Atid. For the first time in Israeli history, the new coalition is slated to include both Jewish and Arab parties. Negotiations are advancing and the new government is reported to be a matter of days away.
• May 5 – Jewish supremacist Ben Gvir, whom Netanyahu supported openly throughout the recent elections as a would-be member of his coalition, visits the Jewish-Arab city of Lod as a personal guest of Lod’s mayor, Likud member and a close supporter of Netanyahu. “We are your proxies,” Ben Gvir announces.
• May 6 – Ben Gvir (who is now a member of the Israeli parliament) opens an office at the contest neighborhood of Sheikh Jarah, openly inciting against its Arab residents.
• May 7 – Israeli police fires stun grenades inside Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and then into a medical clinic within the Al Aqsa compound. This is done under the jurisdiction of Police Minister Amir Ohana, Likud member and Netanyahu’s close ally.
• May 8 – In an unexplained provocative move, buses carrying Israeli-Arab citizens on their way to Jerusalem to pray in Al-Aqsa during the Ramadan, are prevented by Israeli police to proceed to Jerusalem.
At the same time, ultra-right wing Jewish supremacists plan to hold the annual highly controversial and provocative “Flag March” through the Islamic Quarter in Jerusalem, to celebrate the nationalist “Jerusalem Day.” Israeli police supports the plan despite the dangerous provocation it represents.
• May 10 – Early in the morning, Israeli police again enters Al Aqsa with massive force, again firing stun grenades inside the mosque.
Israel police still supports the “Flag March” plan. Only in the afternoon, after Israeli army warns of bloodshed if the march proceeds, does Netanyahu order to cancel the march.
In the evening, Hamas in Gaza fires rockets towards Jerusalem.
• May 11 – Hamas continues to fire rockets. The Israeli military retaliates, attacking Gaza.
At the same, violence erupts in Israeli cities with a mixed Jewish and Arab population. Arab rioters attack Jews, burn synagogues, and vandalize property. Jewish rioters attack mosques, burn down Arab businesses, and attack Arabs.
Itamar Ben Gvir visits the Arab/Jewish towns of Ramla, Lod and Acre to further incite violence. The violence is further incited in social networks. Groups of rioters and armed militias are encouraged to take to the streets.

The plan succeeded: Israel is on fire.

In the coming days, the Israeli press reports that Israel’s Chief Police Commissioner alerted Netanyahu and police minister Ohana that Itamar Ben Gvir was “responsible for the Jewish Intifada” – the eruption of Jewish militia violence. Netanyahu ignores the reports and issues no response.

Netanyahu’s method of operation is clear:

Repeatedly over this period of time, Netanyahu sparked the violence by proxy, using his Jewish supremacist coalition allies. Once the fire has been sparked, Netanyahu would take apparently conciliatory steps (remove the Damascus Gate blockade; cancel the Flag March; etc.). However, these feeble steps, meant to distance him from the violence and provide an ‘alibi’, were too little, too late.
It is no coincidence that Israel descended into violence precisely as Netanyahu was about to lose political power, and a coalition to replace him was about to form.

The above sequence of dates and events tell the story clearly.

The inescapable conclusion is that after 12 years of hate speech and incitement, Netanyahu orchestrated a careful plan to send Israel into chaos. He laid the groundwork in April, and lit the fire in May.
Netanyahu’s heinous crime, against Jews and Arabs alike, must be investigated.”

Gaza’s largest and most beloved book shop and library was destroyed by air strikes on Tuesday. The two-story Samir Mansour book store was built 21 years ago and served as a community centre and book shop for the local Gaza community and Palestinian school children. Tens of thousands of books were destroyed. All of the heart, creativity and talent poured into this magical place is gone.

As a result of the complete siege on Gaza Strip, construction supplies are in extreme short supply and heavily inflated.

Please donate generously and help Palestinians get books back.

All funds will be given directly to Samir Mansour to rent new space and rebuild a new library and book shop.

This fundraiser is managed by Mahvish Rukhsana and Clive Stafford Smith, founder of Reprieve, a legal action non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

Link : gofund.me/a3672706


Instagram: Samir_mansour_bookshop
twitter: @samirbookshop

Great to see the hotel is open again - great news! They don't seem to have opened up the online room bookings yet though.

Wisam Instagram stories.....

Also said it was open on Facebook

mikegood it’s been like that for about a month now. Randomly visited in late Oct or early Nov to discover things could be carted. At check out I filled everything out only to see at the very bottom a message saying they can’t ship to me (in the US).

ahh, okay.. thought it was new :shrug: thanks for the info, bud~