If you’re ever in Bethlehem, don’t miss the Walled Off Hotel, even if just for a cup of coffee. It was the most memorable visit of the entire week.
Bankrolled by the artist Banksy, this is not only one of the finest hotels and best coffee shops in Bethlehem, but a bold political statement.
The Separation Barrier towers above it, just a few paces away. It’s a modern day Berlin Wall in that it is meant to keep people in, not out (although Israel would classify it as a necessary means of security).
And in the shadow of that wall, filled with fascinating political statements, metaphors, and artwork, is a business that represents the hope of the Palestinian people of a brighter tomorrow.
As you step in the lobby, you’ll immediately appreciate the bohemian theme.
But look closer at the Banksy artwork:
After your coffee or tea (which is excellent and served on beautiful china), head to the museum.
It tells the story of the Arab-Israeli conflict in a very digestible way, breaking down a complex issue into a simpler one. Oh, there is bias. But the bias is not driven purely by emotion, but by genuine pain and a history of struggle.
We should have brought our bags. I had wanted to spend a night here, but it showed sold out on the website (the hotel only has five rooms, each uniquely designed and featuring original artwork). But in chatting with the lovely Amanda at the front desk, there was an extra room available. What a shame I did not take our bags…but next time.
If you’re interested in some original artwork or making your own, you can visit Wall Mart next door, also part of the Walled Off Hotel property.
Final Thoughts
The hotel lobby is almost as significant a political statement as the walls outside. It’s a must if you want to understand the conflict better and better empathize with the Palestinian people.
This is issue is so much more complex than we can realistically address here. I don’t dismiss the beautiful aspirations of the Israeli people for a peaceful and stable homeland after so much persecution. I admire what an economic powerhouse and stable liberal democracy Israel has become (present election fiasco exempted). There is no easy solution. It would be like asking the U.S. to give back land to Native American tribes. It’s simply not an option.
Perhaps there is no solution at all for the Arab-Israeli conflict.
And yet my heart weeps for the Palestinian people. To be trapped. To be stateless. Such wasted human capital when social mobility is so curtailed. Most just want safety, security, and land…that’s hardly a gross generalization. Most don’t want to be subjects, but equal citizens.
So while “can’t we all just get along?” may be hopelessly naive at this point, it pained me personally–as an outsider–to see a wall dividing people with similar goals, dreams, and aspirations.
Thanks to reader Melissa for recommending we stop here.
The only clear solution is israel get full west bank and Gaza. All Palestinians either convert to Judaism or get rehabilitated in the u.s.a. Texas, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho seem like great options. Every Palestinian does get 10,000 YSD. 5000 to come from UK. 2500 from france and 2500 from the US.
British finally apologize for having being the biggest assholes in this planet for causing so much chaos in the woruld.
Matt – you are an intelligent man…Let me put it on perspective for you: imaging a book of matches on a football field (or soccer pitch). Imagined? Good. That book of matches is Israel and the football field is the surrounding Arabic world…Enough said…
I don’t dispute that. Nor do I ever question the right of Israel to protect itself.
But that doesn’t mean I cannot weep for the West Bank and its people.
I love reading these posts as they remind me so much of my own trip to Israel, which quickly became one of my favorite countries. I loved visiting Banksy’s hotel, really quirky and full of interesting details (did you see how the fake door to the rooms opens? Pretty cool!). And the separation wall is just a punch in the stomach, one of the many you get by visiting Jerusalem and the West Bank (Tel Aviv is just a completely different world!). I can see both sides, but it’s heart breaking that people have to live like this. Like you said, no easy resolution…
Thanks for introducing me to this place!
Jewish settlers living unoccupied areas of the West Bank should be allowed a 50 year lease of the land and be subject to Palestinian property tax and income tax. The security perimeter at the Jordan River should be allowed with payment of property tax pegged no higher than a rate averaged between 10 international cities.
Matthew, by relating native Americans to “Palestinians” you show that you have been severely brainwashed by this propaganda. There were barely any arab people on this land before Israel (which was legitimately established), and Israel always offered them and their full rights. The problem is, that they have always returned war and terror. The only solution at the time was to build a physical barrier – and it worked. See how much less terror attacks happened since.
How did Egypt and Jordan treat these “Palestinians” before 1967?
Even with the most right-leaning leaders in power, Israel always said and acted to promote peace and protect its people. All Israeli people want is peace and assurance that peace will be maintained.
Matt – you are an intelligent man…Let me put it on perspective for you: imaging a book of matches on a football field (or soccer pitch). Imagined? Good. That book of matches is Israel and the football field is the surrounding Arabic world…Enough said…
“There were barely any arab people on this land”
Arabs made up more than 80% of the people on the land.
“Israel always offered them and their full rights.”
Israel hasn’t and still doesn’t.
“Israel always said and acted to promote peace and protect its people.”
Israel was founder by groups which would be classified as terrorist. The Haganah, the Irgun, the Lehi, the Stern Gang…
I guess when you are the occupier, you can skew and twist the narrative however you want…
James, I don’t dismiss how poorly Arab neighbors have treated the Palestinians. Nor do I entirely dismiss the logic behind the wall. But I cannot dismiss how the British screwed up the situation with the Balfour Declaration on one hand and the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence on the other. It’s not like the Arabs just “stole” the land.
“Oh, there is bias. But the bias is not driven purely by emotion, but by genuine pain and a history of struggle”
Oh sure, what would Jews know about genuine pain and a history of struggle.
And Banksy, oh you are so brave, dishing out propaganda to those wanting desperately to believe it, and profiting from it to boot!
This is not your best work. Stay in your lane. Stick to writing about lattes and first class cabins.
love How right wingers always want people to stay in their lane? Guess freedom of expression as guaranteed by the constitution right wingers claim to love doesn’t exist.
WR2, I would never say that Jews don’t know (perhaps more than anyone else as a collective people) genuine pain and a history of struggle. The sobering thing is that the two are not mutually exclusive. I’m not anti-Israel by any means. But my heart breaks for the Palestinians and that is not just Marxist propaganda I’ve gulped up…
An intersting piece:
http://ntwrightpage.com/2016/04/05/the-holy-land-today/
Matthew. Read Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Jews were the spit-on, dog people of Jerusalem and Hebron for centuries. As well as in much of the Arab world. Most Jews in old Damascus were lucky to own a pair of shoes. Jews in Jerusalem fared far worse, and in the 1800’s (when they were nearly 50% of the city) they were living in extreme poverty and locked out of virtually all occupations other than prostitution. Jews were legally permitted to be killed just for walking in front of the Church of Holy Sepulchre, by the people you call Christians. The fierce reaction of the Arab world to the Jewish state is the same reaction White America would have if Black people fought for, won and founded a state in Southern California. It’s the Majority (there are 400 million arabs) that expects to always treat the little dog people anyway they want. And they’ve been having a hissy fit ever since the founding of Israel. For people that care, I don’t, it’s scientifically factual that the indigenous people of Jerusalem and much of the the land west of the Jordan river were Jews. Virtually all Jews share Levantine haplotypes with Lebanese and Syrians including Ashkenazim who are surprisingly not outbred with European genes other than the genes from 2 or 3 population founding Roman mothers that it seems some Jewish merchants in Rome took as wives as far as geneticists can tell. The majority of Palestinians have North African and Arabian haplotypes. Palestinians from Syrian and Lebanese families obviously share Levantine origins. Jerusalem was the Orlando or Hawaii of the world for centuries during the trade in servicing and robbing Pilgrims and attracted an endless stream of poor immigrants looking to make their fortune from arabic speaking lands throughout the Ottoman Empire. It’s why so many Palestinians have Egyptian, Algerian etc. names today. None of this particularly matters. Israelis fought many wars to have a sanctuary state of their own. And the Arabs can’t deal with it. The Palestinian farmers and ordinary people live under a dictatorship of Warlords that have zero interest in ending the stalemate because it’s grift. Under a truly democratic positive outcome for the Palestinian people they w0uld be swinging from a lamppost or a gallows. That Israeli Jews are solely responsible for the fate of these war refugees and the 400 million Arabs are not is playing into the European anti-semitism that fuels much of the debate. If you want to help Palestinians, argue for a real democracy and representative leadership in the PA ruled West Bank and Hamas ruled Gaza.
It’s not possible to have a Palestinian state anymore. That ship has sailed. Giving false hopes is what has prolongrd this farce. It’s time Palestinians were resettled and well compensated.
The lions share of compensation coming from the UK and france, two colonial powers that have escaped paying restitution. The UK by the way needs to be partitioned now that the Scots and the northern Irish probably don’t want to stay. The best is a vertical partition because it makes the least sense, just like everything they have done in the world the last century.
“it’s scientifically factual that the indigenous people of Jerusalem and much of the the land west of the Jordan river were Jews.”
Fake news and fake facts. Don’t highlight the “facts” that only support your point of view, the people of the Levant are a mix of so many races and ethnicities. The majority are walking cocktails.
@ Debit – go back to CPSU congress.
@ Everyone – look at photo number 5: “From the river (Asher: Jordan River) to the Sea (Asher: Med Sea), Palestine will be free”….What coexistence are you talking about?…….
What is CPSU congress?
Ooh the zionists are out today! The Israeli government under Netenyahu is a vile oppressive regime. Let’s hope Benny goes to jail for corruption.
Mat, I hope you do realize that this hotel is full of propaganda. While I do wish for the Palestinians to have a state and live in peace alongside the Israelis, the fact is that their leaders only seek to kill Jews and to prolong the one sided conflict as they like their power and money being poured in. They don’t have the masses in mind. That’s why the incite hatred and violence all day. No matter what the Israelis do, they will always blame everyone else for their problems. You fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Er, Israel doesn’t want a Palestinian state to happen and never has. And never will. They just played a very good long game, especially with the illegal settlements.
@SF, again, I don’t laud Yasser Arafat or even Mahmoud Abbas. But my heart still breaks for the people of the West Bank and Gaza.
That’s why we have to get rid of their leaders that seek to keep they hold on power by keeping their people miserable and inciting hate and violence. There is no attempt to make peace on their end. The only thing they want is “river to sea”, aka Judenrein Israel/Final Solution.
The Israelis have constantly made offers for peace, and the Palestinian response has always been more killing. Just this past week, there were 3 different attempts on the same days.
It even looks like Berlin with the old 1980s cars parked next to the wall.
I will admit I’m not as sympathetic to the Palestinian cause as others are, however I was astounded by the sheer enormity, both physical and emotional, of that wall. I truly cannot imagine having to live surrounded by it.
Matthew, surely you’re old enough to remember what life in Israel was like before those “evil” barriers were built? Random terrorist attacks killed scores of Israelis on a weekly basis. Suicide bombings were appealingly common on buses, in commercial centers, even near schools. There were random stabbings.
Ever since the barriers were constructed, you don’t hear about those things happening in the news anymore, do you? You may have an issue with them (and I get that), but they were made necessary by the very people who cry about them.
That may be the case–perhaps the wall was necessary. I don’t think that makes it any less tragic.
But I studied this issue extensively under Professor Aharon Klieman of the University of Tel Aviv, when he was a guest lecturer at UCLA. He is one of the foremost scholars on the Arab-Israeli conflict. It was one of the hardest classes I ever took and I read so much and learned so much about this conflict. The conclusion, sadly, is that there likely is no viable solution. That’s humbling. That’s sad.
Thank you for your pictures and insight. As a Rabbi, I am devoted to Israel, with all of its imperfections. Also, as a Rabbi, I weep for a people unable to have freedom, even if some of the fault is their own. Our Exodus story attests to the need for freedom. Perhaps, some day, a way of respect, security and peace will be found.
The Palestinians are unfortunate for allowing themselves to be used as pawns by power hungry demagogues over generations, and apparently happy to continue to do so. Their history is unfortunate – as are the terrible histories of a great many peoples around the world, against which their own story frankly pales.
But whatever sympathy I ever felt has been completely eliminated by the crimes committed in their names with their support. To wit, the “art” of terrorist Leila Khaled on the wall of the hotel, a Palestinian hero who hijacked 2 airliners (an American plane which she hijacked to Damascus and held passengers for month, and an Israeli one where she was captured with 2 grenades (and later released in exchange for more innocent hostages Palestinian hijackers were holding). As a frequent traveler – as most of us who frequent this site are – that she is an erstwhile hero of the so-called “Palestinian Cause” is a good reason why I can’t support that cause and will save my sympathies for less violent folks who appreciate life more than death.
Matthew,
This was an experience seeing your photos and reading your words about your recent visit to the Banksy Walled Off Hotel…….I am unable to travel due to post 9-11 anxiety syndrome.
So, not being able to visit the WOH is heartbreaking, but thanks to your story and most excellent photos, I feel like I was there with you guys during your visit. The history and stories are heartbreaking…..I can only hope for PEACE one day for everyone on Planet Earth.
But, thank you again so much for inviting people like me and many many others on your travel journeys, when I have even a hard time just leaving my house in suburban Chicago and going up in any building over 3 stories tall. My anxiety has not gotten better, I hope for my soul to heal from this 9/11 trauma one day.
Shaun from Chicago
(My wife and I had just visited and left NYC early that morning on 9/11 heading towards London, UK for a vacation for 3 weeks. Luckily we arrived safe and were made aware that now the world ad changed, all from one flight from NYC to LHR.