Banksy Puts Mark on Bethlehem Hotel With ‘Worst View in the World’
In addition to the guest rooms, Banksy has created something of a museum
that includes surveillance cameras mounted like taxidermic trophies, a Grecian bust surrounded by a cloud meant to depict tear gas, and a wax statue depicting the signing of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 letter of British intent to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Among the rooms decorated by the artist, who has earned a following for tagging walls around the world with witty illustrations
and dark political commentaries, is the "Banksy Room." In the room, a mural on the wall above a king-size bed depicts a Palestinian and an Israeli locked in combat — only they are having a pillow fight.
The elusive British street artist Banksy has decorated the interiors of the Walled Off Hotel, a nine-room guesthouse
in the West Bank city of Bethlehem whose windows overlook the barrier that separates the territory from Israel.
Banksy, who rarely comments on his work and keeps his real identity a secret, has made trips to the West Bank for years
and has previously, under cover of night, painted the barrier itself.
Last year, four street murals in Gaza were attributed to him, including one depicting a Greek goddess amid the rubble of a destroyed house.
In 2015, he created an exhibit called Dismaland, in which works by Israeli and Palestinian artists were displayed side by side.