Banksy Just Posted New Images And A Powerful Mini-Doco From His Recent Trip To Gaza

“Gaza is often described as ‘the world’s largest open air prison’ because no-one is allowed to enter or leave,” UK’s infamous street-artist Bansky writes on his site, where he posted new artwork and a mini-documentary overnight, cataloguing his recent trip to the Gaza Strip. “But that seems a bit unfair to prisons — they don’t have their electricity and drinking water cut off randomly almost every day.”

The mini-documentary is a parody of a real estate video, titled ‘Make this the year YOU discover a new destination’. It’s already been viewed by over 400,000 people. “The locals like it so much they never leave,” promises the video’s titles, imposed over images of ruin and desolation, before the undercutting disclaimer: “(Because they’re not allowed to.)”

“Nestled in an exclusive setting,” it announces, “(Surrounded by a wall on three sides and a line of gun boats on the other.)”

“Development opportunities are everywhere … Plenty of scope for refurbishment.”

All up, it seems Banksy has painted three new murals in the war-torn region: one, called ‘Bomb Damage’, shows a grieving woman, head in hand, surrounded by the dense rubble of bombed terrain.

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The second image is a stencil of children, swinging from a guard tower, as a camera watches from above.

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The final image is a giant cartoon portrait of a cat with a pink ribbon, and a bowl of refuse in the shape of yarn — seemingly innocuous until you take in its completely incongruous context.

“A local man came up and said ‘Please – what does this mean?’,” Banksy writes. “I explained I wanted to highlight the destruction in Gaza by posting photos on my website – but on the internet people only look at pictures of kittens.”

“The cat found something to play with,” a local man says into the camera, at the end of the accompanying clip. “What about our children? What about our children?”

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