Political Graffiti on the West Bank Wall in Israel/Palestine

Great strife has plagued the Middle East for decades. Israel and the Occupied Territories of the West Bank of Palestine' have been battling over the land they both claim as holy. Regional threats of war loom and increasingly violent rhetoric has been exchanged regarding the claims to holy sites, land, olives, water, and other natural resources in Israel and the West Bank. This conflict is reflected in the grassroots communication in the form of political graffiti, much of it covering the West Bank Wall. Street art traditionally provided insights into grassroots politics, but has been rarely addressed in this region of the world.;The objective of this study was to document and analyze the political graffiti and explore its meanings to Palestinian and Israeli university students living in the area of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, respectively. The West Bank Wall is an architectural structure still under construction in Israel and the West Bank. This study sought to discover support for and resistance to the Wall and the broader conflict. Additionally, the research questions explored the nature (the visual qualities and messages) of the graffiti on this structure and how they affected the opinions of university students living in the region. The significance of this study was discovered in the documentation of current political graffiti renderings and the subsequent university student multimedia interviews. This study began its investigation by asking the central question, 'What does the political graffiti on the West Bank Wall mean to you?'.;1The definitions and boundaries of "Israel" and the "Occupied Territories of the West Bank of Palestine" are referred to by the land separated by the United Nations 1948 cease-fire partition. The "Green Line" is the 1948 cease-fire boundary that the United Nations plan led to after the war stopped. This line incorporates an additional 25% of the territory in question into Israel. For simplicity, these areas will be referred to as just "Israel" and the "West Bank" or sometimes "Palestine." Many people will argue over these questions, "Where is Israel?" or "What is Palestine?" as both the citizens of Israel and the people of Palestine do not officially recognize each other, so this distinction is important to clarify at the beginning of this document. There is no clear boundary line that could be agreed upon by all people in this conflict, so this distinction is imperfect, but necessary in order to be able to discuss the different "sides" of this conflict...