June 2006: my first encounter with the graffiti of Banksy while walking on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. Before that, I had seen a few works of his that circulated the internet, when he was just some anonymous (yet infamous) British graffiti artist to me. I felt like I'd won a trophy for my eyes when I saw the rats, the anarchist rats, wandering along the walls of the South Bank. I was touching and exploring them, as if to make sure they were Banksy's!

"Creatures that exist without permission they are hated, hunted and persecuted. They live in quiet desperation among the filth, and yet they are capable of bringing entire civilizations to their knees." This is how Banksy described the rats which came to be a signature of his work. His satirical graffiti messages are always anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-capitalist and pro-freedom.

One of this urban artist's classic artworks, entitled "Sweeping it Under the Carpet", is a large-scale spray painting completed in 2006 that was intended to represent a metaphor for the West's reluctance to tackle important issues! Another classic one is two male British police men kissing, intended to represent people of authority who don't posses any of their own. Yet another is a tribute to Pulp Fiction portraying John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson holding banana "guns"! That graffito was since removed by graffiti cleaning crew.

In addition to his graffiti artworks, he has performed many Art Stunts; in 2006 he dressed an inflatable doll in the manner of a Guantanamo Bay detainment camp inmate and placed the figure within the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. In another stunt, a personal favourite, executed in May 2005, he scrawled his own version of a prehistoric cave painting depicting a human figure hunting wild beasts whilst pushing a shopping trolley. It was found hanging in the British Museum, London. Upon discovery, the museum added it to their permanent collection. That same year, the Bristolian guerrilla artist snuck 500 copies of his own modified version of Paris Hilton's debut album onto record shop shelves across the UK; the album cover pictures of which had been altered to give Paris a dog's head. Messages were scrawled across the sleeve, and songs were given different names such as "Why Am I Famous?"*

Now, what does Banksy have to do with the West Bank? In 2002, the Israeli government began building a separating wall, known as the Apartheid Wall, separating the occupied territories from the rest of Palestine; an illegal act under international law. Palestine now is the world's largest open-air prison and the ultimate activity holiday for graffiti artists.

While living in the West Bank, the grand prize for me was when coming to learn that the stencil in front of my home there is a Banksy original! The photo below shows the view from my room window facing the Apartheid Wall, and a close-up shows the Banksy graffito on that wall. A few hundred meters away from my home on the road towards Ramallah, I found another stencil by Banksy, of a hole in the wall. I was waiting in line for my turn to pass the check point when I noticed that stencil, jumped out of the car and ran towards it to capture another photo of a Banksy original.

Photos by Hani Sharaf

It's striking to note that Banksy, as an activist, snubs New York exhibits of his own work (with sales unauthorized by him, even) in order to travel to the cities that he calls "part of the Santa's Ghetto", such as the cities of the West Bank. Speaking through his press officer, the artist said that he hoped his new murals would attract tourists to Bethlehem. To UK television Banksy himself said, "I had to go to Palestine because it has the biggest wall there is. It's also the most ugly and inhumane thing there is."

Banksy placed around 10 graffiti on the Israeli wall of separation. They are found in Bethlehem and Ramallah parts of the wall.

Banksy encountered the people residing in the areas where he placed his graffiti and held the following conversations with them:

Old man: You paint the wall, you make it look beautiful.
Banksy: Thanks
Old man: We don't want it to be beautiful; we hate it, GO HOME!

Guide: You could paint here, there are no guards in the watch towers, they do not come until the winter.
Banksy: (Returning to the car after painting for 25 minutes) What's so funny?
Guide: (Laughing) Of course the guards are in the towers, they have the snipers with the walkie-talkies [sic].

So while he wasn't staying at the Hilton hotel during his visit to Palestine, he was working, along with his fellow artists, to raise awareness of the plight faced by those in the West Bank. All proceeds from sales of their work went to local charities to help educate local children to rise up out of poverty, a perfect how-to example of escaping the rat race and using art to give something positive back to world.

"Copyright is for losers"
This is his book's opening statement. Entitled "Banksy: Wall and Piece", the book displays a large collection of his art, some of which does not exist anymore as the authorities have had it removed! But that's all part of the process for a living piece of art, it might be killed, but the message lives on.

*Visit (http://www.banksy.co.uk/ ) for some of Banksy's Art Stunts, graffiti and stencils.