Graffiti in Palestinian Refugee Camps: from palimpsest walls to public space

Abstract

Walls and graffiti in Palestine’s refugee camps tell a border story. As people in camps continue to consider themselves refugees from the 1948 Nakba, and as long as their freedom of movement is either denied or at the least controlled by Israel, the border is embodied by each inhabitant of the camp, who is transborderized (Iglesias-Prieto, 2012). The graffiti movement was born in the camps as part of the resistance during the first Intifada, both as a means of expression for the community, and as a way to build the community through public space. This paper aims to explore the relationship between the particular urban structure of a refugee camp (focusing on Dheisheh and Aïda in Bethlehem) and graffiti. Through an examination of visual elements on the walls of refugee camps today, I propose an understanding of the relationship to public space as one where politics is at play, outside of any institutional structures.