The Walled Off Hotel used to be a pottery workshop.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Walled Off Hotel used to be a pottery workshop. Now it seems set to attract crowds of people when it opens on March 20.
Banksy has collaborated on and reportedly financed the West Bank lodgings, which overlook the wall separating Israel from the Palestinian Territories.
According to the British artist, the hotel “offers a warm welcome to people from all sides of the conflict and across the world.”
It’s owner, Wisam Salsaa added:
“This is the hotel that has the worst view in the whole world; the view of the wall. So I think it’s a great experience for people to come and stay here, [to] try to feel how locals in Bethlehem would feel being captured between four walls.”
Israel says the wall is a necessity to ward off terror attacks. However, the International Court of Justice says the barrier is illegal and Palestinians have labelled it a ploy to grab land.
Portrayed throughout the hotel, much of Bansky’s work draws on the conflict in the region.
EXCLUSIVE. #BANKSY#WALLEDOFFHOTEL this is the big picture of what Banksy have a glimpse of this morning in Bethlehem #c4newspic.twitter.com/8MslAE6WXq
— Krishnan Guru-Murthy (@krishgm) March 3, 2017
The street artist has styled it to resemble “an English gentleman’s club from colonial times,” according to a statement, which appears to acknowledge Britain’s historical role in the Middle East.