Driving through Gaza, any visitor observes the enormous amount of shi’arat (lit. “signs, slogans, watchwords”) or graffiti. Messages cover almost every conceivable surface. Walls, telephone poles, monuments, and stones are fair canvases. The slogans cover most of the political factions and their armed wings. They also show the strong connection felt between the Palestinian and Iraqi struggles for freedom and liberation. At the most basic level, shi’arat is used to mobilise the Palestinian population at large. Graffiti is used to establish factional identities and simultaneously to sustain an overall unanimity. The slogans of Hamas are likely to be painted in the traditional color of Islam, green; Fatah in black and the leftist PFLP in red. On July 10, EI’s Arjan El Fassed visited Gaza and filmed the writings on the walls of Gaza.

View video [1:04 mins, Quicktime file, 3.6MB]

Camera and Editing: Arjan El Fassed

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SCREENSHOTS

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