Strolling through Florentin, the street art splattered across the buildings contain some of the most salient political art in Tel Aviv. These public works feature scathing criticism of the Israeli government and religious establishment. They reveal frustrations and disappointments with Zionism, sometimes even despair.
For example, one of my favorites is a stencil image of Theodor Herzl, his prominent beard and direct gaze, this profile floats above a twist on his famous Zionist saying: “If you want it, it is not a myth.” That quote is the “I have a dream” of Israel, every child knows it. But beneath the painted image of Herzl on the streets of Florentin, the Hebrew words read: “If you don’t want it, you don’t get it.” That image appeared after the failure of 2011’s tent protests, and the return to a status quo in Israel, without peace negotiations or social justice. Just a few streets away, a monkey with sad eyes holds a skull in his unclenched palm. He gazes out at the viewer asking the timeless question: “To be, or not to be?” But the way his lips part softly, as if is about to release an exhausted sigh, implies that he has no hope the answer will bring him a solution.
There are also pieces of street art in Florentin which reference the Jewish people’s history of suffering racism, and reframe these same slogans and images within Israel’s current situation. Painted on an old stone house, below a line of prose written in braille, is a small figure which plays on the seminal Holocaust image of a young boy from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. His small hands are raised in the air, “Don’t deport me” painted beneath him.
Other pieces also refer to the Israeli government with Nazi imagery. After the military operation in Gaza in 2012, new images appeared on the streets of Florentin, criticizing the IDF [military] in particular. Farther ahead, is a spray-painted outline of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man with long earlocks, reading from a prayer book and facing Tel Aviv. His back is to Jerusalem, the sacred capital of Israel, cornerstone of both Judaism and Zionist aspirations. This subtle twist in the image alludes to the cultural divide between the two cities.
Israel’s street art reveals the vast disparity between government actions and the sentiment of Israeli young people in Tel Aviv. And it’s quite a beautiful way to read. The poem featured above was written by a street artist named Nitzan.To read more about her art, check out my article at the Green Prophet.
Images by Omri Dotan & Leigh
