In 2005, Banksy traveled to the occupied Palestinian Territories and created a series of art pieces to attract the world’s attention to the construction of the Separation Wall.  Banksy, as many other activists, believes that this wall, which is 425-mile-long and considered illegal by the United Nations, has turned “Palestine into the world’s largest open-air prison.” After his visit, he described his work on the separation wall as “the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti writers.” He also describe the Separation wall as a canvas, and invited other international graffiti artists to visit Palestine and draw on this wall.

While some people look at graffiti as an act of vandalism, Banksy succeeded in turning his work into high art pieces, while attracting the world’s attention to the causes he believes in. At the same time, he managed to keep his identity secret, and left the world with speculations.

Much of Banksy’s work in Palestine resembles seeking freedom, and escape, in addition to criticizing the Israeli occupation. However, despite the well intentions of his work on the Separation Wall, some Palestinians saw it as an intrusion, others didn’t like the fact that it’s influenced by politics. A Palestinian senior indicated that he doesn’t like the idea of painting on the wall, because Banksy’s work is very beautiful, but the wall is ugly, and told Banksy “We don’t want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home.”

During his visit to the Palestinian Territories, Banksy created several graffiti pieces along the separation wall, and another three on the walls of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  Some sources suggest that the total number of his work in Palestine is 10, one was produced earlier in 2003, but they cannot be sure because some other graffiti artists had painted over some of his work. There’s another mural that was painted on a wall in Bethlehem, titled “Donkey Document”. This mural is painted by aerosol on a composite stone wall, measures 126 inches by 84 inches, and shows a donkey being inspected by an Israeli soldier. This piece is considered to be the largest and most significant mural from his visit to Palestine. The wall of Donkey Documents was removed from Bethlehem, and is being auctioned through Julien’s Auctions.

Creating those murals on the wall was not an easy job for him to do; his spokesperson stated that Banksy was harassed and threatened by the Israeli Security Forces. However, in an interview later, he said that during his visit to Palestine he felt safe.