Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, which closed following the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, has reopened as a “cultural platform that carries the narrative of Palestine.”
The British street artist opened the guesthouse across from the West Bank barrier in 2017; nearly every window looks out onto the 30-foot-high concrete wall capped with barbed wire, advertised on its website as “the worst view in the world.” The nine-room hotel functions as a museum, art gallery, bookstore, and spray-paint shop, and was conceived as both a tourist draw for residents and a pointed lesson for international audiences about life in the embattled enclave.
Wisam Salsaa, the manager of the guesthouse, told The Art Newspaper: “Closing our doors during the devastating assault on Gaza was not an easy decision—and now we reopen with hope.” He added that the hotel symbolizes more than a hotel for Palestinians, and especially those in Bethlehem, but a needed bridge to the outside world. “It has become a vehicle for the amplification of voices of peace,” he says. “Through the hotel’s art gallery and with the extraordinary work of Palestinian artists, it stands as a living testament to resilience, identity and the unbroken spirit of a people who refuse to disappear.”
Accommodation prices range from $70 for a night sleeping in a bunk bed to $495 for the luxury presidential suite. More than 20 original works by Banksy remain on display throughout the property, which the British artist funded and established “to disturb the comfortable,” according to Salsaa.
He continued: “As we reopen and welcome the world back, we do so not only as a hotel, but as a powerful cultural platform that carries the narrative of Palestine to all who walk through our doors. Our open doors are a symbol of our commitment to sharing the stories that must be heard and to offer a space where art continues to speak when words cannot.”
As of December, the US State Department advises Americans against travel to the Gaza Strip and advises US citizens to reconsider travel to the West Bank and Jerusalem due to “rapidly changing” security conditions. A statement published on the Walled Off Hotel’s website in 2017 advised prospective guests to “expect to be asked about the purpose of your stay and if you intend to travel to the West Bank,” by Tel Aviv airport security. “If you answer ‘yes,’ you may be held up for some time,” the statement continued. Due to the hotel’s proximity to the wall, nobody is permitted to go to the pool without permission from the Israeli military, either.
The statement also noted: “A new Israeli law implemented recently also bans supporters of the Palestinian BDS movement [the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which calls for a political boycott of Israeli products] from entering the country. Consequently, many visitors choose not to highlight particular parts of their holiday and stick to politely discussing the weather.”
Banksy’s activism in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank began over two decades ago, with the creation of a series of murals painted on the Palestinian side of the West Bank barrier in 2005. The works included the now-iconic silhouette of a young girl lifted toward the sky by a bouquet of balloons and a rat armed with a slingshot—though many of the pieces have since been removed by Israeli authorities.
Banksy has said the 425-mile-long wall, which the United Nations deemed illegal in 2004, is something that “essentially turns Palestine into the world’s largest open prison.” The hotel’s website says that “depending” on whom you talk to, the wall is “either a vital security measure or an instrument of apartheid.”
