by John Vibes at trueactivist.com
Banksy’s classic Christmas card shows a picture of Joseph and Mary crossing the desert on their way to Bethlehem and are blocked by the infamous apartheid wall that separates Israel from Palestine and the West Bank. The card has recently gone viral again because of the holidays, but it is actually a few years old and seems to circulate around this time every year.
The piece first appeared at Santa’s Ghetto exhibit in London in 2005, which followed Banksy’s trip to the middle east.
Regardless of when the image was created, it sends a powerful message about how divided the middle east is on racial and ethnic lines, creating a massive refugee crisis, and widespread ghettos in many parts of the region. This current reality is obviously highlighted by the biblical story of Joseph and Mary, two refugees themselves who were said to travel across those lands thousands of years ago.
When the state of Israel was created instead of integrating the Arab and Jewish cultures together, the ruling class put policies in place that would force the Palestinian people onto unfertile ghettos, separated from water sources and food growing lands by giant walls. The Palestinians were also not given the right to organize, own property, or work, and without these basic freedoms, they remain refugees. These policies would result in a growing hostility between the two groups which eventually flared up in physical violence. This violence has spread all throughout the oil-rich Middle East and has allowed the western establishment to have a permanent involvement in the region’s affairs, just as they planned.
The Palestinians have been tossed out into the wilderness, displaced from their homes and most of them are only asking for the ability to work, trade and own property. To be given this freedom would prevent them from being displaced again and would establish a proper economy so the Palestinian people can have a fighting chance to become a thriving society. The American government, which is also a banker backed colony, used these same policies to wipe out the native people that inhabited North America. The Native Americans were also treated as exiles on their own land and were pushed further and further away from their homes until the only places left for them were small reservations that were mostly in the desert.
This article (On Banksy’s Christmas Card Joseph And Mary Can’t Make It To Bethlehem) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com.
John Vibes is an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. He also has a publishing company where he offers a censorship free platform for both fiction and non-fiction writers. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can purchase his books, or get your own book published at his website www.JohnVibes.com.
THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED WHEN THE MUSLIMS BLOCKED OFF JERUSALEM AND THE SOUROUNDING AREA BACK IN THE 1950S.
They were required by government to travel to Bethlehem. They were not refugees seeking asylum. You’ve got your story mixed up.
What government, the roman empire? They were meticulous record keepers and there are no records of such an even taking place at the time of Jesus’ birth, so I think you’re mixing up a story with real events.. Anyway, hope you noticed the part of loving your neighbour etc when reading the bible.
I don’t know who told you that but they were wrong.
Even more motivation to disband this stupid, outdated “Government” idea and replace it with a better one. Or just, y’know, take over the reigns, see to it, that everything gets turned the right way, meaning, all drugs are legal, everyone is equal, no matter nationality, or age. I would say race, but we’re all human, so fuck that closed minded “Race” bullshit. or just disband the government, and let the people write their own constitutions. Prison system needs to be rethought too, while i know some people should not be let loose, for crime reasons, of all kinds, keeping them in the same place, treated like shit by pricks in suits, well, let’s face it, it hasn’t been a very good success, what with America having almost half the population in prison cells. No, we need a better idea of doing things, where most politicians would look to terms of violence, we would look to terms of treatment. There’s a reason for every action, even if the person, themselves, does not know it. We should be helping our fellow men and women on this planet, not condemning them to staying in the same place, over and over, if anything, thats just gonna give them an insentive to escape and do their crime, all the more.
We, as a people need to think OUTSIDE of the box, instead of in it, because the truth is, there is no box, that box is a deception put there, by assholes, who layed claim to power.
You wanna learn one of the most important lessons? Here it is: Power Corrupts people. As long as power exists in the hands of a person, there will always be corruption.
Thats all i gotta say.
Well said.
lol seems you have your own little version of history , how cute .. only it has nothing to do with reality .. nothing….just one example is that when the state of Israel was created instead of integrating the Arab and Jewish cultures together, the Arabs (who were known as Syrians then and under no circumstances were called Palestinians since that was the name of the Jews ) started a war of annihilation against the new state .at the end of that war israel was divided and parts of it (west bank and Gaza )were occupied by the Arabs . Gaza by Egypt and west bank by Jordan , these areas were ethnically cleansed of all Jews . its little hard now under these circumstances to as you put it “integrate the Arab and Jewish cultures together” since Jewish culture was wiped out .. in the part that was left with the israeli state the two cultures are very well integrated ..i do believe that you should take a history lesson or two .. Despite of your own little version of history the real history and facts points to the contrary, the Palestinians are not Israel’s “Native Americans.” In fact, the Jewish people, composed of the twelve tribes of Israel, not Muslim Palestinian Arabs, made up the majority of the population in Israel up until 135 CE, when the Jewish people through massacres, brutal oppression, persecutions, and ethnic cleansing were forcibly made into a minority within their own country. Just like the Native Americans, the fact that Jews were made into a minority within their own country does not rob them of their indigenous status nor does it imply that they abandoned their country… as for your claim that back then they weren’t trying to kill, stab and destroy the Jews in Israel it could not be farther then the truth .. but you should look that up on your own .there was plenty of stabbings of Jews by Arabs among other kind of violence. if you claim Jesus was a Palestinians do they now claim that Palestinians killed Jesus?
Well, asuming the myth about Mary and Joseph is true are we? 😉
2 Palestinians arrested in West Bank Christmas tree arson – http://www.usatoday.com
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/12/25/2-palestinians-arrested-west-bank-christmas-tree-arson/77902674/
‘This current reality is obviously highlighted by the biblical story of Joseph and Mary, two refugees themselves who were said to travel across those lands thousands of years ago’ …….. MARY AND JOSEPH WERE NOT REFUGEES so there this reflects nothing!.. ‘John Vibes is an author and researcher’…. REALLY? maybe he can do a little more research before writing tripe like this!