No, Banksy Didn’t Create Those West Bank Trump Murals Everyone’s Talking About
Several news outlets have worked themselves into a lather speculating that two new murals in Israel’s West Bank featuring US President Donald Trump are the work of Banksy. The anonymous British street artist has previously created work on the West Bank wall, and earlier this year, he opened the satirical “Walled Off Hotel” just a stone’s throw from where the new paintings appear. But these additions to the West Bank landscape are not Banksy works; they were created instead by Australian graffiti artist Lush.
One work depicts the controversial US leader in a yarmulke, reaching out to touch a wall, with a thought bubble that reads “I’m going to build you a brother.” On August 3, the Washington Post published a transcript of a phone call between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pen Nieto in which the former reality TV star insisted that “[Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu told me the wall works.” (The barricade currently being constructed along 440 mile West Bank border is actually primarily made up of fences, not walls.) One of Trump’s signature campaign promises was to build a wall along the nearly 2,000-mile US-Mexico border, and have Mexico pay for it.