07/04/2026
🇬🇧 In our last Rat Trap episode, our guides Miguel and Margarida talked about war. Here's a glimpse of what they shared, be sure not to miss the full conversation.
War is one of Banksy's most recurring themes, one of the major concerns of today's world. First, do you know ACLED? It's an index that tracks conflicts worldwide across four indicators: deadliness, danger to civilians, geographic spread, and the number of armed groups. Between December 2023 and November 2024, it recorded over 204,000 conflicts and approximately 240,000 deaths.
Ukraine, Palestine, Myanmar, Sudan, Brazil, Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq…
Here we chose to focus on Banksy's work in Palestine, because it's where he first went, in 2005. Several pieces created there have been on display at the Banksy Museum Lisbon since its opening in June 2022.
Stop and Search, 2007, Palestine. In this piece, a child is searching a soldier, not the other way around. The reversal is disturbing. It exposes the absurdity of a situation. No child should have to carry the experience of living under the constant threat of armed searches.
Donkey Documents, 2007, Palestine. A soldier stops a donkey at a checkpoint and demands to see its papers. It sounds absurd, but it's based on a real story told by Wisam Salsa, co-founder and manager of the Walled Off Hotel. He saw a farmer crossing a border when a soldier began harassing him, demanding identification papers for his donkey.
Walled Off Hotel. Opened in March 2017 in Bethlehem, the Walled Off Hotel is a three-story hotel, described as offering "the worst view in the world": every room faces the Israeli separation wall, in some cases within sight of army watchtowers. It has a piano bar, a gallery, and hosts the largest permanent exhibition space dedicated to Palestinian art within Palestine. All profits go back into local projects.
The hotel reopened in late 2025. It remains, as its own manifesto puts it, "a three-story fight against fanaticism, with breakfast."
In our last Rat Trap episode you can hear our guides Miguel and Margarida talking about their experience with a visitor who stayed at the Walled Off Hotel some years ago.
