THIS HOTEL’S A HELLHOLE
You need nerves of steel to get there – but your reward is an experience created by brilliant artist Banksy
AHOTEL billed as having the worst view in the world isn’t exactly the sort of place you’d jump at the chance to stay in – and the fact that each room gets only 25 minutes of direct sunlight a day only adds to the general don’t-go there feeling.
But there’s something special about this establishment – so special it’s drawing visitors from around the world, despite the fact it’s situated in one of the most troubled places on the planet.
The Walled Off Hotel in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem is far more than a place to lay your head – it’s an inn, museum, protest statement and art gallery all in one. And it was designed and decorated by the world’s most famous graffiti artist: the elusive yet brilliant Banksy.
Situated right next to the controversial barrier wall separating Israel from the Palestinian territories, the hotel opened its doors last month and is meant to provoke thought and debate among the people who visit it. “Walls are hot right now,” Banksy says. “But I was into them long before Trump made it cool.”
The hotel was built in secrecy over the past 14 months and converted from a pottery workshop into a 10-room building styled to look like “an English gentleman’s club from colonial times”, he adds.
Each room has a terrible view – straight onto an 8 m-high concrete barrier separating Israel from the Palestinian territories.
Even getting there messes with your head: Israelis are banned from visiting Bethlehem and its sites as it’s under Palestinian authority. But Banksy chose a patch of land that’s under Israeli military control. It’s legal for Israelis to go there – but all roads leading to the hotel involve an illegal and hair-raising journey through Palestinian-controlled territory.
But if makes-you-think décor and stunning if unsettling art are your thing, the destination is well worth the effort. The hotel is decorated in a dystopian
theme that digs at Britain’s role in the region’s history, from the simian-style mannequin doorman at the entrance to the self-playing piano in the palm frondfringed tearoom.
Everywhere you look artworks and installations give visitors pause for thought: a fire flickers in the grate under a pile of concrete rubble, making it resemble a bomb site. A classical bust is disturbingly wreathed in clouds of smoke snaking from a teargas canister and, against a backdrop of seascapes, beaches are littered with life-jackets discarded by refugees. A painting of Jesus shows Christ with a laser target on his forehead, while statues choke on teargas.
Head for the lift and you’ll find that walled off too, the doors jammed half open to show concrete breeze blocks and an “out of service” sign.
THE bedrooms are pure Banksy genius – exquisite works of wall art with a powerful message.
On one wall an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian fighter are having a pillow fight, streams of feathers seemingly raining down on the bed below.
In the lavish presidential suite water splashes from a bullet-marked water tank into the bath. In another room are a set of bunk beds from abandoned army barracks.
Rooms also feature telescopes but again it’s a trick: the view is straight onto the forbidding wall that divides the West Bank. Nothing to see but concrete and a guard’s watchtower.
Banksy first visited Bethlehem more than a decade ago, leaving a series of paintings on the barrier that have become a tourist destination in their own right.
Tourism has taken a knock in the town because of increasingly tight controls on travel between Israel and the Palestinian territories – but Banksy’s hotel is expected to provide a welcome boost in jobs and visitor numbers.
“It’s exactly 100 years since Britain took control of Palestine and started rearranging the furniture – with chaotic results,” Banksy says. “It felt like a good time to reflect on what happens when the UK makes a huge political decision without fully comprehending the consequences. This hotel is a three-storey cure for fanaticism, with limited car parking.”
According to the hotel website, Banksy isn’t profiting from the misery of others. After paying for the installation costs he handed the hotel over as an independent local business. The aim is to plough any profits into local projects. Visitors can rent rooms from as little as $30 (about R413) a day, although it’s unclear how much the presidential suite goes for.
The hotel is Banksy’s first major project since he opened his Dismaland theme park in Weston-super-Mare in the UK (YOU, 17 September 2015). The park is the antithesis to Disneyland, with miniature lakes carrying boats filled with asylum seekers, Cinderella’s pumpkin coach smashed into the ground along with the golden-haired heroine, and seagulls attacking a woman on a bench.
The Walled Off Hotel is similarly bleak but equally fascinating, although not for the fainthearted. And you can forget about a taking a dip in the rooftop pool – the close proximity to the wall means no one can go on the roof without permission from the Israeli military.
Hotel rules also state that “aggressive drunkenness or public nudity is not encouraged” and “under no circumstances should you shine laser pens at the army watchtowers”.
Holiday with a difference, this one.
‘This hotel is a three-storey cure for fanaticism, with limited parking’