A mural depicting Palestinian resistance against approaching helicopters and tanks, painted on a Mission Street wall at Cortland Avenue, was defaced this week, with keffiyeh-clad faces scratched out and “Fuck Hamas” sprayed across it.
It is the fifth time this specific mural has been vandalized, said Chris Gazaleh, the Palestinian-American artist who created it last July. In his years painting murals with Palestinian themes in the city, he said several of his other murals have been defaced repeatedly.
“I know it’s gonna happen, because of the message,” Gazaleh said. “It’s also very telling … basically, we are in a place where Arab and Muslim, Palestinian lives are still dehumanized in the mainstream eye of America.”
The mural, which shows a man protecting his people by throwing something toward oncoming militia, reads “Resistance is justified when people r occupied” at the top. It states that billions of U.S. tax dollars go to the “illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine to bomb kill n’ steal life.”
The text and the people’s faces were covered with spray paint this week.
Joanie McCollom, the owner of Rabbit Hole restaurant next door to the building with the mural, said the mural raises many questions with her customers: “It’s triggering for some people, and important for other people.”
“Obviously, there are many sides to every story, and it’s unfortunate that we can’t have all perspectives appreciated,” McCollom said.
Each time his mural has been vandalized, Gazaleh said he has repainted it out of his own pocket — and has done the same with several other murals that have faced similar pushback: His mural at 24th Street at Noe Street, calling for an end to genocide, had swastikas drawn on it. Another mural with pro-Palestinian symbols in Lilac Alley that Gazaleh also worked on was defaced in 2021, and even his first pro-Palestine mural, painted in 2011, was immediately vandalized after he completed it.
“It sucks; you have to repaint stuff all the time, and it’s not always easy,” said Gazaleh, who is now raising funds for this latest repainting. “And also, it’s not always safe: I don’t know if people are watching me.”
Gazaleh, who grew up between the Bay Area and near Detroit, said he believes the same person has been targeting his murals for years, and said he recognizes the person’s handwriting.
But he said that he will continue to create art promoting the Palestinian cause, because “we don’t have the power in the media, we don’t have that platform to present our story — so I have to keep doing this.”
Earlier this month, Gazaleh’s Instagram account, which had thousands of followers, was shut down permanently. The note from Instagram, which Gazaleh posted, said “too much activity on your account doesn’t follow our community guidelines.” He created a new account, and started rebuilding, as he always has.
“My plan is to be just as just as resilient as my people in Gaza are being, which means that I’m not giving up,” Gazaleh said.
Welcome to San Francisco. Everything gets defaced here. Is this the first time you have ever noticed?
If I were A Palestinian, I’d be thinking f*k Hamas too
Many do. Just as many Israelis say f*k Netanyahu. But of course, we all know better. A People ARE their leaders, just as ALL Americans are donald trump. Eh?
Tired/boring: Graffiti on homes and businesses that costs them hundreds/thousands of dollars to remediate
Wired/interesting: Graffiti on a borderline offensive political mural
Nothing offensive about this mural – it reflects the consensus of the overwhelming majority of humanity!
What is offensive about it?
Resistance to an illegal occupation and long-term genocidal project will never be worse than or approach the brutality of the genocidal project itself. Palestinians have every right to resist the victor’s peace that Israel demands.
It seems like “Fuck Hamas” should be a broadly popular sentiment.
The only reason there will be no mention of hate crime charges is that the faces X’d depict Palestinian citizens.
I can’t take you seriously if you have a mural that defends resistance via violence but then complain about some paint.
Hmmm… a comment pointing out that many people all over the world don’t approve of their leaders and shouldn’t be painted with the same brush (no pun intended) gets deleted. A San Franciscan calling for peace for all on Earth must be censored, apparently.
I admire Chris’s resilience and will contribute to the fundraiser. The mural tells a difficult truth about a brutal occupation our tax dollars support.
Where can we find the fundraiser?
I reached out via Chris’s website at: https://www.cgazaleh.com/
The mural justifies terrorism, and calls for violence and the destruction of Israel.
One person’s notion of a terrorist organization is another’s notion of a defense force.
Q: What’s going to be the undoing of the human race?
A: The inability to gather behind the point when both sides of a fight are wrong.
You are making up words.
The mural justifies any and all resistance and by committing genocide Israel has arguably forfeited its right to exist in its present zionist guise.
The Nazis said something similar about the Jews back in the 1930s, and then made good on their threats. Without defending all of the current government’s actions in Gaza, I believe that’s why Israel exists and needs to continue to exist.
I’m heartened especially by the increasing number of Jews worldwide who are able to place their human identity before their Jewish identity. Authentic human identity must trump all other artificially created national, religious ones. Mass human consciousness is democratic!