by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN MAY 20, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)
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, inside the building where the mural is painted, 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.
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ELENI BALAKRISHNAN
REPORTER. Eleni reports on policing in San Francisco. She first moved to the city on a whim more than 10 years ago, and the Mission has become her home. Follow her on Twitter @miss_elenius.More by Eleni Balakrishnan
