"I Spent A Day in an Israeli Prison"

Italian artist Jorit painted a mural of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamim! while visting Jerusalem. He was jailed for it, and he Is banned from entering Israel for ten years

- Jorit

IT was raining heavily outside. In a dingy room of an Israeli prison, drenched and chilled to the bone, I was awaiting death. Grazing my shoulder on and off was the muzzle of an M-60 machine gun. The soldier who was in his mid-20s screamed, “What were you doing there? Are you not the guy who was painting the wall?” Neither I could say ‘‘no’’ nor could I nod. The only response that came from my panicked heart was: “Can you stop playing with the trigger? I am really afraid.” 

I spent only one day in the prison but it seemed like years to me.

I will never forget that July of 2018. Growing up in Italy, a country with a fascist past, the issue of Palestine always resonated with me. Their rights to safeguard their home cannot be snatched away. As an artist whose politics is reflected through art, I sided with their cause. I reached Jerusalem not to become a hero or a martyr, I just wanted to know people and observe their lives closely. And what I witnessed was an unending apartheid.