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This, the Walled Off Hotel, is known as the hotel with the worst view in the world. It was established here simply to give the opportunity for visitors to learn more about the reality in Bethlehem. Because we receive millions of tourists every year, and unfortunately, most of them come in and out with no clue what’s going on here. We’re just trying to explain from the Palestinian point of view. I think the message I would want to give is that Palestinians are normal people. Because if you take a side in this conflict, that means the circle of the conflict is becoming bigger. We realise the danger of that. The point is that we want people to understand the truth. Or at least, I would [call it] the truth because I’m a Palestinian, of course. But we challenge people’s minds. Banksy chose a motto for this hotel from the beginning, which was a quote [by Cesar Cruz]: “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

So we did not put TV’s in the rooms, because we don’t want people to stay in the rooms. We don’t cook dinners here, because we want people to go out and eat in other restaurants, use a lot of taxis, and shop from Bethlehem. We arrange two tours every day, both about the wall and refugee camps. Today, the visitors of the hotel are not only Banksy fans: we have lots of people from different backgrounds, even Christian pilgrims who have no idea who Banksy is. We have regular people who come here because it’s an art hotel, it’s a beautiful hotel, it’s a hotel with a theme. In 2017, Palestine [was] number one in tourism growth in the world. And there was an article in the Telegraph [newspaper], which attributed this success to the Walled Off Hotel. It is not true what they said. But at least we have this good reputation, haha. – Wisam

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