Monday, June 29, 2015: Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar shows his painting of a rainbow flag on six slabs of the West Bank separation barrier in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Khaled Jarrar via AP)
RAMALLAH, West Bank – A Palestinian artist whose mural of a rainbow flag on Israel's West Bank separation barrier was whitewashed by anti-gay protesters says his work sparked a rare debate among Palestinians about gay rights.
Khaled Jarrar said Wednesday that he received hundreds of Facebook messages -- some threatening but others supportive or curious -- since he painted the flag on six barrier cement slabs Monday.
Jarrar, 39, says his art was meant as a reminder that Palestinians live under Israeli occupation, at a time when gay rights are in the news after the U.S. allowed same-sex weddings. But protesters perceived the mural as support for homosexuality, a taboo subject in Palestinian society, and whitewashed it.
The artist says he told his critics that "we can only demand equality if we give it."
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