Walls transform into trenches of art for the freedom of the Palestinian people!

From July 28th to August 28th, the MST held the 2nd Free Palestine Muralism Day, producing murals denouncing Israel's genocide and portraying Palestinian resistance.

The Palestinian territory remains subjected to systematic genocide by the State of Israel, with a military blockade by land, sea, and air, armed invasions, mass murders, the destruction of villages, and forced evictions. This ongoing violence threatens the lives, memories, and culture of the Palestinian people, who struggle to avoid extermination. Bulldozers uproot centuries-old olive trees, agricultural lands are poisoned and demolished, seed banks are destroyed, and communities are denied access to water and fishing. Every daily act, such as planting, harvesting, cooking, and fishing, is transformed into a target of war. Daily repression and cultural expropriation reveal Israel's Zionist project, as a strategy of ethnic cleansing and historical erasure.

This blockade even weaponizes food. The Israeli army even rigidly calculated the minimum calorie requirement for survival in Gaza, restricting basic foods and imposing starvation as collective punishment. Core products of Palestinian food culture, such as tomatoes, lentils, honey, coffee, and olive oil, were banned.

In the face of the genocide and barbarity imposed by Israel, various forms of resistance against Zionism have emerged: olive trees are uprooted, social movements in Brazil and around the world are painting roots; while attempts are made to silence voices, chants and cries of protest are multiplying across the world, repudiating the imposition of memory oblivion and cultivating internationalist solidarity.

Free Palestine Mural Day

From July 28 to August 28, this year, the Landless Workers' Movement held the second Free Palestine Mural Day. Dozens of Landless artists, from other rural and urban grassroots movements, joined the call, producing murals depicting Palestinian resistance. The Jornada's artistic production involves settlements and encampments, communes, schools, squares, and avenues, which are covered with murals of denunciation. In every region of the country, women, youth, and children participate, proving that collective art is also a gesture of popular pedagogy.

The Jornada de Muralismo fulfills the MST's challenge of strengthening the internalization of the principle of internationalism within our organization. At the same time, it embodies a living practice of solidarity with the Palestinian people and promotes the production of art and culture, encouraging the training of artists in our territories,” emphasizes Messilene Gorete of the MST's internationalism sector.

The initiative began last year, when the MST launched the first Free Palestine Muralism Day, mobilizing walls throughout Brazil. This year, the action expanded to other Latin American countries, reaffirming that walls can be trenches of memory and internationalist solidarity.

In this sense, Igão de Nadai, an activist in the MST's culture sector, explains that muralism in the Movement is considered a political action, which currently uses art to denounce the extermination of the Palestinian people and Israel's death plan. “As a strong Latin American tradition, we view muralism as a political action. We can see this expression playing a role in denouncing, questioning, and addressing historical, political, and social issues on several continents. We can search all over the world, in one way or another, for expressions on walls and murals that seek to have this voice through the walls, as denunciations and questions."

So far, in 2025, more than 20 murals have been erected as banners of resistance by artists, activists, and collectives. "The colors and styles of these popular artists are not restricted to the MST's encampments, settlements, schools, and training centers, but have also occupied cities and crossed borders. The Journey became international, with works painted in Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Mexico,” emphasizes Carla Loop, of the MST's national leadership, responsible for the Culture sector.

The Historical Legacy of Muralism

Muralism emerged as a popular rebellion rooted in the transformations of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), which overthrew the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship and paved the way for social, cultural, and educational reforms. In this context, art flourished as a tool of political pedagogy: school walls, public buildings, and collective spaces became instruments of popular education.

Inspired by the peasant struggle of Emiliano Zapata and the insubordination of urban workers, artists such as Diego Rivera, Aurora Reyes, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros transformed walls into trenches of class struggle, portraying the people as protagonists and denouncing colonial oppression.

"From the famous murals of Mexican moralists, Diego Rivera, among others, this spread to other Latin American countries. It became a strong expression of collectives in Chile, Venezuela, and Cuba, and its importance took root in each country, eventually reaching Brazil," explains Igão.

It is from this legacy that the MST artist collective draws inspiration and inspiration to reaffirm the importance of this art as a political action and a source of reflection among the people, denouncing and expressing the exploitation and domination of the working class.

"In Brazil, there was a very strong encounter with the Hip Hop movement, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, with graffiti, one of its expressions. Muralism is expressed on walls, in various forms and fragments, in communities, urban centers, and rural areas. It is a form of expression of the demands and critical questions of its time, found in cultural expression, in historical remembrance. And it transforms into a collective voice," Igão explains.

Landless Internationalism

For the MST, internationalism is at its core, one of its fundamental values, with the peoples of the world. Since its founding, it has understood that the struggle for land in Brazil is part of a global struggle around a common and unified agenda, which requires the unification of the global working class against capital, colonialism, and imperialism.

Therefore, by painting walls with the Palestinian flag, the MST expresses the collective voice for international solidarity among peoples, in defense of the Palestinian people and their culture. Internationalism is expressed in the solidarity brigades sent to other countries, in the courses at the Florestan Fernandes National School, and in the farmers' markets and rural warehouses, where seeds and food engage in dialogue with global food sovereignty. Therefore, the defense of the Palestinian cause is directly linked to the struggle for land and the sovereignty of the peoples, who face expropriation and extermination, but continue to resist by cultivating the land, memory, and hope.