DUBAI: In the past few weeks, people across the world have been protesting against police brutality and to honor George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others who have lost their lives at the hands of police.
Syrian artists Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun decided to show solidarity to the protestors and Black Lives Matter movement by painting a powerful mural of Floyd against the backdrop of Idlib’s ruins.
The mural depicted a portrait of Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, alongside the words “I can’t breathe” and “No to racism.”
Asmar said Floyd’s death “by suffocation” reminded him of Syrian civilians “killed by suffocation after the Syrian regime hit them with chemical weapons,” according to a local news report.
The artists said they painted the mural to “to call for peace and love” worldwide.
The pictures instantly went viral on social media and Twitter users praised the artists for choosing to paint the mural of Floyd in Syria, which has been facing a humanitarian crisis for years.
“It truly warms my heart to see Syrians supporting BLM even with everything they’re going through in Syria!” wrote one user on Twitter. “Syrian artists Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun in the town of Binnish in Idlib!”
From Syria to Spain, murals memorializing Floyd have cropped up in cities across the globe. In the occupied Westbank, Palestinian artist Walid Ayyoud painted a portrait of Floyd wearing a keffiyeh and in front of the Palestinian flag on the Apartheid Wall.
A solidarity mural by Palestinian artist Walid Ayyoub drawn on the Apartheid Wall in the occupied WestBank
— Days of Palestine (@DaysofPalestine)
