Banksy takes Santa's Ghetto to Bethlehem

Graffiti artist Banksy is staging his Santa's Ghetto art exhibition in Bethlehem this year, in an attempt to shine a spotlight on the plight of the town believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.

Banksy has set up his annual month-long Santa's Ghetto exhibit featuring his own art and pieces by local artists and European colleagues in a shop opposite the Church of the Nativity in the town's Manger Square.

Bethlehem's key tourism industry has suffered a dramatic drop in recent years, which many attribute to the building of Israel's concrete barrier around three sides of the West Bank town.

"You wouldn't worry about Christmas becoming too commercial in Bethlehem they couldnt afford it. There's more festive lights in the window of your local Woolworths than youll find in this entire town," Banksy wrote in a message to British newspaper the Times.

"It would do good if more people came to see the situation here for themselves. If it is safe enough for a bunch of sissy artists then it's safe enough for anyone," he added.

As part of his exhibit, the Bristol-born Banksy created some of his trademark provocative graffiti works and stencilled them on walls around town.

His new works include an image of a young girl in a pink dress frisking a soldier, an olive-branch-bearing dove clad in a bulletproof vest with crosshairs centred on itsbreast and a soldier checking the identity documents of a donkey.

Banksy, who has managed to keep his true identity hidden despite becoming one of the U.K.'s most popular contemporary artists, also enlisted other artists to create their own public wall art around Bethlehem.

An Italian artist known as Eric the Dog, for instance, painted an image of two donkeys on the wall of one man's home, while another artist known as Sam 3 requested 100 litres of black paint to create a massive, supine figure paintedon a large section of the barrier.

Sales of the artworks featured inside the converted Bethlehem shop will be earmarked for charity. Banksy's Santa's Ghetto exhibition usually takes place in London.