Banksy and Idris Elba Want You to Take Action on the Syrian Civil War

On the conflict's third anniversary the duo are determined to raise awareness.

Mar 14, 2014·

Culture and education editor Liz Dwyer has written about race, parenting, and social justice for several national publications. She was previously education editor at Good.

Can one of the world's most famous street artists and an actor known for making people swoon get the average person to care about the Syrian civil war? Banksy and Idris Elba are sure going to try. March 15 marks the third anniversary of the conflict, and to ramp up awareness about it, the seemingly unlikely pair—graffiti fans plus Luther fans?—have teamed with an international project called #WithSyria to show their support and demand that the world take action.

They've created a video that features Elba narrating some of the conflict's shocking statistics. In the past three years, more than 100,000 Syrians have been killed and half the population has been displaced. As Elba narrates, we see an animation of Banksy's iconic 2002 stencil Girl With the Red Balloon. In the updated version, the girl holds a heart-shaped red balloon as she floats over a bloody, war-torn Syrian backdrop before soaring away from the chaos.

Banksy released a statement on his website that indicates why he cares so deeply about the issue—turns out, the conflict has a direct tie to graffiti.

"On the 6th March 2011 in the Syrian town of Daraa, fifteen children were arrested and tortured for painting anti-authoritarian graffiti," he writes. "The protests that followed their detention led to an outbreak of violence across the country that would see a domestic uprising transform into a civil war displacing 9.3 million people from their homes."

Indeed, the conflict, which the United Nations reports has led to the worst refugee crisis since the one that occurred in Rwanda in 1994, has left millions of Syrians in need of humanitarian aid, created an entire generation of youth refugees, and increased violence against women. With the Ukrainian conflict currently the focus of the world's superpowers, on this third anniversary activists are concerned that there will less focus on bringing together warring factions in Syria for peace talks.

The #WithSyria campaign is asking the world to stand in solidarity with that nation's citizens. Show your support by creating your own version of Banksy's image—featuring either graffiti or real people—and uploading it to Instagram or Twitter using the #WithSyria hashtag.