John Kiss (born Jonathan Kis-Lev, 12 September 1985) is an Israeli street artist and Peace Activist. His graffiti work, political installations, community-based projects and public artworks have granted him the title the "Israeli Banksy." Kiss' work has been featured in various books and magazines, including magazine-covers.
Kiss' work centers on the transformative capacity of art as a catalyst for healing within communities experiencing conflict or crisis. Involved in various peace organizations since his teens, including the Bereaved Families for Peace and Peace Now, his longing for peace is often reflected in his work. In the mural The Peace Kids, painted on the Palestinian-Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem, Kiss created work which is considered optimistic, with a "message of hope" and a "spirit of reconciliation and brotherhood" between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The artwork triggered "enormous controversy" and was included in various essays and articles, as well as on the front cover of Peace Science Digest.
The artist's work is both locally and internationally acclaimed, with his artwork shown in solo art exhibitions around the world, and included in the Israeli National Bank permanent collection. He also received recognition for his artwork in his hometown of Tel Aviv, with the mayor of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai supporting his art, and his graffiti work 27 Club becoming an icon of the city. Time Out Magazine cited Kiss' work among "The most beautiful in Tel Aviv." In March 2020 the artist legally shortened his name from Jonathan Kis-Lev to John Kiss.
Early life and education
Kiss was born to parents who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union. Showing talent for drawing, he began private art classes beginning at age five. Having grown up in Israel at the peak of the Palestinian Intifada bombings and the missiles of the Gulf War, Kiss was, according to his own account, a "child of the conflict" who had grown to fear and hate Arabs.
At the age of eleven, Kiss was selected, along with a dozen Israeli students with interest in the arts, to attend a peace art camp in the Palestinian city of Nablus. It was there that Kiss encountered Palestinian children face to face for the first time. "That was the day my life began to get complicated," he later said. "Suddenly, there was no more black and white." The art camp experience developed his passion for peacemaking, seeing the power of art in creating bridges and reconciliation. At age 13 he joined the Jewish-Arab youth movement Sadaka Reut and began studying Arabic.
At the age of 16 Kiss was selected by the Israeli committee of the United World Colleges (UWC) to be a Young Ambassador of Israel at Lester B. Pearson College in BC, Canada. There Kiss majored in Visual arts receiving a classical Western art education which he later viewed as being too limiting and constricting.
After finishing his studies in Canada, Kiss returned to Israel to serve in the mandatory Israeli Army where he fought to be stationed at a unit that he considered as "promoting peace" rather than war and occupation. Following his struggle he was stationed at the headquarters of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, where he was in charge of coordination of entrance of medicines into the Gaza Strip, enabling Palestinian patients to be treated in Israeli hospitals, and working with UNRWA, Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.
Peace activism
Reconciliation groups
Following the completion of his mandatory military service, Kiss joined Palestinian activists Haneen Jounis and Janan Adawi, in examining possible solutions for Middle East peace through conflict resolution and peace psychology.
In his workshop, Seeking Peace: The Israeli-Palestinian Situation Kiss developed his approach to addressing the conflict: to expose children from both sides to each other by offering them human encounters with the other side of the conflict, and to give both Arabs and Jews equal rights and security. Although he was labeled by the media as an "optimist", Kiss often admitted that peace activists in the Middle East were "in the minority." According to Kiss, Islam in and of itself does not encourage violence, and "Islamist fanatics are a tiny minority." In interviews, he shared that he and his Arab friends often disagree around political issues, yet the mere culture of conversing peacefully was, in his view, to be celebrated.
Following his activism, Kiss was selected to join the Tikvah Leadership Forum at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, under the leadership of Peter Berkowitz. He was subsequently selected as a young member of Israeli President Shimon Peres' Young Leaders Forum.