Palestine Think Tank

WRITTEN BY ANTOINE RAFFOUL
BACKGROUND:
In April 2002, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield by invading the Palestinian
refugee camp of Jenin, south of Nazareth. In this operation which lasted about 8 days and followed a suicide bomb attack on the Israeli town of Netanya. Israel deployed 30,000 reserve soldiers against a camp population of 33,000 refugees. It sealed [...]

Gaza one year after operation cast lead 
Don’t tell us a year has passed…
We don’t measure our lives by this calendar
Time has stood still for us so long ago
Punctuated only by loss and grief
And the in between moments of quite reprieve
We don’t count on Christmas, nor Eid for cheer
We don’t fool ourselves with “happy new year”
No [...]

Doc Jazz and his band perform a song from their album "Front Door Key". Intifada!

and this video is an excerpt of playwright Mirna Sakhleh's "7 Palestinian Children", inspired by Caryl Churchill's "7 Jewish Children".

This song is dedicated to Basem Abu Rahme, 29 years old, who was non-violently protesting the theft of his village's farmlands and was shot dead by the Israeli Occupation Forces.
The song expresses support for the people's struggle against the Israeli Apartheid Wall in Bil'in and Nil'in, on the West Bank in Palestine. People there are waging daily non-violent protests against the confiscation of their lands and their livelihood, while the armed forces of Israel respond with live ammunition and have injured and killed several people in this way.

Guzin Bilgi, a Turkish activist/musician/translator presents a comparison of the positions Madonna and Erdogan have of Israel. In the second clip, together with Sakis, a Greek musician, Guzin sings "Die Israel". Don't miss the spoken word segment.

(art: Arab Woman by Shepard Fairey)
Dignity, my sisters and brothers demand it, so hand it to them now.
Soldiers with big guns pointed at our little ones
At our women and men again and again.
They shout and they berate, humiliate and hate
At Al Aqsa and Allenby Gate
While the old stand and wait.
 
“You’re dirty! Drink your piss! Dance to [...]

Let's talk
Let's negotiate
Let's have a conference, a summit, a debate
A multifaith dialogue to eliminate hate
They'll call us men of peace
And after our love fest
We can issue a joint release
Of how we talk
Let's talk
But not about ethnic cleansing
Forget Dier Yassin
Don't speak of apartheid
Or the destruction of Jennin
Be blind to the pain in Gaza
The hunger, the disease
The [...]

In March 2009, at Theatre Shawa, Italian Tenor Joe Fallisi, arriving in Gaza on one of the Free Gaza boats, performs with a group of Palestinian musicians. Here is a bit of the concert.

Every time I think of 9/11
I see burning flesh dripping off the bones of Iraqi children in Fallujah
Now Gaza
I tend to memorialize the forgotten
The collateral damage eclipsing our unpunished crimes
Maybe it’s because I’m a numbers guy
Because if I had a dollar for every time an Iraqi died since 2003 
I’d be a millionaire
And don’t get me [...]

This beautiful short film was produced in the series sponsored by the EU commission on Human Rights.
A must watch clip.