Another one has more serious problems, she was in a car accident and she has no health insurance. She has no car insurance either, so now she will lose her license. How will she get to her job?

Someone else wants a girlfriend, he thinks then he'll be happy. He lives with his parents and battles depression. He's a little underweight, but it's just in his genes. He thinks it's the end of the world.

The everyday issues that consume people are really not that serious. If they are mine or yours, none of it really matters compared to the big ones that no one likes to think about. We're just too overwhelmed by our day to day lives to wonder what things might possibly be like on the other side of the globe.

Often what we think might be our biggest problems, would be outright luxuries to another people! I like to think that if I've got a roof over my head, clothes on my back, a pound or two to spare, fresh water to drink then hey, I'm pretty fortunate!

**********************************************************************************

We've got parties and plans and shopping and fun. We've got Starbucks and Disneyland and Hollywood and sun. We've got everything we want and even that much more. We've got famines and genocides and climate change and war. But we never think of THOSE things, life's too painful for that; to worry about people on the other side of the map! You see the bad stuff's only for those who live in foreign places and we'll never have to look upon the horror in their faces

So we'll stuff our face with muffins made with nuts grown in Brazil.
We drill holes in foreign places for our gas tanks we fill
We use ancient trees to wipe our butts.
build bigger homes to hold our stuff.
Is it possible we have enough?
ENOUGH!

Source: http://idreamofroses.blogspot.com/2010/02/personal-problems-in-privliged-society.html

Doc Jazz

In December 2000, Doc Jazz released his first political song 'Intifada', which was listened to widely on the world wide web, and started his internet project 'The Musical Intifada'. Since that time, the collection of his self-written and -produced songs has grown to over 90 funky pop-songs, the majority of which have a political topic. In 2007, the Musical Intifada, which promoted all kinds of Palestinian music, ended its updates. Now, 9 years since the first beginnings, Doc Jazz has started a revival of his musical resistance, which was kicked off by a recent concert in Palestine in October 2009. May Ghoul and Rana Kareem recently interviewed the doctor, who in fact is a practicing surgeon, about his renewed musical endeavors.

Rana: Can you tell me about your profession and how you can manage it with your talent of singing and songwriting ?

Doc Jazz: Well, my profession is that I'm a general surgeon, and I guess my other hobby has nothing to do with that, nor does it have anything obvious in common with it. So maybe that's the reason why I find it to be quite manageable. In my free time, I sometimes get inspiration for songs, and then I sit down and write them and record them in my home studio. So there is no extra time involved in going somewhere or waiting for others, I do it all alone, and that’s how I have been managing to do it for years next to my full-time work at the hospital.

The exception to this was in 2007, on my album Front Door Key, which was produced by Forrest Thomas, and which featured a selection of highly skilled professional musicians. I learned so much from working with Forrest and the others, and it has greatly affected the quality of my home recordings.

Rana: What are you trying to achieve with your music?

Doc Jazz: I consider my music to be a form of resistance against injustice. But not all of my music has a political content, I would say that about 70 % of it does … I write about things that I feel. And since I am Palestinian and I feel very involved with the fate of my people, many of my songs deal with this issue. Often my music is about a news event that has really impressed or moved me, like the more recent rock-song "My Shoe (is 2 good 4 u)" which was about Muntather Al Zaidi who threw the shoe at Bush, or the ballad "Children of Gaza", about the Gaza massacre of 2008.

"Music can transcend divisions"

I believe that music can be a way to convey a message, that can be difficult to communicate through other means. So what I hope, is that people who hear my music get a feeling of why there is a Palestinian struggle for freedom, and why this struggle will not end except with their liberation. Music can transcend divisions based on social class, education, race and gender, so it can be a way to bring all people closer to the Palestinian cause. This is why I write most of my musical lyrics in English, to keep it accessible to people of all nations.

Rana: Why do you think music can be useful in that?

Doc Jazz : Many people don't have enough background information to have real access to political discussions and to political background analyses. For them it often means nothing, or they feel alienated by that kind of discourse. Music however is a language of feelings and emotions, so even though my lyrics sometimes can contain actual political content, there is also a chance that through the melody or the emotion in the song, they will feel with their hearts what I mean to say, instead of with their minds. So it's a way to broaden the audience for our cause, and let them know about the injustices being perpetrated against our people.

Rana: Do you feel this is successful, or not? 

Doc Jazz: The feeling of being successful with that varies a lot. Whenever you feel that even one person has responded to the music and felt either its message or its melody, or its beat, you feel successful. On the other hand, we live in times when people have such incredibly easy access to music, that it can be very hard to get your music heard. In the Netherlands I did not feel very successful with the music, although it has more than once reached media such as radio, newspapers and television … but there is a strong reluctance among the audience in the Netherlands to listen to music that has a message that people don’t really want to hear. It collides with the brainwashing they undergo from their childhood onwards, to support Israel through thick and thin. I have always felt I had more fans outside of the Netherlands than in the country itself, despite the attention of national media.

"My music covers almost all modern styles, from rock to rap"

And among pro-Palestinian activists in the Netherlands, the general interest in political music is already at a low level, and the ones who are interested in music seem to be generally more interested in more exotic and oriental forms and genres – either that, or hard-core hip-hop. My music covers almost all modern styles, from rock to rap, but it's basically pop music.

This and other factors led to me closing up the studio before I emigrated from the Netherlands to the Gulf, and I wasn't really planning on picking it up again. But there seems to be a renewed interest in my music, especially from Palestine, which has encouraged me to reinstall my home studio, and produce new songs again.

Rana: Good to hear that ! Do you have any new songs out yet?

Doc Jazz: Yes, I recently released a few new songs: one is in Arabic, and is called "Undhor!", which means "Look!". That one is a mixture of funk and a more traditional Palestinian beat, and is about to the anti-Wall struggle that is going on in flashpoints like Bil'in and Ni'lin. I have dedicated the song to the memory of a young man, Basem Abu Rahma, who was killed by the Israelis while trying to help an injured victim. People there are suffering harshly from a violent crackdown by the Israeli army against their non-violent protests, and it is insufficiently highlighted by corporate media, who are obviously doing their best to help Israel in protecting its artificial image as a 'modern democracy'. 

"The concert took place on October 4th, at Al Quds University"

Another one of my new songs is 'Song for Marwa' – this rock ballad is not about the Palestinian cause, but is dedicated to Marwa Al Sherbini, an Egyptian mother of a three-year old child and three months pregnant, who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom in Dresden by her neighbor, in front of her husband and child, in the beginning of July. She was suing him for harassment based on his hatred for Muslims. Her husband tried to help her, while she was being stabbed 18 times, and was shot down by the security guards in the courtroom! Anti-Muslim hatred is on a very high level in Western Europe, and since I was born there and have lived there all my life, I feel connected to the fate of the Muslims who live there, even though I myself have decided to leave the region. In my opinion, Marwa should never be forgotten. That's why I wrote the song. 

Rana: What are you planning to do with the music now?

Doc Jazz: Well if time allows it, and if inspiration comes along, I will probably continue to put out new songs, and I recently performed in Palestine as you know, which has always been a dream of mine and now has come true. The concert took place on October 4th, at Al Quds University. It was truly an unforgettable experience; the response from the audience was absolutely amazing. This concert was organized thanks to the interest of fans that live in the Jerusalem region, and who wished to hear me playing my songs live. It was extremely motivating! It definitely helped compensate the generally negative memories of my Dutch experience.  

Rana: It really was an awesome concert, such an amazing atmosphere!

Doc Jazz : That is so nice of you, thank you, and I hope it inspired and motivated you.

Rana: It definitely did! Wish you all the best of luck with your music, and I hope you will come again! Do you have a message to the people who listen to your music, or to the Palestinian people?

Doc Jazz: Yes, I want the people to believe in themselves again, in the same spirit as that of the first Intifada that started in 1987. They seem to be increasingly depending on others, and leaving their fate to be decided by others than themselves. But my message to them is: independence cannot be given to you, it can only start by acting independently. Otherwise you are only on the road to a new 'dependence'. This is the motto of my 'come-back'. And I hope that in some way or other, my music relays that message.

LINKS

Main website: http://www.docjazz.com

Music collection: http://www.soundclick.com/docjazz
Doc Jazz Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=37006821380
Doc Jazz Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Doc-Jazz/24453805534

Links to songs mentioned in this article:
My Shoe (is 2 Good 4 u): http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7154112
Children of Gaza: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7315684
Undhor!: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7788173
Song for Marwa: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7848161

Get the CD 'Front Door Key' (prod. Forrest Thomas) from the Palestine Online Store:
http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/art/docjazz

All 90 songs of Doc Jazz can be found through his website, at http://www.docjazz.com . Keep visiting the website, for further information about the upcoming concert in Palestine, and about new song releases. Questions or requests for further information can be sent by email to Maico Music, which manages the work of Doc Jazz, through maicomusic@gmail.com .

May Ghoul has a BA in English literature, and works at Al Quds University in Abu Deis. Rana Kareem has a BSc in Medical Technology from Al Quds University, and works at a health center in Ezariyya.

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 the camp and refused to allow journalists and human rights organisation from entering leading to a rapid rise in rumours that a major massacre had taken place. Various casualty figures circulated ranging from 50 to 500 Palestinian civilians and fighters were killed. On the Israeli side, 23 IDF soldiers died. By the end of this operation, more than 10% of the camp was levelled. The UN fact-finding mission was never allowed in.

THE DOCUMENTARY:
Mohammad Bakri joined a non-violent demonstration during the invasion at which a
fellow actor standing nearby was shot and wounded by the IDF. This inspired Bakri to secretly enter the camp soon after the Operation ended and to interview its residents, young and old, some of whom witnessed some of the killing. The result of his work is Jenin Jenin a documentary which tells the story of the Palestinians of Jenin who would otherwise not have been heard by the international media due to the sealing of the camp. The documentary has no narrator, no voice-over, no guide and no commentary by the film maker. Jenin Jenin is dedicated by Bakri to its producer Iyad Samoudi who
was killed by the IDF in the Jenin Governorate shortly after the filming was completed.

THE COURT CASE:
After three screenings in Israel, the Israeli Film Ratings Board banned the film. The Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Cinematheques showed the film despite the ban. Bakri took the ban to the Israeli Supreme Court and won. On appeal, the Supreme Court ruling was stayed, but in August 2004, it reaffirmed its ruling stating that the Film Rating Board has "no monopoly over the truth"

In February 2005, five IDF soldiers who took part in Operation Defensive Shield filed a suit for defamation of character against Bakri. These five soldiers were neither mentioned nor shown in the film. The Judge in the Petah Tikva District Court dismissed the soldiers' case stating that although the film did slander the IDF generally, the five soldiers were not personally slandered. The soldiers' attorney said later that he would consider appealing to the High Court of Justice.

In January 2010, Haaretz reported that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, who is
retiring from his post in this month, stated his support for the five soldiers in their appeal.

After a meeting with the fibve soldiers and their families, Mazuz acknowledged that
Bakri did not defame the general public but only a particular group. If the Supreme Court accepts that position, then it would enable each soldier to open criminal proceedings against the filmmaker. Mazuz's joining this civic process with the soldiers individually, raises the question, according to Bakri of "why such a decision has come so late?"

IN DEFENSE OF BAKRI:
Jenin Jenin was awarded Best Film at The Carthage International Film Festival
International Prize for Mediterranean Documentary Filmmaking and reporting.

Mohammad Bakri will be awarded the Free Speech Bear Award at this year's
Berlin Film Festival: The Berlinale.

The Mohammad Bakri Defense Committee insists that "the importance of this case
reaches beyond Bakri as an individual" highlighting the repression of Palestinian self expression.

Choosing to show the Jenin residents' story is not grounds for censorship.

The Committee further adds that "for his artistic integrity and his focus on the
experiences and narratives of his fellow Palestinians, Mohammad Bakri faces the
potential of financial ruin in the face of spurious legal charges and dubious claims of
defamation".

Against the backdrop of an illegal occupation of 4.5 million Palestinians in The West
Bank and East Jerusalem, and a further 1.5 million in the Gaza Strip, the voice of
Mohammad Bakri rises against the attempt, within Israel, to silence his artistic
expression. At personal risk to himself and to his family, Bakri has been fighting alone, amongst all filmmakers, to encourage debate, free choice, and independent artistic creativity. As one of the greatest actors and filmmakers in Israel-Palestine today, Bakri represents the struggle of his people to attain freedom, justice and equality.

In a rare tribute to this personal conviction, it was decided to honour Mohammad Bakri with the Free Speech Award at the Berlinale 2010 through Panorama which showcases new films by established directors. Panorama was established by the well known German Film Director Wieland Speck in 1992. It is in his revolutionary spirit that the award will be presented to Mohammad Bakri.

The jury include: Hiam Abbas (The Lemon Tree), Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine),
John Grieson (Fig Tree), Udi Aloni (Forgiveness).

(editor's note: Bakri's site is down, but you can send donations to his defense expenses here: Al-Jisser Group
P. O. Box 255
New York, NY 10013)

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 occasion is ever taken for granted,
When it comes to tomorrow, there are no certainties
Our yesterday is our today
Time is frozen here
And one calendar year
Will never contain our lives,
Our collective misery,
Our yearning for humanity
Don’t tell us a year has passed
Our clock stopped ticking when justice collapsed
Eclipsed by decades of repression
Hush… don’t speak of time
We have endured the absence of time
We don’t measure our lives by days like you
We measure our lives by the number of embraces
Our worth by a lover’s heartbeat
Our existence by our persistence
So, don’t tell us a year has passed….

Samah Sabawi is a  writer playwright and poet.   She was born in Gaza and is currently residing in Melbourne Australia.  

حيثما توقف الزمن عن الحراك…

غزة بعد عام من عملية الرصاص المصهور

نظم: سماخ سبعاوي

لا تقل لي أن عام قد ولى

فنحن لا نقيس حياتنا بالتقاويم ومرور الأيام

فالزمان توقف بالنسبة لنا منذ زمن بعيد

ثقب بالضياع والأسى

وما بينهما فترات من السكوت

قنحن لا نعتمد على عيد الميلاد، ولا المرح

ولا نخدع أنفسنا بالتمنيات ب"عام سعيد"ّ!

فلا مناسبه تأخذ اعتباطاً

وعندما نذهب للغد… فليس هناك من ثوابت

فأمسنا هو يومنا الذي لا زلنا نحياه

فقد تجمد الزمن هنا

وسنة تقويمية واجدة

لن تختوي على كل خياتنا

وعلى مآسينا كاملة

توقنا للانسانية

لا تقل لي أن عام قد ولى

ساعاتنا توقفت عن التكتكة عندما انهار العدل

انخسفت بعد عقود من الاضطهاد

صه… لا تتكلم عن الزمن

فنحن لا نقيس حياتنا مثلك بالأيام

نحن نقيس الزمن بعدد الحضنات

قيمتنا بعدد خفقات قلب الحبيب

وجودنا بقوة اصرارنا وثباتنا

لا تقل لي أن عام قد ولى

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

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 rubble, the fires
The uprooted trees
Sewerage floods and darkness
Drones and the Siege
Most of all
DON'T MENTION THE RIGHTS OF REFUGEES
When we talk

Let's talk
Let our words float in the air
Devoid of meaning or clarity
We'll establish our own facts on the ground
And you will be paid your salary
Never before has talking of peace
Caused so much damage and agony
Yet still we talk

So let's talk
let's negotiate
We can have a conference, a summit, a debate
A multifaith dialogue to eliminate hate
We'll shake hands and smile
And make the six o'clock news
For supporting the peace process
Between Arabs and Jews
And we will only talk
http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/68

Take action: Support the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

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 wrong
Sometimes I don’t know who I hate more
The governments in the West 
Or the politicians in the East
Who sell their souls quicker than the oil they export
Straw men who use Palestine as a tool to line their pockets
And don’t give a nickel to their people
Quisling governments
Who stitch mouths shut for a check from Washington and AIPAC
How can you be their prototypical anti-Semite
If you are signing peace accords to oppress your own people?

And then Orientalists and idiots talk about how 
We can’t have democracy in the Middle East 
Because of what happened in Gaza
A Hamas boogyman wrapped in democratic elections 
Rahm Emanuel wants to educate me and my people about democracy gone wrong
Why doesn’t he try implementing one in Israel first?
Instead of bowing down to terrorists like his father and the IDF
Lauding a third rate, racist, European society that’s imploding quicker
Than its moral standing in the world
Enlightened like 1950s Afrikaners and slave traders
Just because the house is beautiful
Doesn’t mean the bones you built it on have fully decomposed

The Israeli left is about as alive as Ariel Sharon
I’m sick and tired of asking for permission to resist
From antiquated leftists and progressives
Who care more about keeping it Kosher than moving things forward
I put down my pen and waving fist to resist with college kids and Palestinians
Boycott and divest!
Because who cares about preserving a living when governments are killing civilians
Complicity by silence and reserve units bombing Gaza
Your academics and scholars, theater groups and practitioners, are part of the problem

And if logic doesn’t fit into your long term plan of rejecting
My right to return, I’m sorry
Maybe one day you’ll return to reality
Where my people have babies quicker 
Than Zionists can concoct Jordanian options 

I don’t want your sympathy or introspective confessions
Won’t sit on my hands till they loose oxygen
Like the people of Balata and Rafah
Vote for Barack Obama
And pretend that his 22 day silence was golden
While emaciated children starved to death
Surrounded by their parent’s corpses

This can’t be America the Beautiful
A criminal with a few positive attributes
Doesn’t alleviate genocide
Bombing Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq
Into oblivion doesn’t make you historic
It makes you as blind and bloodthirsty 
As the white men that came before you
Apathetic hipsters now excited about a president
Who broke history, but not poverty, occupation, or corporate interests

I’d rather proudly walk through the graveyard of peace accords 
And failed dialogue sessions
Than see my people just as occupied or third class citizens
We are the gavel that will slam down like a verdict
We are not waiting for Israel or America or the Supreme Court to approve it
We’ll boycott Lev Leviev, Caterpillar and your apartheid companies
We’re taking back the right of return and the keys to a country 
Because we never asked you to go back to Europe or sit in open air prisons
I’m not asking for your advice, I’m explaining the decision
You can stay here, with us, but only as equals
It’s not that you’re Israeli, it’s that you’re wrong
That’s why I fight for my people!

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

A must watch clip.

The time has come, the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—
Of cabbages—and kings…      (

These kleptocrats throw themselves at the feet
of Western plutocracies: they spurn 

the real source of power – their own people –
seeking clientage under Western boots.

Lesser rogues gravitate to bigger ones:
this is the law of global hegemony. 

This tendency emerges again and again
as long as its victims stay hidebound. 

These lesser rogues – Zardari, Karzai,
Abdullah, Mubarak, Abbas – 

will get their marching orders from DC,
hold down their own people for a fee, 

unless the people, every one of them,
pick up their shoes, sandals, chappals 

(any old footwear will do),
and point them at these scoundrels, 

a shot across the bow of their kleptocracies.
If this does not work (and it might not), 

ask the shoe-throwing Iraqi.
He knew better what to do with a shoe. 

M. Shahid Alam teaches economics at Northeastern University. He is author of Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism (Palgrave Macmillan, November 2009). He may be reached at alqalam02760@yahoo.com

Author's note: This article was started and mostly completed in December 2008. Then the Israeli massacre in Gaza intervened, followed by an intensification of organizing efforts for the Batsheva Dance Company protests After that, it gathered dust in the Drafts folder while I moved cross-country. An extended, remix version of "People Not Places" was just dubbed "Greatest Hip-Hop Song for Palestine Ever" by blogger Will on Kabobfest. The text that appears below is substantially the same as the one completed last December.

Recently, I got an e-mail from someone about a Jewish Israeli-American rapper who uses the stage name, "Invincible" (pictured at left). The message was a forward of an e-mail from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) promoting Invincible's song, "People Not Places." One of IJAN's points of unity is "Challenging the privileging of Jewish voices in conversations and negotiations about Palestine." It is, at least partly, in this spirit that I proceed.

So, I listened to the song and read the lyrics. My first impression was of appropriation of Palestinian culture even though Invincible is not entirely insensitive to the issue of "Erasing the culture." It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery but I wonder. There is a harmful, ongoing process of Jewish appropriation of Arab culture–"theft" is what some people call it.

For example, Israeli linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann says "Modern Hebrew" is "a semi-engineered Semito-European hybrid language." He continues, "The formation of so-called 'Israeli Hebrew' … was facilitated at the end of the nineteenth century by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda … to further the Zionist cause. … it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that the language was first spoken." Some words for this new language were simply invented but others were adapted or lifted from Arabic.

Consider sabr, the English transliteration of the Arabic name for the prickly pear cactus. As Farsoun and Zacharia, authors of Palestine and the Palestinians, note:

The prickly cactus bush called the sabr became a national symbol because it dots Palestine, marking the areas of destroyed villages. In Palestinian folklore it is known as a symbol of patience and perseverance. Like the enduring cactus, the Palestinians remained steadfast (samedoun or samedin) in their struggle despite great pressures threatening to separate and destroy the people's relationship with their land and cultural heritage.

To many Jews, though, the sabra (Hebrew for the same plant) is a metaphor for the idealized, tough Israeli-born Jew.

On food, Jana Gur writes:

The Zionist enterprise brought to Israel Jews from all over the world, each carrying memories of food they grew up on. At first, the ethos was rejection of everything that reeked of Diaspora and an eager, almost childish, embrace of the Levant. The infatuation with falafel and hummus, staples of Arabic cuisine, started there. … While not a single Israeli will claim that this chickpea and tahini concoction [hummus] is anything but Arabic, the status it has reached in Israel is unprecedented anywhere in the Middle East.

Gur's "not a single Israeli" remark is, perhaps, not so easy to sustain (see here and here). Or see the web site of Sabra Hummus (yes, that "sabra") where hummus is referred to as a "Mediterranean" food. (An Israeli company, the Strauss Group, owns a 50% stake in the company that makes Sabra Hummus and, therefore, Sabra Hummus is being boycotted by people of conscience).

In the aptly titled "Culinary Zionism: an ingathering of the edibles," Eythan-David Volcot-Freeman writes:

When asked to define "Israeli food," Diaspora Jews invariably point to hummus, falafel ["Israel's national snack"], and shawarma. … Presented with the same query, a sabra (native-born Israeli) would likely describe a typical Israeli meal featuring Middle Eastern hummus as a starter … The early halutzim (settlers) found inspiration in their Arab neighbors, whose lifestyle recalled that of the biblical Hebrews. Shawarma, falafel and hummus soon became "sabra" foods.

And here is a passage from "The Jewish Keffyieh":

"I hate the idea" confesses Hasan Nusseibeh, 27, a teacher at Al-Quds University. "They stole our land I guess it’s normal that they steal our Keffiyeh too", comments his little sister Sahar, a student. Their brother Munir reminds that this country dress is part of the culture of the region and that "Israelis are looking for new bonds with this ground". He believes that the "keffiyeh" is only another "effort" they're making in this sense. This young lawyer then enumerates the previous cases of cultural appropriation: traditional dress and embroidery, falafel and hummous. "Soon they'll claim that the Konafa (Arabic pastry) is Jewish!" jokes Ma'moun M. Kassem, responsible for an Italian NGO, who accuses Israelis of being "arrogant" and "thieves".

Pictured at the left is Naji al-Ali's character "Handala" in front of prickly pear cacti. Handala and the key he holds are symbols of the Palestinian refugee right of return. This particular image comes from a mural design for display at San Francisco State University. The mural was held hostage to the demands of Zionists that Handala and the key be removed and so they were.

Overall, Invincible's rap song "People Not Places" calls to mind Edward Said's critique of Orientalism–"A Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient." Here, we have Invincible, an Israeli-American Jew, using a primarily Black spoken word form with the backing of an Arab instrumental track to speak out about the Palestinian Nakba or catastrophe.

In Orientalism, Gustave Flaubert's representation of an Egyptian dancer stage-named Kuchuk Hanem is described by Said: "she never spoke of herself, she never represented her emotions, presence, or history. He [Flaubert] spoke for and represented her." Have things changed so much since Flaubert's time?

Today, the Palestinian voice or 'cause' is frequently mediated through or represented by Jews like Invincible, Ora Wise, Anna Baltzer, Norman Finkelstein, Jeff Halper, Noam Chomsky, Joel Kovel, Michael Lerner, Gila Svirsky, Phyllis Bennis, Susan Nathan, Marc Ellis, Hannah Mermelstein, Daniel Barenboim, Uri Avnery, Mitchell Plitnick, David Wesley, etc. (on mainstream representations of Arabs/Muslims by the predominantly Jewish Hollywood, even by Jewish actors, see "Planet of the Arabs").

The problem is twofold: First, these folks don't typically content themselves with bringing their message to primarily Jewish audiences; rather, they crowd out Palestinian and other non-Jewish voices–they disproportionately occupy the finite social space devoted to 'Israel-Palestine.' And, thus, they enable–inadvertently or not–others who are uncomfortable having Arabs represent themselves. One result is a self-fulfilling prophecy I've personally heard too often: "People won't come to hear Arabs."

Commenting on an earlier draft of this section, a friend wrote "… its high time that more anti-Zionist Jews should step up to the plate. We always hear about the deep moral failings of 'the good Germans' of the Nazi era: where are all 'the good Jews'?" The "good German" is, of course, a trope for Germans who did not oppose the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s. My reply is yes, but the "good Germans" should have been working on/against other Germans not explaining to the French or Swedes that "we're really good people and not all Germans support the Reich's occupation policies." And, certainly, the "good Germans" should not have been displacing Roma/Sinti, Poles, Jews, and other victims of the Nazis and lecturing them and their allies on the 'proper,' philo-Teutonic way to oppose the Nazis.

Frankly, there is something perverse about the prominence in the US Palestinian solidarity movement of so many people who hail from and identify with the oppressor group, especially when one considers that Jews comprise less than two percent of the US population. Do/should we allow male "allies" to so dominate the discourse on sexism? How about White "allies" controlling discussion of anti-Black racism? I know of only one historical parallel and that is the early American anti-slavery movement. Dominated by Whites, it was conservative, reformist rather than abolitionist, segregationist, and had no room in it for the likes of articulate former slaves such as Frederick Douglass or Sojourner Truth. Needless to say, it was largely counterproductive and racist, too.

The second problem is that their presence and prominence allow Jews to strongly influence the agenda and the parameters of 'acceptable' discourse. This often, but not always, means a focus on the occupation of 1967 but not the occupation of 1948, a reiteration of the narrative of Jewish victimhood and the crucial importance of combating 'anti-Semitism', support for the "two-state solution," and a blackout of the BDS campaign. This is understandable as we are all creatures of our own backgrounds and experiences but it is not excusable. To paraphrase Said: For a Jew working on Israel-Palestine there can be no disclaiming the main circumstances of her actuality: that she comes up against Palestine as a Jew first, as an individual second. And to be a Jew in such a situation is by no means an inert fact.

Let us now examine Invincible's lyrics. In the first verse she says:

museum of the holocaust
walkin outside- in the distance-saw a ghost throwing a Molotov
houses burnt with kerosene-mass graves-couldn't bare the scene
it wasn't a pogrom-it was the ruins of Deir Yassin

Prior to this she contrasts "a land without a people for people without a land?" with "But I see a man standing with a key and a deed in his hand". It is clear that she means to expose hypocrisy by contrasting Yad Vashem with the massacre at Deir Yassin but why is it that a pogrom is not a pogrom if it happens to Arabs? As a rapper, words are her medium. Can it be that she does not know that "pogrom," usually applied to attacks on Jews, can also refer to attacks on non-Jews? Even former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert referred to Jewish violence against Arabs as a "pogrom." And since when are rappers bound by linguistic convention? If that is the issue then why not smash that Judeo-centric convention and liberate the word? If that was Invincible's actual intent then it is by no means obvious.

And why is it that the 1933-1945 pogrom(s) detailed in Yad Vashem are implicitly bearable/'bareable'(?) but the pogrom of 1948 against Arabs in Deir Yassin is not? Is it because Jews were the perps just three years after the end of WW II? And as one of my Arab sisters pointed out "ghost throwing a Molotov" is obscure. Why is that? Who's throwing Molotov cocktails at whom? Is all this, as Edward Said put it in "Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims," some expression of discomfort with "treading upon the highly sensitive ground of what Jews did to their victims"?

Invincible begins the chorus with "my Ima misses people not places". Invincible's "Ima" (Hebrew for mother) is not unknown to me. Although her mother, Tamar, lives in the US now, she is a determined Israeli nationalist who does not shrink from interjecting her opinion at Palestinian solidarity events to support Israel and the "two-state solution" to permanently lock-in the violent theft by Jews of 78% of Palestine in 1947-48.

In an interview last Summer, Invincible said, "Recently my mom took a trip back home and her sister kicked her out of the house for protesting the Wall." But her mom is not above getting her own licks in. Just last month she chastised me for quoting Palestinians who dare to refer to "Israeli apartheid" and said that Palestinian calls for cultural and academic boycotts of Israel are "wrong." Further, Tamar, is a member of a Zionist synagogue that poses it's children with armed Israeli soldiers and supports a rabbi who gave a justification for torture from the bima.

So, Invincible's Ima seems pretty committed to Israel as a Jewish place even if she doesn't "miss" it. It is clear that Invincible does not let her mother's remark go unchallenged. As she (and Abeer) indicates, the places and the people cannot be so easily disconnected. But, perhaps, one lesson of this is that Invincible should consider focusing even more exclusively on challenging Zionism within the nerve center of Zionism–the Jewish community.

Certainly, as Israeli Jew, she potentially has entree to the Jewish community that few, if any, non-Jews, esp. Arabs, could hope to achieve. Anti-Zionist Jews can't expect gilded invitations from the Jewish mainstream but there are plenty of Jewish communal events to infiltrate and quietly subvert or to protest and disrupt. No doubt this, in part, explains her connection with the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network but the organization appears afflicted by many of the shortcomings discussed by Gilad Atzmon concerning a not dissimilar Jewish group (see Atzmon's "'NOT IN MY NAME'  An analysis of Jewish righteousness").

Invincible, again in the chorus, tells us "You'll never be a peaceful state with legal displacement." True enough but why not openly and forthrightly interrogate the very "legality" of this "displacement" when in fact all of it violated international law whatever Israeli law may say? "You'll never be a peaceful state with phony legal displacement" works, doesn't it? Also, the implication is that the state will be peaceful when the displacement ends but how realistic or desirable is it that "Israel" would continue to exist if Palestinians were allowed to return?

In the second verse, Invincible tells us:

This aint about a Quaran or a synagogue or Mosque or Torah
The colonizer break it into acres and dunums

This denial of religious motivations in invading and occupying Palestine comes just a few lines after Invincible acknowledges performing a profoundly religious act at one of the most important sites in Judaism:

At the wailing wall I’m rollin a wish
Then stick it in between the hole in the bricks

Although in recent decades Islam has become more prominent as an important ideology in organizing the resistance of Jewish occupations of Lebanon and Palestine (Hizbullah and Hamas were both founded in the 1980s), it is true that–on the part of Palestinians–the conflict in Palestine is not mainly about religion. In "Zionism from the Standpoint of its Victims," Edward Said notes, "… Jewish colonizers in Palestine (well before World War I) always met with unmistakable native resistance, not because the natives thought that Jews were evil, but because most natives do not take kindly to having their territory settled by foreigners."

Conversely, the Zionist invasion and occupation of Palestine is very much "about" synagogue and Torah. "The colonizer" who broke it "into acres and dunums" was a Jewish colonizer on a self-consciously Jewish mission to suppress or remove non-Jews in order to build a Jewish country. As with the Molotov thrower discussed above, Invincible obscures the identity of the "colonizer"–the power of naming is foregone. This is a pattern Invincible repeats in the third verse:

200 year old Olive trees uprooted the groves
to build a wall now Their future enclosed

Who uprooted those groves? Who built that wall? Again, the power of naming is kept in check.

The 'secular Zionism' fairy tale is one that distracts folks from, as Ludwig von Mises put it, "the ideology that generates war"–in this case, Judaism. As noted elsewhere, in The Jewish State, Theodor Herzl, the key figure of modern political Zionism, claimed, "we [Jews] feel our historic affinity only through the faith of our fathers …" and the Jewish "Faith unites us." In The Origins of Zionism, David Vital writes "characteristically, on the day [in 1897] before the [first Zionist] Congress opened, a Saturday, Herzl attended the morning service at the local synagogue and was duly honoured by being called to the reading of the Law …" (p. 355). Also, Herzl described the reaction of his "only spiritual mentor and intimate confidant," the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Moritz Guedemann, to Herzl's book, The Jewish State, as follows: "Guedemann has read the first proofs and writes me in rapture. He believes that the tract will strike like a bombshell, and work wonders."

And as the Chief Rabbi of Britain, Hermann Adler, said in a sermon published in the Jewish Chronicle in 1898: "Every believing and conforming Israelite must be Zionist …" Adler's successor, Hertz, gave a clear and strong religious imprimatur to the infamous Balfour Declaration before its issuance. After a visit to Palestine in 1925, Chief Rabbi Hertz affirmatively described Jewish colonization there as follows: "Religious zealots and fanatic free-thinkers alike rejoice in the redemption of the soil by Jewish labor, and look upon it as the holiest of human duties." In 1967, the immediate past Chief Rabbi of Britain, Immanuel Jakobovits, called "upon the Anglo-Jewish community to mobilise all its resources in the defence of Israel" which had just launched the Six-Day War. In 1977, Jakobovits wrote:

The origins of the Zionist idea are of course entirely religious. The slogan "The Bible is our mandate" is a credo hardly less insistently pleaded by many secularists than by religious believers as the principal basis of our legal and historical claim to the land of Israeli … Modern Political Zionism itself could never have taken root if it had not planted its seeds in soil ploughed and fertilised by the millennial conditioning of religous memories, hopes, prayers, and visions of our eventual return to Zion … No rabbinical authority disputes that our claim to a Divine Mandate (and we have no other which can not be invalidated) extends over the entire Holy Land within its historic borders and that halachically we have no right to surrender this claim.*

With reference to Jakobovits' "credo" above, in 1936, when asked about the basis for the Jewish claim to Palestine, Ben-Gurion told the British Peel Commission: "The Bible is our mandate." On the matter of Judaism and Zionism see also the 1942 statement declaring Zionism to be an "affirmation of Judaism" and signed by 757 Rabbis–"the largest number of rabbis whose signatures are attached to a public pronouncement in all Jewish history."

Returning Invincible's lyrics, am I the only one uncomfortable with Palestinians being likened to slow, passive marine mammals? Granted, it's not as bad as Israeli general and government minister Rafael Eitan likening Palestinians to "drugged cockroaches" (NY Times 11/24/2004) but, still, it is dehumanizing. From the third verse:

Disguising lies extincting lives like manatees
Callin it a transfer? Please-
More like a catastrophe!
Birthright tours recruiting em, confuse em into moving in

"confuse em into moving in"? Please. This comes across as another example of the victimizer cast as victim. Jewish victimhood of one form or another is a persistent theme and as Norman Finkelstein has observed:

… The Holocaust has proven to be an indispensable ideological weapon. Through its deployment, one of the world's most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record, has cast itself as a "victim" state, and the most successful ethnic group in the United States has likewise acquired victim status. Considerable benefits accrue to this specious victimhood–in particular, immunity to criticism, however justified.

So, why is Invincible reinforcing one of Zionism's most potent weapons? The entire song is a narrative of a Birthright Israel trip. In notes, Invincible writes:

The song takes the listener on a journey through a haunted "birthright" tour where the buried Palestinian significance of each location comes to light. Along the route i expose the process of historic and continued colonization as being even deeper than land seizure and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, but one that is invested in erasing the Arabic language, culture, and memory.

Is Invincible or the (at least partly autobiographical) protagonist of the song the only Jew capable of seeing through Zionist propaganda? Is she the only one who can "superimpose the truth"? Do those Jews who emigrate to Israel have no responsibility for their choices, no duty to learn, see, and refuse to become colonizers and instruments of injustice? How can it be that they are just confused?

If the Birthright Zionists are portrayed as passive in "People Not Places," they are not the only ones. Except in one instance, i.e. "their grandkids is the ones that's throwing rocks at borders," Palestinians are merely passive victims, not a resisting people with their own sense of agency.

It's time to bring this to a close. Some will no doubt object to my critique above. It may be argued that Invincible has the support of some Palestinians such as Abeer, who performs on "People Not Places." I would point out that even Gone with the Wind had Black actors. It's not for me to judge Abeer or, for that matter, Butterfly McQueen or Hattie McDaniel but I think the comparison bears some consideration.

The Billy Jack movies of the 1970s–starring Tom Laughlin, a White man playing an American Indian–also come to mind. As Amanda J. Cobb (Chickasaw) observes in Hollywood's Indians, the films:

… say more about white Americans coming to terms with their feelings about the Vietnam conflict than they do about the lives, experiences, or feelings of actual Native American people. These images have contributed to the conceptualization of American Indians not as distinct nations of people or as distinct individuals or even, in fact, as people at all, but rather as a singular character or idea, "the Indian" - an idea that helps whites understand themselves through "play." … Using the idea of the Indian, especially in terms of "playing Indian," time and time again is an act of cultural appropriation - an act that threatens the continuance of Native cultures and Native sovereignty.

Summing up, in the first part of this post I examined how Jews and, in particular, Israeli Jews have appropriated or stolen Arab culture. With that background, I situated Invincible's performance of "People Not Places" in the context of Edward Said's work on Orientalism. In the second part I took a closer look at the lyrics of "People Not Places" and argued, implicitly, that they validate concerns about cultural appropriation and Orientalism. It is my hope that this article will prompt a larger discussion about Jewish representations of Jews, Palestinians, and the Israel-Palestine conflict and also about the dearth of Palestinian self-representations of their own lives and issues.

Note
* Except as otherwise noted, the source for the preceding three paragraphs is Immanuel Jakobovits, The Attitude to Zionism of Britain's Chief Rabbis as Reflected in Their Writings, (London: Jewish Historical Society of England, 1981).

Thanks to LH, H. Samuel, LN, Khawla, and Joseph for their pre-publication comments on this post.

Michelle J. Kinnucan's writing has previously appeared in CommonDreams.org, Critical Moment, Palestine Chronicle, Arab American News, Electronic Intifada, Palestine Think Tank and elsewhere. Her 2004 investigative report on the Global Intelligence Working Group was featured in Censored 2005: The Top 25 Censored Stories (Seven Stories Pr., 2004) and she contributed a chapter to Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise (Peter Lang, 2006). Click here for information on how to contact her.

WRITTEN BY SAMEH HABEEB AND AYMAN QUADER

If you are a young Gazan, how do you react to siege, blockade and war? It's time to hear about the struggle to be constructive in the midst of so much hatred and destruction, and to ask how long it can survive.

26 – 08 – 2009

The Gaza Strip has lost 1,400 lives and a further 5,000, mostly civilians, have been maimed and wounded in the latest attack waged by the Israeli government. This came on top of an illegal, yet relentless siege that has dragged on and on for over two years, preventing 1.5 million Gazans from having access to the basic necessities of life, and to the wider world. You might well ask how young people respond to this blockade. Some of course resort to violence. But others have chosen a different tack.

The right to resist derives from the basic values of justice and freedom. It is not confined to the use of force. Millions of people in this world believe in solving conflicts through peaceful means, without shedding blood and causing more hatred. One day this noble struggle could even replace the violence used by humanity against their fellow human beings. Rockets, guns, tanks – as decisive as they are today – have little to say to the wider cultural struggle for a civilised existence.

The first ‘Intifada' uprising was a Palestinian show-case for a unique kind of resistance in which heavily armed Israeli soldiers were confronted by children with stones. That intifada mutated through several phases before it helped us to secure the Oslo agreement in 1993. More and more Palestinians nowadays are revisiting a non-violent resistance that has emerged from their history if only because it has been so dogged by violent conflict and by war.

In the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement inspired a non-violent movement of resistance in which locals only became involved when Israel started to build the annexation wall. The people of the Gaza Strip started their movement with a different sort of retaliation, this time against the blanket of silence which was the first stage of Israel's siege. Our response was ‘voices instead of bullets'. In the Gaza Strip, by mid-2007 we were engaged in numerous actions which drew international activist attention in our direction for the first time.

Sameh Habeeb, who was coordinator for the Popular Committee Against the Siege (PCAS) when Israel closed down all the border points, cut the electricity dead and with-held all fuel supply, remembers that moment as a turning-point:

"At first, there was just a stunned reaction of helplessness. We all rushed around wringing our hands about what could be done. We were entering an extremely challenging phase in which the question was: how to involve a wider public in our activities? Gazans are notorious for their loyalties and their endless capacity for confrontation. We thought we were in for a very difficult time indeed. But it turned out to be easy.

We realized that it was precisely at that moment, so in need of a clear way forward, that we must bring people onto the streets. We issued a call throughout Gaza to everyone who would listen. It took almost 5 days before any media outlets paid any attention to what we were saying. Then it started. Even the Israeli media were calling us to ask what was going to happen next. The Israeli government called on thousands of reserve soldiers who were promptly deployed along the borders with Gaza. We had promised some kind of action on a specific day – and as the day loomed, the Israeli media carried reports speculating on what might occur. Some predicted that tens of thousands of us would break through the borders with Israel."

The action day arrived and began early with massive media coverage from our side: ‘Human chain to challenge the siege.' Literally tens of thousands of people of all ages did indeed respond: schoolchildren, university students, labourers, women and children and many ordinary people hurried to the Salah El Din. The chain stretched from Rafah to Beit Hanoun and was around 36 kilometers long. The people went to the borders without guns in the manner of Ghandi to make a united protest. However, accorind to Al Jazeera, clashes erupted between youths and the soldiers who fired at them.

Since that memorable day, Jamal El Khoudary, chair of PCAS has launched numerous symbolic activities to end the siege. "Our approach to struggle has many means at its disposal. This is why Palestinian factions, political parties and individuals across the board participate in our actions. Through non-violent actions, we have been able to move the mainstream. However, you have to face the fact that you are always, at any minute, liable to be fired on." This is the price we have to pay to call attention to what is happening to us.

On January 26, 2008 the Palestinian International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, led byDr Eyad Sarraj, proclaimed an international day of action against the siege imposed on the Strip. It is important that there is an international response to this call, but at the core of this activity was the coming together of organizations working for peace and solidarity in Palestine, civil society bodies, and human rights advocates and Gazan academics, with Israeli peace activists also wanting to extend solidarity to the people of Gaza in numerous joint actions and events. On that day thousands of activists demonstrated on both sides of the borders between Israel and Gaza. More activists came to Egypt and tried to cross over to Gaza.

The campaign launched a call to gather a million signatures to end the siege of Gaza. Teams of volunteers grouped in villages, towns and neighborhoods of Gaza to collect these names. The aim was to present them to the United Nations, and two hundred thousand signatures had been secured when all this was brought to a rude halt by the Israeli war.

Dr Eyad Sarraj, who is amongst various callings, an international peace campaigner said on that day, "The principal goal of this demonstration is to join the hands of both Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who want to end the siege and all kinds of violence. The most decisive factor in breaking the siege will be through a change in Israeli public opinion." The slogans were: ‘No Movement, No Life' and ‘Humanity, Not Humiliation: Peace, Not Punishment'.

By late 2008 this movement of civic protest was growing new dimensions. Seeing the Palestinians so committed to such actions, international support of various kinds began to build. The Free Gaza movement managed to send three boats into Gaza surrounded by such a media fanfare that the Israelis were not able to touch them. The sea of Gaza has been under a blockade for many years: the last boat to arrive was 41 years ago. They made their fourth attempt during the attack on Gaza, and this time, the boat was destroyed. The crew and cargo of the fifth, Spirit of Humanity, have just been seized by the Israeli government who have imprisoned those on board, including the Nobel Peace prize winner, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, and sequestered or destroyed the toys, medicines and tree seedlings. But our message continues to spread.

Then there is the music. In the beginning of November 2008, the Popular Committee Against the Siege organized a candle-lit protest carried out by young children in Gaza City to protest at the closure of the power station providing electricity to the northern Gaza Strip. The protest started only minutes after the main Gaza power station shut down and the entire city was plunged into total darkness. Gaza's residents started marching alongside the children in the city's streets while the children held candles, singing in both, English and Arabic. Indeed, kids are the light of hope of Gaza, when they call for the freedom that comes through peaceful means. The people of Gaza are finding their own ways of struggling against this inhumane collective punishment.

Many people who don't know Gaza reckon that we live under some kind of Hamas-Taliban Puritanical rule. It is't true, and we are proud to have been involved in what we called the first ‘opera show' ever in Gaza, starring an Italian artist who was willing to come over on one of these boats. On November 27 2008, this concert, ‘Sing for Freedom', organized by a group of young people in the Gaza Strip, was a great success. The aim was to find a new way of breaking the siege, through a resilience that young people can discover together through song, dance, poetry, and hip-hop, announcing to their audience and to the world that their spirit is strong, and that they will never give up their demand to live in freedom, justice and peace in Palestine.

These are just a few examples of the kind of actions that show Palestinian aspirations for a dignified, thriving and humane life that we all hope to see one day. Many unanswered questions still fill our heads. Is this movement effective in challenging Israeli occupation? Should Gazans give up armed resistance? Will non-violent resistance bring back our rights? When if ever will Israel stop killing peace activists in Gaza and the West Bank? (The last victim was Basam abu Rahma, Basam who believed in non-violence, but who was met by death for his beliefs….)

Things are looking bad in the West Bank, where Israel has dealt a particularly bleak hand to President Abbas, who, after returning to the road map in the agreement in Annapolis, clamped down on all sorts of armed resistance with the help of Premier Fayyad. In the end, how was this received? His efforts were greeted by more settlement-building, more invasions and more arrests throughout the West Bank. And in Gaza? More and more people were beginning to look to non-violent resistance under their siege conditions: then came the last war. People are bound to argue for a return to armed resistance. What should one say in return?

We asked three of our acquaintances in Gaza to comment:

* Nadine Rajab, a 25-year-old human rights advocate, says, "As a Palestinian citizen living under siege and under occupation in Gaza, I think resistance has a few legitimate aspects: the general humanitarian dimension, the religious dimension and the national dimension. There are many legitimate means of non-violent resistance such as demonstrations, boycotting products and civil disobedience. But we should engage in both non-violent and violent resistance, because we are part of the society and it is our duty to do so."

* Muhammad Ghates, a 25-year-old young man working in the Gaza Strip has a different view. His brother was killed by the Israeli army in 2007: "Israel is a state that only survives on instability in the region. It has launched several wars against its neighbours since its establishment. Israel only agreed on peace after it was defeated by the Egyptians in 1973. Israel can be made submissive again through resistance and fighting. Maybe non-violent resistance can pave the way, but it can never be the decisive factor." Ghates believes that Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 due to the heavy resistance of the Gazan people. He contrasts this with over four years of non-violent resistance in the West Bank that has come to nothing. It may have drawn worldwide attention to the wall issue, but this in turn has resulted in no identifiable pressure on the Israeli state, "My family is pro-resistance and my brother was killed while defending Gaza. We aspire to liberate our country through resistance and fighting as we are under occupation. When the Nazis were invading Europe, nations and populations had the right to resist. But our case is different: we are not granted that right. Our resistance is described as terrorism, regardless of the fact that we are under occupation. It seems Israel as a country only understands the language of power and blood not peaceful means. This was quite clear in their last bloody war on Gaza: everybody was under attack. My house too was damaged. It was a target though I'm a normal citizen and I have never lifted a finger against Israel."

* Another young 21 year-old student living in Al Nuserat camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip says, "Our peaceloving children insist on facing up to Israel, but in a different way. They have escaped into patriotic songs to sympathize with each other. Furthermore, they light candles to express simplicity and innocence. They also draw pictures and write words on walls to show the suffering e.g. even before this gruelling war I saw a picture of a Palestinian child who had written on his chest in Arabic letters, "I'm hungry". I do believe that the non-violent path of activism could be more fruitful than militant resistance."

source:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/non-violent-action-in-gaza

source: http://peaceforgaza.blogspot.com/2009/08/non-violent-action-in-gaza.html

Ayman T. Quader

He truly loved the world and the simple gifts it gave
It gave him music and his family
More than enough

Never a moment without music, not if he could help it
Often wondered what a thought in his head sounded like

It’s been six years since his music left us
Stopped so abruptly
The sound of the interruption still burns in my ears

Here is the text from the site, which omits translating into English some of the text (about the most moral army in particular). See the video to see (badly) subtitled text.
רוצים גם אתם להפיץ את הבשורה? שלחו את המילה טיל ל 5000 וקבלו את הטרוטון של Xplain היישר למכשיר הסלולרי שלכם!

I wake up in the morning and suddenly fall on me TIL
How would you feel if someone throws on you TIL
לא בשביל זה בנינו בית יהודי

The children theysit in M.M.D
We cant go to MAKOLET, we cant go to school
But you don't understand because you live LACHEM BECHUL
How would you feel if in Paris they throw on you TIL
You ask for croissant but instead they throw on you TIL
Our army is הכי מוסרי בעולם
או לפחות בין החמישה המוסריים מכולם
טוב אולי אפשר לסגור
על הכי מוסרי באזור

They throw on us TILIM, we come with METOSIM
But remember who started shooting on EZRACHIM
How do you feel if in London they shoot on EZRACHIM
You want LASHUT in the TEMZA but instead they shoot on EZRACHIM 

If you ask why we fight
we say
They started
If you ask why we bomb
we say
They started
If you ask what we want
we say
…..

It's so hard when there is TZEVA ADOM
We have to לארח תושבות מהדרום
They walk naked in the house, they are so MISKENOT
Because גראד פגע להן בחדר ארונות

You support us or we take Benayun from Liverpool
And we tell Noa Tishbi to take back BETIPUL
We take Bar Refaeli, נשאיר את ליאו בלי כלום
Lets see (Leo Di Caprio) him dating with Um Kultum
How do you feel if Leo was dating Um Kultum
And in "Sports Illustrated" instead of Bar there's Um Kultum

Look on us
Look on them
מי יותר דומה לכם
We have McDonalds
תיכף H&M
אפילו סודוך לא הגיע אליהם
אם לא תהיו בעדינו, לא תהיה ברירה
נזכיר לכם מה פעם באירופה קרה.
(הדי ג'יי: ) "שריפה אחים שריפה"….
נראה לי שהנקודה ברורה

Now you know how it feels if someone throws on you TIL
I hope they know how it feels if someone throws on you TIL
Support us, Hate them!
X-Plain!

מילים: אסף שלמון, אסף גפן, אילן שפלר
לחן: דודוש קלמס, גל תורן

http://www.mako.co.il/tv-erez-nehederet/fd82c9a2478a8110/Article-f85dd0df440de11004.htm

where my people seek peace

And freedom from police control, checkpoints and patrols

Domination from another nation

We used to be brothers like Cain

Now they got us living under occupation the pain

Is just a feeling I can't possibly explain

But the population of Palestine could probably paint

A proper picture of their predicament to publish and frame

Put it down for posterity's sake:

Free the P

Which stands for free the Public from the Prejudices

That Pop culture Places in your Psyche Permanently

Propaganda from the President to the media Pundits

To Preachers Preaching on the TV 'bout the People who done it

Politicians getting Paid to Put People in Prison

For Puffing Pot and just building

Something different from what they live in the vision

Is not to give in but to just give 'em hell

Impel Proactive change with the thoughts I Propel -

Free the P?

That's for anybody trapped in jail

That should be free instead of breathing stale air in a cell

For every Parent that to Protect their child would spark heat?

Free the P is for the women living in this Patriarchy

And for all the artists

That do this shit from the heart:

From the West Bank to the West Coast we start

To connect and get close, Professin' our best hopes -

Despite the stress blessed 'cause it's something in our chest

That Love -

Nizar Wattad (aka Ragtop) was born in Palestine and raised in Tennessee, USA. He is a Palestinian-American hip-hop artist and screenwriter. He earned his undergraduate degree from the George Washington University in 2001, and has since written and edited for several literary and news publications. Wattad earned an M.A. in screenwriting from the University of Southern California in 2006, and his thesis screenplay Agency, was a semi-finalist in that year's Final Draft Big Break, Brass Brad Mentorship and ABC/Walt Disney Company Writing Fellowship competitions.

This poem is from Poets for Palestine, edited by Remi Kanazi.

http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/12/10/poets-for-palestine/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nizar_Wattad

Before talking about Duraid, I should mention that the political Syrian drama and theatrical art finds itself in a predominant place in the Arab world. This position has been earned by the best script writers, actors, producers and researchers who took the acting mission seriously, especially when it comes to producing masterpieces about the history and the political struggle in the Middle East.

Duraid, well known by the nickname of one of his characters as Ghawar Al-Toushi is a Syrian actor who occupied every Arab heart through his satirical and sarcastic roles on TV and the stage of the theatre. And as much as he made us laugh he forced us many times to cry when he criticised corruption and identified with the poor, oppressed, and the vulnerable – especially the Palestinian symbols who were part of almost every role he played.

Duraid was the leading actor in many theatrical plays, one of which was titled Kasak Ya Watan which meant in Arabic  To drink the toast of one's homeland. In his genius roles he was the platform that represented everybody, but some would wonder, why did he call to drink a toast of his country? Duraid is a Shia Muslim born 1934 in Lebanon and lived all his life in Syria, but most of us never knew that because he was never the voice of one area or certain faith, he was any one of us, whoever we choose to be.

He knew the rules in our part of the world, the law will not punish him if he criticised the authorities or the government while he was drunk. In his extra special play Kasak Ya Watan he declares that he is about to burst with pain and disappointment, he was longing to say how he feels about corruption and defeat in a society governed by censorship, so he knew how to get out of such an awkward position by deciding to get drunk, so that he could express himself and escape the punishment at the same time, for the legislations dictate to ignore and pardon the drunken for he does not know what he says. By God, almost every Arab individual felt like getting drunk because every one of us, especially the intellectuals… have a great deal of things to complain about. But we are all cowards, frightened to breathe under imposed censorship.

But here he is, arriving in Gaza as the first leading Arab artist to show support for the city under siege, and after the Israeli attack. The comedian and icon of the Arab political theatre arrived upon an invitation by the theatrical women's team of Gaza who are playing Sabr Ayyoub which means the Patience of Jacob. This expression is used by Palestinians when describing reaching the limit of perseverance and patience. Of course the women of Gaza are as patient as the messenger of God and the prophet Jacob, who came in terms with losing everything including his children and health, but never lost faith or hope.

Duraid's visit to Gaza is a great gesture since he taught us politics in small doses while we were smiling. The people of Gaza needed him, especially the mothers who were the axis of most of his great works; the mother was a key figure in his plays. I can almost hear him sing from behind the prison bars to his mother  Yamoo ya set Alhabayeb Yammo the song that made every mother cry. …Yamoo is the slang word for mother in Syria.

As a Palestinian mother, I just could not hear about his visit and not cry of joy, for he is the son of every Palestinian mother. He played sometimes characters of a troublesome mischievous son, who always got himself in trouble, nobody could tame him, but when it comes to his mother's memories, he turns to show a fragile character of a boy wearing the skin of a grown up man, in desperate need to be hugged by his mother.

Supporting the theatre in Gaza is of great importance, for Palestinians need to vent their pain through art and literature to rise above the rubble and shake off their homes the ashes.

The play had its opening debut at the Rashad Shawa theatre in the Cultural Centre of Gaza City, the drama talked of a Palestinian woman searching for her children in the rubble of her house that was bombed by the Israeli air force.

Then comes the birth of Ayyoub, the leading actor in the play, played by the author and director Saeed Beetar. He emerges carried on the shoulders of Palestinian women in a basket made of straw, that resembles the baskets used during the harvest season.

The play portrays the struggle of Palestinian women detained in Israeli prisons through the character of Maryam the Palestinian young mother who was imprisoned by the Israeli system and had to give birth to her baby boy Mahmoud inside the prison. Somehow this story reminds me of the Palestinian prisoner Fatima Alziq who has given birth to her son Joseph inside an Israeli prison too, she is also from Gaza and she and her son are still prisoners.

One of the most important scenes of the play portrays the exceptionally strong relationship between Christians and Muslims in Palestine where a Christian nun offers refuge to Muslim women who fled from the Israeli bombing in the church, then sacrifices herself while trying to protect an injured woman.

The play demonstrates the agony of women suffering the siege, but also talks of the divisions in the Palestinian society, a subject Duraid dealt with over and over again on the stage. The play ended with the leading actor refusing to leave the basket when he found out that his society was divided.

British author Michael Palin at the Second Annual Palestine Festival of Literature

WRITTEN BY BRENDA HEARD: When Right Succumbs to Might

“The only democracy in the Middle East.”  It has become a cliché amongst supporters of Israel, a phrase as common with parliamentarians as it is with propagandists.  These supporters excuse themselves from turning a blind eye to Israeli violations of international law by claiming that they are not taking sides, but that they are defending the very principles of democracy.  They are ostensibly defending one of the basic tenets of democracy—the freedom of a people to think and speak for themselves.   

It boggles the mind, then, how one can explain away the recent actions of the so-called Israeli democracy.  On 23 May 2009, in a public display of ridicule, a dozen armed Israeli policemen entered the Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem and ordered the closure of the Second Annual Palestine Festival of Literature.

Although a full programme had been publicly announced on 16 April 2009, the Israeli Ministry of Internal Security waited until moments before the Festival opening to dictate that the “event could not be held because it was a political activity connected to the Palestinian Authority.”  Participants were ordered to leave and Israeli police were posted on the street outside.

The Palestine Festival of Literature, or “Palfest,” is an academic, literary event.  It aims to bring writers and artists from around the world to Palestinian audiences.  Part of a UK registered charity, Palfest is supported by UNESCO and the British Council, among others.  Palfest is the essence of transparency: its website offers minute detail of its organisational makeup.  A full list of literary participants can be found here.  A full festival programme can be found here.  Still photos here.  There is nothing devious afoot here, nothing to be construed as a threat to “Israeli internal security.”

Yet Palfest was forcefully and publicly snubbed.  Not to be undone, the Festival was by chance able to re-group at the nearby French Cultural Centre.  But not before the forces of Israeli “democracy” made their point.  As one participant described:

“The sight of the expelled participants and audience as we filed down East Jerusalem's main street, some people carrying dishes of canapes, to the new and hastily organised venue at the French Cultural Institute might have seemed merely odd or amusing. In fact, it was a vivid reminder of Israel's fear of anything which might suggest that Palestinians are as cultured, civilised and deserving of respect as their Israeli neighbours.”

This sort of action mocks the very foundations of democracy.  Yet we encounter such noble statements as the pledge of loyalty given by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 21 July 2008.  He stated that Britain was a true friend to Israel, one “who shares an unbreakable partnership based on shared values of liberty, democracy and justice.”  Many British citizens would beg to differ.  Watch the video below and ask yourself if the attitudes expressed are values you would share, values you would condemn the lives and liberties of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples to uphold.  (police enter the festival at approximately two minutes into the video.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJU7-9r-pVA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epalfest%2Eorg%2Fvideo%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

source: Friends of Lebanon