Palestinian Hip-Hop inspires resistance & hope
By
Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta
Published May 1, 2010 7:28 AM
Political activists and hip-hop enthusiasts eagerly filled a midtown Atlanta
club on April 16 to catch a dynamic performance by DAM, Palestine’s first
hip-hop crew. A previously scheduled concert was thwarted in 2009 by the
refusal of the U.S. State Department to grant visas for the internationally
recognized group.
This long-awaited, high-energy, politically charged concert fulfilled
everyone’s expectations. DAM’s three members skillfully captured
the brutality and cruelty of occupation through exquisitely powerful lyrics,
which were met by loud applause, cheers and chants of “Free
Palestine!”
In 1998, inspired by U.S. rappers such as Tupac Shakur and Public Enemy who
used hip-hop to describe conditions of poverty, racism, police violence, drug
use, alienation and despair for youth living in ghettoes and barrios in the
U.S., then-15-year-old Tamer Nafer began to pen his own lyrics and beats.
Born in the city of Lod or Al-Lyd, a suburb of Tel Aviv, Nafer’s family
was one of those living within an area of Palestine that was partitioned off
and became Israel in 1948. The Arab neighborhoods are overcrowded and suffer
rundown schools and few public services. A wall separates them from the newly
built sections where Jewish settlers live.
Legally an Israeli, everything else defined Nafer as a second-class citizen in
a country seeking to destroy his cultural identity. It was through hip-hop that
he could express his anger, frustration and hope. He was soon joined by his
brother, Suhell Nafer, and then by Mahmud Jreri. DAM was born.
The name has multiple meanings. In Arabic, it means “to last forever;
eternity.” In Hebrew, it means “blood.” To the group, it
stands for “Palestinian forever.” The letters in DAM also
abbreviate “da Arabian MCs.”
In September 2000, Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon, accompanied by hundreds of
armed police, went to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites,
to underscore Israel’s intention to control all of Jerusalem in defiance
of international law. The Second Intifada broke out; youth with rocks and
slingshots battled Israeli tanks and guns. Thousands of Palestinians were
killed and many more injured and jailed during the following months. Yet the
world’s attention only focused on Israeli deaths when suicide bombers
struck inside Israel.
DAM’s song, “Meen Erhabe?” (“Who’s the
Terrorist?”), released online in 2001, was downloaded more than 1 million
times and became the anthem of resistance, not just in Palestine but in
oppressed communities around the world. It exposed the nonstop oppression of
occupation, and the daily humiliation and aggression committed by Israeli
police and troops on Palestinian men, women and children. The song resonates
with passionate determination to be free.
Performing in Arabic, Hebrew and English, DAM has collaborated with an array of
Israeli filmmakers and musicians and is popular with Jewish youth who are
refusing to serve in the occupation army. Their vision of a secular,
egalitarian, democratic society appeals to young people tired of war and
racism.
The ground-breaking film “Slingshot Hip Hop,” directed by Jackie
Salloum, propelled DAM into greater international visibility. Although the
documentary includes the development of other hip-hop artists in the occupied
territories of Gaza and the West Bank as well as the emergence of young women
onto the scene, the movie traces the political growth of DAM’s music as
an expression of the ongoing struggle for justice and equality, not only of
Palestinians but globally. They reference Malcolm X and Che Guevara,
women’s rights and the role of writers, poets and musicians like Edward
Said, Mahmoud Darwish and Marcel Khalife.
The Atlanta concert was sponsored by the Movement to End Israeli
Apartheid-Georgia, which was formed after the December 2008 Israeli attack on
Gaza. Responding to the call by Palestinian civil society for boycott,
divestment and sanctions campaigns to sever ties with Zionist Israel, MEIA-G
has launched a campaign to end a program located at Georgia State University
that facilitates the cross-training of Georgia and Israeli police forces.
DAM’s U.S. tour includes San Diego, Los Angeles, Denver, Baltimore and
New York City. Visit www.dampalestine.com.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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