I cant help but sit back and think retrospectively like I am member of each of these nations when I listen to young people pour their entire being into an art like music. I am a big advocate of the underground hip hop scene, and recently learned of more popular Israeli/Palestinian under-grounders. However, it is difficult to find English translations!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRAdM3VWQko&feature=related
Subliminal and Sivian Behnam, Perfect Place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIo6lyP9tTE
DAM, Born here
A song from each of the rappers from Channels of Rage... Which I am ridiculously stoked, yes stoked, to see on Thursday! All the online clips do not provide English sub titles, so I have been waiting.
A quote from the song "Living from day to day", that features both rappers:
"Already a thousand in the field, carry words like weapons, one more page to the paper, when will the struggle end? I have no other land. People, war is outside, only hip-hop will bring peace."1
This hit me, as did the songs I found from both artists, pretty hard all at once. Peace is what the people want. Greed and selfish desire fuel this conflict. Maybe hip hop and other forms of more creative and expressive art will free the bird from her cage.
The conflict over this particular piece of land is lengthy, but it has hope for it has matured as has means of communication. The old system is being over thrown by a new, globalized version of justice.
But does publicity and media ruin the hope for change with this method of dialogue? According to Qantara.de, Subliminal and Tamer were friends, but "their friendship broke up in the wake of the Intifada."1 A thought that peace is possible, but the next headline you read smashes that thought into pieces, just like the destruction filled history of Jerusalem. If a friendship between two advocates for peace, something tiny compared to the mass of the conflict itself, cannot withstand the pressures of the lens, how can one expect further resolution?
1. http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-310/_nr-54/i.html
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I agree with what you said in the last paragraph. I once had a teacher for a class about terrorism who said he is not optimistic about there being a conflict resolution between Israel and the Palestinians....unfortunately, he's probably right.
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