ISRAEL/LEBANON: Palestinian-Israeli singer Rim Banna defies distance and boundaries, performs for Beirut fans via internet

Record ID: 394956

  • Title: ISRAEL/LEBANON: Palestinian-Israeli singer Rim Banna defies distance and boundaries, performs for Beirut fans via internet
  • Date: 18th March 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RIM BANNA, PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI SINGER, SAYING: "I cannot go to Syria or Lebanon because I am a Palestinian from 1948 (Arab-Israeli). I am not allowed to travel to some Arab countries, including Syria and Lebanon. That is why we decided to break all the barriers, the barriers and the borders, and break through in sound and image via the internet, without passports or entry permits or security checks or anything else. A transgression of everything."
  • Embargoed: 2nd April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA13FJMOV6HAAJLACZ0N95Z7BO4
  • Story Text: Palestinian-Israeli singer Rim Banna uses the internet to defy national and political boundaries by performing a virtual concert for fans in Beirut.
    Fans of Palestinian-Israeli singer Rim Banna added a new twist to the word "virtual" on Sunday (March 16) by attending a performance by her in Beirut, through internet video link.
    As an Israeli passport-holder, Banna is banned from travelling to countries classified as enemy states by the Israeli government, including neighbouring Lebanon and Syria.
    Tens of fans huddled on the floor in Beirut's "Maison Laique"
    -- French for "Secular House" -- to watch Banna sing patriotic songs inspired by Palestinian folklore and tradition.
    Standing in her living room in the Arab town of Nazareth in Israel, an enthused Banna told her Beiruti audience: "Communicating in sound and image through an internet connection is a simple and modest step but of course this evening holds great meaning."
    This is the second concert Banna has performed in an "enemy state", her first was held for fans in Damascus on Sunday (March 9), also via the internet.

    "I cannot go to Syria or Lebanon because I am a Palestinian from 1948 (Arab-Israeli). I am not allowed to travel to some Arab countries, including Syria and Lebanon. That is why we decided to break all the barriers, the barriers and the borders, and break through in sound and image via the internet, without passports or entry permits or security checks or anything else," she told Reuters in an interview.
    Damascus is this year's "Arab cultural capital", and Banna's performance was shown in Bab Touma, the Christian quarter of the old city.

    "You're holding a concert through an internet connection. To be able to gather people in Damascus and Beirut in only a couple of days, it really moved me. It was moving because I could feel them, I could see them before me, instantaneously and virtually, but I couldn't meet them in reality," she added.
    Banna's albums are unavailable in Lebanese record stores, but one fan was able to contact the singer via the social networking internet site, Facebook, to download her music.

    "This concert follows the one that was held last Sunday in Damascus in Bab Touma. We wanted to show Rim, the Palestinian people and the Arab public that we challenge all the boundaries imposed by the Israeli embargo on Rim, since Rim is in Nazareth and she cannot leave," said Abir Ghattas, a computer sciences student who helped prepare the Beirut concert.
    Since 1985, Banna has released ten albums, the latest of which is "Seasons of Violet".
    Her music is renowned for her adaptation of "Tahalil", traditional children's lullabies. She also incorporates the work of famous Palestinian poets such as Tawfiq Zayyad, Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim, and Zuhaira Sabbagh into her songs.
    A singer, songwriter and composer, Banna studied music at the Higher Music Conservatory in Moscow. She now lives in her hometown of Nazareth with her husband, Ukrainian musician Leonid Alexeyenko, and their three children.
    There are an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians living in Israel, who became de facto Israeli citizens upon the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.
    Although officially accorded full citizenship rights, Arab-Israelis often complain of being discriminated against.
    Many are exempt from military service, which is compulsory for the Jewish population, and feel isolated from their brethern in the Palestinian territories.
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