WEST BANK: Arab and Palestinian artists perform at three day music festival in Bethlehem to mark 60th anniversary of the "Nakba"

Record ID: 560769

  • Title: WEST BANK: Arab and Palestinian artists perform at three day music festival in Bethlehem to mark 60th anniversary of the "Nakba"
  • Date: 1st June 2008
  • Summary: (MER-1) BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK (MAY 31, 2008) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MIRNA AZZA, AUDIENCE MEMBER, SAYING: "I am really enjoying today's performance. The Palestinian people need this kind of spiritual enrichment with patriotic music. I had a great time today."
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVABX53SBDV3WNKTZJ0DU4DSPXYY
  • Story Text: Renowned Arab artists, including Syrian singer Sameh Shqeir, perform for Palestinians in the West Bank city of Bethlehem via video link during three days of concerts to mark 60 years since the "Nakba," or "Catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
    Arab and Palestinian artists performed at a three day music festival in Bethlehem from May 29th to 31st to mark the 60th anniversary of the "Nakba," or "Catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

    "We coordinated with a number of Arab artists since this is both a national and pan-Arab issue and to include artists with a commitment to patriotism in their music," festival organiser Ayman Ahmar told Reuters.
    The concert featured performances by Palestinian folk singer Abu Nisreen, dance troupe al-Funoun and Palestinian poet Abou Khousa.
    Unable to gain physical access to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, Syrian singer Sameh Shqeir performed via video link.

    "I am really enjoying today's performance. The Palestinian people need this kind of spiritual enrichment with patriotic music. I had a great time today," said audience member Mirna Azza.

    "Our heritage is asserting Palestinian identity. The festival has very sincerely asserted Palestinian identity and its persistence," added Mohammad Rizk, another audience member.
    The festival is part of a series of events traditionally held by Palestinians throughout the month of May to mourn the "Nakba" and highlight the ongoing refugee problem.
    Nakba is the term Palestinians use for the war fought over a UN resolution dividing British Mandate Palestine into two states, one Jewish, the other Arab. Palestinians maintain, to this day, that it was unfair to lose what they deemed ancestral lands to accommodate Jewish immigrants seeking a state after the Nazi Holocaust, in what the Jews saw as a return to their ancient Biblical Jewish homeland.
    But the Israeli forces took a larger chunk of Palestine than the one allotted to them under the UN partition plan, and some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled during the 1947/48 hostilities. The Palestinians refer to that entire experience, which also saw the destruction of some 400 Palestinian villages, as a catastrophe.
    Today, about 4.5 million refugees and their descendants live in squalid camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
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