WEST BANK: Palestinian rap group from Israel performs at the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank

Record ID: 563116

  • Title: WEST BANK: Palestinian rap group from Israel performs at the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank
  • Date: 16th July 2008
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF DAM RAPPERS PERFORMING ON STAGE AND AUDIENCE CHEERING
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA1HW95BIT0HIXFRD04X1ZYIDYL
  • Story Text: Members of the rap trio DAM (Da Arabian MCs), the world's first Palestinian rap group, were born and raised in the Israel city of Lod. Their lyrics and music describe the plight of Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza and their struggle for independence.
    They formed as a group in 1999, and have held several performances in the West Bank, but they were able to perform to a cheering crowd of Palestinian youths from the Jenin refugee camp for the first time on Monday (July 14).
    The group was a guest of the "Freedom Theatre", a cultural and theatrical training centre which was inspired by an Israeli peace activist and is now managed by her part-Israeli, part-Palestinian son, theatre and film director Juliano Mer Khamis.

    "This is a bullet aimed at the world, a bullet of poetry, cameras, song and dance. We shoot -- in English they say: 'Shooting, we shoot with the camera, with music, with poetry.' That is to say, we shoot with poetry, music and theatre," Mer Khamis said, as preparations for the concert were underway.

    "We believe that the third Intifada (uprising) that is yet to come will be a cultural Intifada, a scientific Intifada, an Intifada of ethics and values," Mer Khamis said.
    The centre provides as arena for self- expression and hope for children and young men and women of the refugee camp.
    Dozens of youths filled up the performance hall, as the three troupe members -- 27-year-old Tamer Naffar, 23-year-old Suhell Naffar and 24-year-old Mahmoud Jreji -- walked onto the stage.
    The crowd cheered and sang along with the group, which performed songs from their album 'Dedication', released internationally in 2006, combining Arabic percussion music, Middle Eastern melodies and urban hip hop.
    In their lyrics, they call for equal rights for Palestinians living in Israel and for the need for all Palestinians to be united.
    DAM members live in the Israeli town of Lod -- al-Lyd in Arabic -- a mixed town of Arabs and Jews, located some 20 km (12 miles) West of Jerusalem.
    For Tamer Naffar, the group's leader, geographical boundaries are the single divide between Palestinians in Israel and in the Palestinian territories.

    "I don't like to make this kind of differentiation, but it exists on the map. It's called the 1967 land, this Palestinian land, and we have become Israeli land. So I want to tie the two together and say that we are still in Palestinian land and you are in Palestinian land. It is important for us to maintain this shared identity," Naffar said.
    Along political songs about conflicts, occupation and national identity, the trio also raps about social issues such as poverty and women's rights, and matters that concern teenagers the world over: relationships and love.
    But "Palestine" remained the leading theme at the concert in the Palestinian refugee camp, which drew the audience to passionately chant the word several times during the performance.

    "The political message -- our life is full of political issues, from the wall (the Israeli barrier in the West Bank), to the (Israeli military) checkpoints (in Palestinian territories), 1948 (the year Israel was founded), the borders of 1967 (when Israel annexed Jerusalem and occupied Arab territories) to (Palestinian) refugees. So I won't specify what kind of political message it is. We have one main political message: it is about our land, our right, it is our land and we want it," Naffar said.
    One member of the audience regarded DAM's music an a form of Intifada, the Arabic word for uprising.

    "What makes their music unique, their music is rap, it is stirring, it is an Intifada. If there is DAM there is an Intifada," Ahmed Omar said.
    DAM, for almost a decade, has been a leading group in the Middle East rap scene, and has gained international acclaim during its performances in Europe and North America.
    Since its creation, several other Palestinian groups, in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, have sprung into being and created fan bases throughout the region.
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