Podcast: Interview with Sameh Habeeb about the Gaza Concert 2008
November 29th, 2008There’s a large number of underrepresented Palestinians who are resorting to peaceful and creative methods to bring peace and end the siege in Gaza. Perhaps one of the best efforts of the year is the Gaza Concert, which is described as the following:
From the heart of Gaza a sound of hope. Performers from Gaza will gather to tell their stories in songs and music calling for better life for Palestinians who have been suffering for years and stereotyped in media.
Gaza Concert is an event bringing inspiration for many Gazan singers who are eager to speak out and tell their stories by singing and music. The event aims to bring upon musicians and singers from different parts of Palestine to sing for unity, peace and justice. In spite of all the sufferings, the hopeful event aims to revive the Palestinian spirit by music from Gaza to the whole world.
Sameh Habeeb is one of the organizers and in this podcast we discuss the following:
And several other issues.
Opening music: Checkpoint 303 – “Gaza Calling”
[Cross posted on our podcasting site.]
We wanted to interview Ayman Talal Quader as well, also one of the organizers, unfortunately he has no electricity at this time.
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I have thought of this a lot on why we don’t seem to understand each other. I can think of three reasons with why Israelis and the Western world does not see the suffering of the Palestinians and therefore does not support the cause:
1. cultural differences between the Arab world and Israel/the West. The terminology used such as “ethnic cleansing”, “resistance” makes no sense to Israelis and many in the West who view the conflict with a completely different lens. How Palestinians and Israelis understand the conflict is SO different from each other, it is like speaking about different parts of the world. Each understands the words and actions of the other in a very different way which fuel the conflict more. For example, I hear the word “resistance” and I think of violence. What does a non-violent resistance mean? It makes no sense to me.
2. there is a historical relationship between the West and Jews. The Christian West has romanticized Jews from the bible and lived with them for over a 1000 years therefore more familiar with Jews than Arab Muslims. Add to that European guilt from the Holocaust and a fear of Muslims.
3. there is not enough Palestinian voice aimed at living in peace with Jews and Israel. Very few publically criticize the militants who talk about violence towards Israelis, few talk about how we can co-exist (the occupation has to end but then what?), and protest is always negative (Israel is to blame) and directed at the outside world (instead of directed at Israelis).
None of this is to rationalize what is happening. I am just explaining how I see the dynamics.
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I’m sorry, but this doesn’t make sense.
1) Palestinians don’t have enough access to international media outlets. How many Palestinian activists do you see quoted daily in the mainstream? And if you’re going to rely on the blogosphere, then you expect them to get online when a lot of them don’t even have sufficient electricity, let alone access to the internet (the gateway to the rest of the world)? Or speak the English language? I am really tired of people claiming that Palestinians must not want peace because they’re not saying it enough. You can’t make up this inaccurate assumption and then proceed to blame them for that. You need to blame yourself for not trying hard enough to actually seek and empower those voices, which do exist.
2) The West doesn’t understand Palestinians because they don’t make an effort to. Not the other way around. Sameh already implies this in 2 podcasts already, including this one. And actually, I would argue that in Europe the Palestinian stories are heard, thanks to real journalism. It’s great to see so many people there speaking on behalf of Palestinian human rights.
3) Israel is well connected. Literally. 52% of Israelis have personal access to the internet, in Palestine it’s only 18%. It goes without saying that Israel’s side of the story will be overwhelmingly heard, making it easy to feed “facts.” Palestinians on the other hand, don’t live a luxurious life, many can’t even get a good enough education to speak fluent English, which significantly limits their ability to communicate with mainstream media outlets.
I also completely disagree with your inaccurate claim that not many of them speak out for peace and co-existence, and I find it quite ironic that you would say this in a thread where Palestinians are leading a concert about peace. What more do you want? That Palestinians forget the injustice? Do you want them to forget the fact that they are living a complete terror, many in unsanitary conditions, without electricity, clean water, surrounded by checkpoints, et al, a completely opposite lifestyle than that of their neighbors?
I’m sorry. Israel has a lot to fix before it starts expecting Palestinians to up the ante with their need to coexist, which, for the record, many already do. It’s seriously wrong to claim Palestinians generally have to make the “first step” when Israel is WAY behind in any peaceful attempts despite the fact that it’s considerably more powerful, financially, militarily, politically, and socially. You can’t ask for the impossible. If you want to coexist, make it happen yourself, as an Israeli, instead of expecting Palestinians to magically forget the terrorism that they suffer through on a daily basis in the hands of the Israeli system. Many Israelis already admit their faults and are working hard on fixing them. Some are even building homes for their Palestinian brethren. That’s coexistence. Mere complaints and illogical expectations lead to nothing.
Well there doesn’t seem to be much guilt.
Source.
So when you say “West,” you probably only mean the USA and Canada, because really, Europeans generally don’t seem to have the same mentality.
I want to add something and only because I haven’t heard anyone say it. The lyrics in Israeli music can be seen as a symbol of what the people think, feel, experience. In the late 60s, early 70s, there was a lot of Israeli music that spoke to peace themes:
“For all the tank corps soldiers with their dusty faces
Who survived all the enemy fire and gruelling fighting,
For all the sailors who attacked the ports,
Their eyes caked heavy with salt from the seas.
I promise you – my little girl,
That this will be the last war. …”
“…tomorrow when soldiers take off uniforms
alerted to other things
then each man will use his own two hands
to build that of which he dreamed today.”
…”So just sing a song for peace
don’t whisper a prayer
Just sing a song for peace
in a loud shout”
I gave a group of Jews and Arabs a lecture on Israeli music and the question someone asked about all this peace music is “peace with who?”. Nowhere is the word Palestinian or even Arab mentioned. In that era, following the wars of 67 and 73, there was a dream in Israel of ‘peace’, of finally being able to be a normal country not being afraid. But peace with who? Most Israelis saw the peace as benefiting them, for their needs, with an undefined Arab world. In this view, there are no Palestinians to deal with, no looking at 1948 and what happened, just a wish for peace. And a wish for peace without looking directly at the people you most affected (Palestinians) is not going to be peace to the other side. That was Israel’s mistake- ignore the Palestinians and concentrate on this idea of ‘peace’ and everything will be okay.
I think Palestinians are mirroring Israelis. The concert for peace doesn’t talk about peace with Israel. It was about peace for themselves. Completely understandable but the same mistake Israelis make. Until both sides are ready to really look at each other in the eye, see each other as legitimate equals, nothing will change.
It’s not a mistake, it’s the reality. Frankly it won’t happen any other way. Israel is living in luxury while these people don’t even have sufficient electricity, so why should they create an event on Israel’s behalf? Israelis live a paradise in comparison to the conditions that Palestinians have to suffer under. Saying “we need songs from Palestinians about peace for/with Israel,” is implying that Israelis face exactly the same consequences, when they obviously do not. Palestinians are being terrorized on a daily basis. They are being cut off from the rest of the world. Israelis are considerably more secure, no doubt about that, and sure, some of them have unfortunately been victims of certain terrorism, but the situation of both nations are entirely incomparable. To some Palestinians, in many ways, Israelis already do live in peace. Spend one night in Gaza. Then spend one night in Tel Aviv. See the difference yourself.
It is wonderful to hear of a concert in Gaza, the Gaza that we only hear the wrong news from. When a rocket is shot, not all the population of Gaza ( more than a million, two million right? ), It is not all the millions of people shoting that rocket, they cannot stop that, the ones who rule Gaza with arms shoot and the consequences are for the people. I have heard about the days that Gazans and Israelis of Gaza used to plant flowers together, they had this bussiness together, even in the very bad days. Every now and then I hear of an Israeli doctor and a palestinain patient, We are out of that plavce qnd we don’t know how a Palestinian goes to an Israeli hospotal for treatment, but when two people can have that relationship, the rest is not uninmaginable. I hope the conflict ceases, before any other war, with enough people saying No to solving problems via vioolence, the grounds appears, the grounds upon which a durable peace might be founded. Our best wishes from within the Middle East go to the other end of the Middle East, and to the people who need the respotation of peace and normal more than any one else. Amen