Palestinians celebrate festival of dance - 30 Apr 09:
Comment: It's not that I am against dancing, festivals and similar activities. It's not that I am against Palestinians reviving their heritage and culture in all its forms. It is simply that I am bitter and angry and in despair at the recurring scene in my head of Palestinians living in tents in Gaza, with nothing but God's mercy. And while Gaza suffers under the triangular (Israeli-Egyptian Regime-Palestinian Authority) siege, the west Bank is cut to pieces in little islands surrounded by wires, walls and checkpoints, with hardly any movement permissible, it's land is confiscated daily for the expansion of settlements, its young imprisoned by both the Israeli Occupation Army and the Palestinian Authority, notwithstanding the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem and the judaization of the city.
I have an honest question I haven't been able to resolve: Is it really a good time for a dance Festival, or has Ramallah - and its rulers - been removed from the scene of the Palestinian struggle, has it turned into a virtual Island not connected to Palestinian reality?
I would have liked to see a less removed festival that urges a continuation of resistance and struggle to liberate the land, special sections dedicated to the political prisoners, martyrs, Farmers under fire, fishermen prevented from earning their livelihood, orphaned children, widowed mothers, anything at all related to Palestinian reality. Apparently these people live in dreamland, or maybe it's me asking too much of an equally oppressed city in Palestine.
here's the caption of the video
"Away from the factional politics and the tensions, residents of the West Bank have been celebrating on the streets.
The second international dance festival in Ramallah has provided Palestinians with a rare chance to dance their woes away.
Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh reports."
Palestine Video - A Palestine Vlog
Friday, May 1, 2009
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Selected Videos
- ***Alnakba [The Catastrophe] - [P1] The Threads of the Conspiracy [P2] Crushing the Revolution
- ***Alnakba [The Catastrophe] - [P3] Ethnic Cleansing [P4] Nakba Continued
- **Al Nakba [La Catástrofe] - [P1] Los Hilos de la Conspiración [P2] Aplastar la Revoución
- **AlNakba [La Catásrofe] - [P3] Limpieza Étnica
- *A Palestinian Woman
- *Azmi Bishara - Interview:
- *Azmi Bishara on Israeli Apartheid
- *Azmi Bishara: The Last Colonial Question
- *Blood & Religion, Unmasking the Israeli State
- *De Facto State of Lawlessness
- *Drying up Palestine
- *Edward Said - On Orientalism
- *Edward Said: Lecture The Myth of 'The Clash of Civilzations'
- *Edward Said: Memory, Inequality and Power: Palestine and the Universality of Human Rights
- *Edward Said: Palestine, Iraq and U.S. Policy
- *Francis Boyle - Palestinians and International law
- *From Occupation to Enclosure: Fragmenting the Palestinian State 1 - Diana Buttu"
- *From Occupation to Enclosure: Fragmenting the Palestinian State 2 - Amira Hass"
- *George Bisharat - Ending the Palestinian Nakba
- *Ghada Karmi at Yale
- *Ghada Karmi: Why Israel is a Failed State
- *Ilan Pappe - Interview
- *Ilan Pappe - Israel's 1967 Plan for the West Bank and Gaza Strip
- *Ilan Pappe on the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
- *In the Spider's Web
- *Interview: Ghassan Andoni
- *Israel's Secret Weapon (Israel's WMD)
- *Jeff Halper - Israeli Apartheid and the Paths to a Just Peace
- *Jeff Halper- The United States, Israel and the American Jewish Community
- *Jenin Jenin
- *John Pilger - Palestine is still the issue
- *John Pilger - The War on Democracy
- *Landscapes of Occupation in Palestine
- *Muhammad Jaradat & Eitan Bronstein: 1948 and the Right of Return
- *Noam Chomsky - Middle East Crisis
- *Noam Chomsky on Gaza - MIT
- *Norman Fikelstein - The Israel-Palestine conflict: what we can learn from Gandhi
- *Norman Finkelstein speech at Columbia University (3 parts video)
- *Occupation 101
- *Off The Charts - If Americans Knew
- *Palestine Street -1- The Lost Bride
- *Palestine Street -2- The Bride in exile
- *Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land: Media & the Israel-Palestine Conflict
- *People and The Land: The Story of a People Under Occupation
- *Phyllis Bennis - "Dual Occupations: Iraq and Palestine in Bush's Empire"
- *Rachel: An American Conscience
- *Rashid Khalidi - Palestine: 40 Years of Occupation, 60 Years of Dispossession
- *Rep. Paul Findley Dares to Speak Out -- Again! AIPAC exposed
- *Salman Abu Sitta: Atlas Palestine
- *Salman Abu Sitta: The Geography of Occupation
- *Secret WMD in Israel
- *Technical Error at Beit Hanoun
- *Tegenlicht ('Backlight') A Documentary on the Israel Lobby -
- *The Bases Are Loaded: US Permanent Military Presence in Iraq
- *The Easiest Targets: The Israeli Policy of Strip Searching Women and Children
- *The influence of the Israel Lobby on American foreign policy
- *The Iron Wall
- *The Israeli Wall in Palestinian Lands
- *The Killing Zone
- *The Unrecognized
- *This is Not Your War
- *Wall of Shame
- Watch "If Americans Knew" Videos
- Watch Alternate Focus Videos
- Watch B'Tselem Videos
- watch ISM Videos
- Watch pdxjustice Videos
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6 comments:
I think it would be good if you hear the report again. Those participating and watching considered this dance festival as a way to remind the world Palestinians are here to stay - no siege, split, or military might is going to change that. I don't think it's appropriate for a people like the Palestinians to veto one another's way of resistance or expression of steadfastness. One does not negate the other.
Dear anonymous;
I took your advice and heard and watched the report again and again. See I would have agreed with you and some interviewed if those little over a dozen dance troops too their show to the next checkpoint or section of the apartheid wall. How can I tell someone in his/her tent in Gaza the P.A. encourages a dance show for their liberation. How can I tell someone sick in Gaza to forget the passport the P.A. refused to issue him/her for treatment abroad (whenever the Rafah crossing opens for a couple of hours or days.) How do you tell these people their brothers and sisters in Ramallah are dancing for them and it's a form of resistance. See my dilemma? You see, it was resistance when they danced in Safa last week during their their defense of the village against settlers. However, I'm not so sure about this one in Ramallah.
Again, I beg to differ. The Palestinian cause and identity is far larger than the confined yet split realities of the West Bank and Gaza. This is an expression of a people's history and their determination to hold on to it and show it off for what it is - an important contribution to world heritage. I think you are better advised to think of this event and the heartfelt efforts of the organizers, dancers, and dancing troupes, in this context. And by the way, Palestinians dance Dabkeh next to the wall and in activities against the wall, etc. - not just in the streets of Ramallah.
The political split between Hamas and the PA or Fatah has demeaned the Palestinians and their just cause and has turned them, their fate, and national aspirations, hostage to this split and violence.
But this people, these hostages, have a right to live and be creative - to do an activity for art's sake too; in the context again, of their expression that they are determined to live and be in their land.
What is happening in Gaza is the fault of politicians, not artists or dancers. It is the fault of those who are willing to put national aspirations in danger while they squabble over a fake authority under occupation.
Each and every person you saw in this report thinks about and aches for their brethren in Gaza; they don't have to be miserable and express that misery 24/7 to prove that. In that sense, you are equating between people in Ramallah with those in power - do you think that's fair or realistic? Or more, that this logic applies to Gaza? It doesn't. The reality is far more complex, intertwined.
I find it odd that you assume I was talking about how removed the festival was from the reality in Gaza alone. If you read my comments again you'd find I have done no such thing, your notions are preconceived and quite wrong. I was talking about how removed the Festival from the reality of the people in Gaza and Palestinians in General. Thus your talk about the split between Fatah and Hamas has no place in this argument and is quite irrelevant.
My whole point was related to the question of unity between the Artist, the expression of art (i.e. the festival in this case) and the observer (i.e. the receiver/Palestinians observing the festival locally or remotely)
My point was also in relation to the effectiveness and sincerity of this supposed art message in reaching the sole of the receiver, which is what art is all about.
Best regards and thank you for your comments.
I think you ran away from the point anonymous said. Most of your points where obviously political and directed in one direction. You mentioned Gaza repeatedly so I don’t think what you said about not talking about the split is sincere. The suffering people are experiencing in Gaza is primarily from the siege imposed by the Israeli occupation and I am quite surprised that you intend to absolve Israel from this responsibility. Equally people of Gaza are also suffering because control over their live was taken by force and ever since then they can’t breathe or speak without being absolutely terrified from the very real possibility of being executed, tortured or maimed and I refer you to the latest Human Rights Report plus the report of all Palestinian Human Rights Organisations. I don’t think that people in Gaza who are living in tents under God's mercy as you said, appreciate all the millions of dollars wasted in festivals of Gaza rulers party.....one final not, those living the reality of occupation day in and day out, don’t need to be reminded of it because every signal act of living they do is an act of defiance and resistance that hurt the occupation in its core…
ROFLMAO @ Abu Zionist, I only added you comment 'cause i needed at good laugh.
Now that I had that, go sow confusion somewhere else!
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