More Hip Hop in Israel

Last night I went to a concert in Ramle to celebrate Human Rights week held by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.



















The artists were both Palestinian and Israeli, and it was so amazing that regardless of nationality, everyone spoke and performed in Arabic and Hebrew and sometimes even English.

I finally got to meet Saz!
He's as wonderful in person as I imagined.









DAM also performed as well in addition to Israeli rappers like Sagol 59.













After the concert, we went out with a few of the performers including Saz and talked about the hip hop scene in Jerusalem. Mostly I talked with an Israeli rapper, and it was interesting because he mentioned that almost all the inter-cultural musical events were set up by Israelis, but he had never been invited to perform at a Palestinian concert though he's performed several times with Arab and Palestinian rappers, and he's a good friend of Saz.

It almost made up for the fact that I missed the European-Palestinian Hip Hop tour in Ramallah and Bethlehem.























Also, check out Shadia Mansour!

I must say, this internship is not so shabby.

Five-Star Prison

Today is the first day of classes!


Yesterday, I spent the afternoon in Ramallah with an Arab-Israeli friend of mine.

During rush hour, it took us around 40 minutes from the Muslim Quarter in the Old City to arrive in Ramallah, but on the way back, it only took 15 minutes including our stop at the checkpoint to get back to the Student Village.

It's weird to think of visiting the Ramallah as portrayed by the media as the center of the First and Second Intifadas. Aside from the omnipresence of abandoned construction sites and a checkpoint to get out, it seemed like a regular city just like any other.

It reminded me of a less crowded and smaller version of Cairo or Alexandria with a bustling downtown area, and I felt like I was in a totally different country than Israel just a few miles away. I guess I was in a different country.

We drove next to the Israeli-West Bank separation barrier, went to a mini-mall, visited the tomb of Yasser Arafat, ate some delicious Lebanese food, walked around the streets of downtown Ramallah, and found a nice restaurant to smoke shisha before heading back to Jerusalem.

I learned a few things during my trip:

• The choice of toy for little boys in Ramallah (and in much of the Muslim Quarter in the Old City for that matter) is plastic guns.

• The malls are catered almost entirely to the youth population, which makes up around 50% of the demographics in West Bank and more in Gaza.

• Palestinians like to construct multi-leveled buildings in the West Bank because in Jerusalem they are limited to building only three-story buildings. However, the Israeli government can find any arbitrary reason to halt construction, or more often raze the building even if it is located in the West Bank after money and time are spent. Also, there were some very beautiful apartment buildings that must have cost a fortune to build but are now nearly worthless as they are behind the separation barrier. These explained the multitude of half-built buildings everywhere.

During lunch, I asked my friend if there were any universities in the West Bank and why he was studying at Hebrew University. He explained that there were plenty of universities around the West Bank and in the settlements, but as an Arab-Israeli, he wasn't welcome at them.

So, I remember being first confronted with the term "Arab-Israeli" soon after arriving in Jerusalem by some other Arab-Israelis living in the Student Village. I was confused by their vehement reaction to my asking them if they were Palestinians. I understood that maybe they wanted to prove their right to be in Israel or their "Israeli-ness", but I was thrown off by the rancor in associating themselves with Palestinians.

• I asked my friend after apologizing for sounding ignorant, but what was the difference between Arab-Israelis and Palestinians? He explained that Arab-Israelis are citizens of Israel albeit second-class citizens who live in Israel, and they carry around blue ID cards. Palestinians on the other hand, carried a different ID card and are not Israeli citizens. Therefore, Palestinians in the West Bank see Arab-Israelis almost as traitors while Jewish-Israelis see them as Palestinians.
  

Arab-Israelis are stuck in a sort of limbo in a strange hierarchy where they aren't welcomed by either side.

edit: most Arab-Israelis in East Jerusalem are permanent legal residents as opposed to Israeli citizens

Finally, I must comment on my first check-point experience. The check-point station is right outside of Ramallah, and we had to climb out of the bus and wait in a line to have our ID cards checked by the IDF.

My Arab-Israeli friends had told me their personal horror stories dealing with checkpoints, and so I was not surprised to see them overcome such a frustrating situation with humor. One of them is a big football-playing type, and on the possibility of getting strip-searched he lamented, "I forgot to wear my thong today." although others were less than jovial about waiting in the queu.

We walked through a narrow cage-like passage, put our bags through an x-ray machine and proceeded through a metal detector to show the IDF soldiers behind bulletproof glass our ID cards. It was surprisingly easier and faster than I expected; though really, the process depends on the mood of the guard on duty that day.

Next time , I think I'll go visit Jericho.



Also, here are some interesting articles I found through other blogs (although one is from last year):

The road to peace

on the new Prime Minister Livni

(picture on top from: here )