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Palestinian Uprising Strikes Chord in Israeli Music - Reuters
by Gwen Ackerman
Dec. 24, 2002

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - "The land absorbs our blood and tears... but the SOB has yet to be born who can stop the state of Israel," raps a local hip hop star.

Hip hop, rooted in the urban ghettos of the United States, has become the voice of defiant Israeli youngsters whose social life has been jolted by suicide bombings in cafes, pubs and discos during a Palestinian uprising for statehood.

"Hip hop used to be too out there, too extreme, too non-conformist for the Israeli public," said Gad Gidor, artist and repertoire manager at Israel's Helicon Records. "Nowadays, it is like the rock and roll of Israel because (hip hop performers) dare to speak about things commercial artists don't," he said.

Take Subliminal and the Shadow, whose black album cover shows a muddy hand clutching a Star of David, a symbol of the Jewish state. "United we stand, divided we fall," is the theme of the popular album.

More mainstream Israeli singers do not ignore the more than two-year-old uprising but prefer to raise issues in a less confrontational style.

"They are not using it to raise the flag. Established artists are afraid of doing that because the country is too divided and they are bound to lose some audience if they are too clear about their opinions," said Gidor.

Shalom Hanoch, a rocker in his 50s, recently left an exit sign lit on stage for an entire concert, pointing to it and noting: "That is what we should do, but this is not a political concert." Hanoch was referring to an Israeli withdrawal from land it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

Young hip hop artists, however, can be more vocal than musicians like Hanoch since they have little to lose and can establish a following by sounding a political note.

PATRIOTIC RAP

Subliminal and the Shadow strike right-wing themes in their music. Their album incorporates a folksong from Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, celebrating the victory of the biblical Maccabee rebels over the Greek Syrian Seleucid empire.

"We have come to banish the darkness," the song goes.

On the other side of the political spectrum, rapper Mook E slams Israel's occupation of land which Palestinians want for a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"Everyone is talking about peace but no one is talking about justice," note the lyrics of one Mook E song.

Israel, "a small country with a lot of people with very big mouths," should prove fertile ground for the further development of hip hop now that the genre has broken into the mainstream, said Ari Ktorza, music editor for the Internet news site Ynet.

Discussion questions:

1. At a time when Israel is so divided, do you think it is appropriate that Israeli musicians are speaking out through their music against what Israel is doing?
2. Would hearing a song about the situation change your opinion about the subject? Would hearing one of these songs make you change your opinion on how the Israeli government is dealing with the situation with the Palestinians?
3. How do Israeli's singing out about hard times growing up compare to how Americans express their views through their music?

Kedoshim:

• Verse 23:
  You shall not follow the customs of the nation which I am expelling before you. For they have done all these above mentioned sins and I became disgusted with them.
• Verse 24:
  And I have said to you [that] you shall inherit their land, and I shall give it to you that you may inherit it, a land flowing with milk and honey, I am Ad-noy, your G-d who separated you from the [other] peoples.

Discussion questions:

1. Should Israel be a secular or a religious state?
2. Based on the verses above should Israel be a secular state?
3. How is Israel in its Government and laws different from that of the countries surrounding it?

"Messianic Jews"
February 22, 1993

A. Background
The Beresfords were born to Jewish parents in South Africa. In 1985 the couple applied for immigrant visas, and their application was turned down on the grounds that they are Messianic Jews. In 1986 they arrived in Israel as tourists, and another application for immigrant visas was refused for the same reason. An appeal to the High Court of Justice was rejected in 1989. Half a year later, the couple again appealed to the High Court, and only a few months ago this appeal was also rejected. The Beresfords have been staying in Israel on tourist visas, and these visas will expire on February 20, 1993. Two other families of Messianic Jews, the Kendalls and the Speakmans, joined the Beresfords' second suit and therefore also have the same status now.

The Beresfords have asked to immigrate to Israel as Jews under the Law of Return. The law defines a Jew as a person who was born to a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism. The law also guarantees citizenship under the Law of Return to relatives of Jews, so that families can stay together despite differences in religion. (This is why many immigrants from the former Soviet Union are issued immigrant visas even though they are not Jewish.) However, a person who was Jewish and converted voluntarily to another religion is deemed to have thereby declared his or her desire to dissociate from the Jewish people; consequently, the Law of Return does not apply to such a person.

The Beresfords belong to a group that believes that Jesus is the Messiah. This belief is what marks the clear separation between Judaism and Christianity. Belief that Jesus is the Messiah cannot be reconciled with Judaism. The couple chose this faith, and the State of Israel respects their choice. However, they are not considered Jews, since they have voluntarily converted, and they are therefore not eligible to move to Israel as Jews.

B. Points to Stress

1. Israel does not discriminate on the basis of religious affiliation or creed. Christian and Muslim citizens and permanent residents of Israel enjoy full equal rights.
2. Messianic Jews also live in Israel with equal rights. (There are over 2,000 such people.) The families discussed here have never been citizens or permanent residents, but only tourists. Israeli law does not entitle them to Israeli citizenship.
3. This is not a deportation of citizens or residents. It is a removal from Israel of foreign tourists whose visas have expired.
4. Every democratic country in the world reserves the exclusive right to determine who is eligible to enter its territory and who is eligible for citizenship or residency. These families do not meet any of the criteria stipulated in the law. The humanitarian grounds that, the families claim, justify their remaining in Israel were investigated seriously by the court and the Government and were found unpersuasive.

Discussion questions:

1. Do you think these families should be able to live in Israel?
2. Do you think Israel is discriminating against those who are Messianic Jews?
3. Should Messianic Jews be entitled under the law of return because they believe that they are Jewish?

When Chaim Weizmann was asked of his understanding of the "national home" referred to the Balfour Declaration, he answered: "the country [Palestine] should be Jewish in the same way that France is French and Britain is British."

1. Strongly agree
2. agree
3. don't care
4. disagree
5. strongly disagree

And Why?