Beating McChurch With Culture!

Cultural Resistance

by Sani P. Meo (Excerpts)
Augu st 2007 This Week in Palestine

Palestine was culturally alive and kicking this past July. Most warm summer
nights in East Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus were filled with
shows that were performed not only by some of the best local Palestinian
music and dance groups but also by renowned international groups from
Europe, South Africa and other countries.

Festivals were frozen last year because of the tensions caused by the
Israeli-Hezbollah war. This year , however, the festivals are back in full
swing and contribute to the conscious effort that is being made to break
down barriers and reach out to the world at large through culture.
International groups expressed their spirit of solidarity through welcoming
speeches and the interviews that they granted to the media. For instan ce,
when Nigel Kennedy, the renowned English violinist, was asked by an Israeli
newspaper why he had accepted the invitation of the Jerusal em Festival 2007
and declined several Israeli invitations, he had this to say: “Today I was
really shocked when I saw the Wall here. It's a new type of apartheid,
barbaric behavior. How can you impose collective punishment and divide
people from one another? We are all residents of the same planet. I would
think that the world learned something from South Africa. And the world
should boycott a nation that didn't learn. That's why I won't perform in
your country.” Later in the same interview, Kennedy also added: “The
concert tonight is very emotional because I am performing for people who are
imprisoned. To give them two hours of fun and show them that the world has
not forgotten about them.”

Despite the “regular” Israeli harassment of some of the groups upon their
arrival in the countr y, which required intense intervention from top foreign
diplomats who represent the countries of each group, the feisty
international bands also played a big role in breathing life into all the
cities and towns in which they performed.

The message of the festivals to all concerned parties was loud and clear; as
long as the Palestinian people aspire to cultural excellence, they will not
be defeated.