Homegrown hip-hop catching on among young Palestinians
Knight Ridder  | 9/28/05 | Dion Nissenbaum
 

The wanna-be gangsta boys arrive in baggy jeans and oversized T-shirts bearing the likeness of rapper Tupac Shakur, looking for a chance to freestyle with the night's star performers. The groupie girls in glittery tops throw their hands in the air, cheering on the breakdancers, when the hip-hop party is brought to a screeching halt:

Time for evening prayer.

Across the Gaza Strip, West Bank and even in Israel, young Arabic rappers are trying to juggle Middle East traditions with contemporary Western culture to create a political voice for their generation.

"It's the CNN of Palestine," says Tamer Nafar, a way to broadcast the news. Nafar, a skinny 26-year-old, is helping to turn Arabic hip-hop into an international phenomenon.

As a movement in its infancy, Palestinian hip-hop shares more in common with early American rap than the narcissistic, modern-day mainstream hip-hop that dominates MTV. Just as Public Enemy, N.W.A. and Ice-T created furors with songs such as "911 Is a Joke," "F-k Tha Police" and "Cop Killer," Palestinian rappers such as Nafar take a provocative, controversial approach with songs such as "Who's a Terrorist."

"You call me the terrorist?

Who's the terrorist?

I'm the terrorist?

How am I the terrorist

When you've taken my land?!

Who's the terrorist?

You're the terrorist!

You've taken everything I own

while I'm living in my homeland."

Nafar and his group DAM ("blood" in Arabic and Hebrew) are pioneers in the Palestinian hip-hop scene. They've generated a loyal following among Israelis and Palestinians by singing in Hebrew and Arabic.

"It's a form of nonviolent resistance," says William Youmans, a Palestinian-American rapper who performs as the Iron Sheik. "The idea is to provoke critical thinking and encourage people to look at these issues from the perspective of the victims."

Palestinian rap first blossomed in Israel, where Arab citizens like Nafar generally have greater freedom and opportunity than Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. But the conservative Gaza Strip - where alcohol is all but banned, movie theaters are nearly nonexistent and Islam is a foundation for many families - is proving to be fertile new ground for hip-hop.

Over the past year, rap groups such as R.F.M. and P.R. have been gradually moving from their bedrooms to restaurants, theaters and social group stages with messages that resonate in a society where half the population is under the age of 18.

"We're making something new for Gaza," said Rami Bakhit, one of three rappers in Gaza City's R.F.M. "It's the only way to talk in the street language to the youth who are going to build the Palestinian state."