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Music You’d Kill For?
By Yaffa Fredrick, New Jersey
Victor Hugo once wrote, "Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." However, I wonder if he would have included the advocacy of violence in lyrics sung by Palestinian rap artists from Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.
"Where are the Arab people... forgetting about our martyrs, wounded, prisoners," sings a group that some equate with an Arab version of Eminem. RFM's music may not be many American parents' first choice for their children's listening pleasure but angst-ridden American teenagers listen nonetheless.
" Music sees us through the good times, but does it promote the bad times?" -Yaffa Fredrick
The major question posed by Palestinian rap groups, such as R.F.M., is whether they should be held accountable for the consequent actions of loyal fans? When RFM's Rami Bahkit promotes homicide bombings, and an 18 year old decides to do it, is Bahkit to blame?
After the Columbine shootings in Littleton, (Co), many people in the media pointed a finger at Marilyn Manson as the source of inspiration for this heinous crime. Manson lashed back. "It is sad to think that the first few people on earth needed no books, movies, games or music to inspire cold-blooded murder," Manson wrote in Rolling Stone. "The day that Cain bashed his brother Abel's brains in, the only motivation he needed was his own human disposition to violence."
In fact Manson went as far to say that the American people are directly responsible for all high school shootings. When American society sits back and tolerates children owning guns and then tunes in to watch what they do with those guns, they are just as guilty as the trigger happy teenagers. Some might say Manson was trying to dodge the bullet however, he has a point. In a country that prides itself on guaranteeing freedom of speech, musical artists cannot be targeted for encouraging violence or rebellion in a line of particular song.
Gaza is not the United States though. Gaza is a place where alcohol is practically illegal and 50% of its residents are unemployed. It is the classic breeding ground for hate - a place where ‘let's use the Jews as a scapegoat' is historical indoctrination.
Here Arab Eminems fuel the anti-Semitism flame. Yet it seems unfair to place sole responsibility on Arab rappers. If we are going to serve as Israeli prosecutors, we must also consider the other rebel rousers, such as the kindergarten teachers that teach poems which require the screaming of lines such as, "Kill the Jews! Spill their blood!" or the parents that read to their first graders bedtime stories entitled, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Many Jews want to find the one person they can blame for the baseless hatred that has claimed the lives of their closest family members and friends. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as a 19 year old rapper from Gaza. Yes, R.F.M. and P.R. have relatively large followings, but no homicide bombings have yet been linked to either group. Perhaps now is the time to act, before groups like these actually instigate a major attack. Yet somehow I think our biggest battle should be waged on the Palestinian educational system that reaches far more impressionable children than a small rap trio.
Golda Meir used to say, "There cannot be peace with the Palestinians until they learn to love their children more than they hate us." The cause of Palestinian aggression is not a song that asks, "Where are the angry Arabs?" If anything, such a song just vocalizes a belief already held by many Palestinians.
A simple solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is about as likely as winning a million dollars playing slot machines in Las Vegas. If we were to remove hate-spewing rap artists, would the problem of Arab hatred cease to exist? There is no doubt in my mind that such hatred would continue to burn in the hearts of many disgruntled Arabs. The Jews have something they want and despite our offers to share, they say, NO.
