International Journal of Research in Social Sciences
Year : 2016, Volume : 6, Issue : 7
First page : ( 442) Last page : ( 454)
Online ISSN : 2249-2496.

Music and Politics: Popular Music in Palestine and Israel Since 1967

Dr. Al-Salim Farid

History Program, Department of Humanities, College of Arts & Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

Online published on 25 October, 2016.

Abstract

Over the 40 years since the 1967 War, which redrew the map of the Middle East and engineered a future of violence, Israelis and Palestinians have subtly but significantly changed how they use popular music to envision the ongoing conflict for land and identity. Initially, both sides used music to convey their irreconcilable differences and encourage resistance through monolithic, highly nationalistic characterization of the conflict, which expressed devotion to reclaiming or defending physical place, particularly Jerusalem. While this nationalist tradition still continues on both sides, by the late 1970s the message and even the actual musical style employed by a growing number of Palestinian and Israeli artists began to converge to express a mutual desire for peace and reconciliation through the creation of a shared cultural space, a realm of cooperation which transcends the territorial dispute between the two groups, to advocate a larger goal of cooperation and harmony across the Middle East.

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