October 1957: University of Arkansas Student Senate Disinvites Louis Armstrong

In a previous post on cultural diplomacy, I referred to Penny Von Eschen's book, Satchmo Blows Up the World. At the time, I had not read it, although I had read Von Eschen's article, "Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz, Race, and Empire during the Cold War," in Wagnleitner and May. Now I have read the book--that's how I spent part of yesterday, the 4th of July. (Go here for an interview with Von Eschen about the book.)

One of the tidbits I learned in this enormously informative book has to do with the University of Arkansas, where I have been teaching since 1996. And it has to do with the incident referred to in the earlier post. I quote again from the New York Times article I referred to earlier: [Louis] Armstrong canceled a 1957 trip to Moscow after President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to send federal troops to Little Rock, Ark., to enforce school-integration laws. 'The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell,' he said. 'It’s getting so bad, a colored man hasn’t got any country.'

Armstrong also had some choice words for Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, who had ordered National Guard units to Little Rock's Central High, to prevent African American students from entering the school. In an interview with student journalist Larry Loubenow in North Dakota, Armstrong called Faubus a "no-good motherfucker," which was toned down for mass consumption in the press as "uneducated plowboy."

Eisenhower eventually did send troops in to Litle Rock, and Armstrong praised his actions. But he continued to blast Faubus. In October 1957, Armstrong and his manager gave an interview, in which they discussed the fact that Satchmo was booked to play at the University of Arkansas, where had played at the U of A two years earlier. ("A History of the Arkansas Traveler," an account of the U of A student newspaper.) According to Von Eschen, Armstrong added that he'd rather play in the USSR than in Arkansas, since in Arkansas, "Faubus might hear a couple of notes--and he doesn't deserve that." In response, the University of Arkansas Student Senate canceled the concert.

Here's how the "A History of the Arkansas Traveler," an account of the U of A student newspaper, tells the story:

The Traveler reported that Armstrong’s manager in New York had referred to the new contract as “a great moral victory” and that Armstrong had told the press that he resented that Governor Faubus would be listening “to those beautiful notes that will come from my horn...He doesn’t deserve them.”

The statements caused a disturbance among the white students and administrators. Jack Davis, the president of Associated Students, and D. Whitney Halladay, the dean of students, said they did not expect an entertainment contract to be used as a “springboard for ill-advised statements” or that it would involve the student body, the university or the state in controversy. The Student Senate met that day and voted to rescind the contract with Armstrong and was backed up by President John Tyler Caldwell. In The Traveler’s first editorial page following the incident, the editor supported the Student Senate’s “prompt efficient action” in canceling Armstrong’s contract:

Hasty and ill-advised ventures have in the past given the University a shaky reputation with many people downstate. To uphold the Armstrong contract would be taken by many as approval of derogatory remarks about Arkansas and its chief executive. This, the University cannot afford. ... Your senate proved to be more than a group whose chief function is to select queens and send delegates to conventions. It showed itself to be a clear thinking governing body with the best interests of the school and state at heart.

The "History" goes on to report on a letter to The Traveler that said that this step put Arkansas in the same league as Mississippi and the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, the dis-invitation doesn't seem all that dated or "sooooo nineteen-fifties" to me, given all the recent cancellation of Desmond Tutu's scheduled lecture at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota (because he is too critical of Israel), and all the other sorts of campaigns against scholars like Nadia Abou El-Haj, Joseph Massad, and Norman Finkelstein. What is, unfortunately, a bit unusual about this case is that it is one in which a major, much-beloved popular musician takes a political stand, and takes heat, and loses money, for it.

Jazz great Charles Mingus (who also served as a jazz ambassador) had these choice comments about Faubus, in the lyrics from his great 1960 recording, "Fables of Faubus":

Oh, Lord, don’t let ‘em shoot us! Oh, Lord, don’t let ‘em stab us! Oh, Lord, don’t let ‘em tar and feather us! Oh, Lord, no more swastikas! Oh, Lord, no more Ku Klux Klan! Name me someone who’s ridiculous, Dannie. Governor Faubus! Why is he so sick and ridiculous? He won’t permit integrated schools. Then he’s a fool! Boo! Nazi Fascist supremists! Boo! Ku Klux Klan (with your Jim Crow plan) Name me a handful that’s ridiculous, Dannie Richmond. -Faubus-Rockefeller-Eisenhower Why are they so sick and ridiculous? Two, four, six, eight: They brainwash and teach you hate. H-E-L-L-O–Hello.

To read more, and to hear the song, go here.

Anthropocene, Sultans & Emirs

Some excerpts from Mike Davis' recent, apocalyptic, very scary account of the end of the Holocene and the onset of the Anthropocene. Be sure to read the entire account.


"...Whether or not we are actually at the summit of Hubbert's Peak--that peak oil moment--whether or not the oil-price bubble finally bursts, what we are probably witnessing is the largest transfer of wealth in modern history. An eminent Wall Street oracle, McKinsey Global Institute, predicts that if crude oil prices remain above $100 per barrel--they are, at the moment, approaching $140 a barrel--the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council alone will "reap a cumulative windfall of almost $9 trillion by 2020." As in the 1970s, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors, whose total gross domestic product has almost doubled in just three years, are awash in liquidity: $2.4 trillion in banks and investment funds according to a recent estimate by The Economist. Regardless of price trends, the International Energy Agency predicts, "more and more oil will come from fewer and fewer countries, primarily the Middle East members of OPEC [The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries]."

Dubai, which has little oil income of its own, has become the regional financial hub for this vast pool of wealth, with ambitions to eventually compete with Wall Street and the City of London. During the first oil shock in the 1970s, much of OPEC's surplus was recycled through military purchases in the United States and Europe, or parked in foreign banks to become the "subprime" loans that eventually devastated Latin America. In the wake of the attacks of 9/11, the Gulf states became far more cautious about entrusting their wealth to countries, like the United States, governed by religious fanatics. This time around, they are using "sovereign wealth funds" to achieve a more active ownership in foreign financial institutions, while investing fabulous amounts of oil revenue to transform Arabia's sands into hyperbolic cities, shopping paradises, and private islands for British rock stars and Russian gangsters.

Two years ago, when oil prices were less than half of the current level, The Financial Times estimated that planned new construction in Saudi Arabia and the emirates already exceeded $1 trillion dollars. Today, it may be closer to $1.5 trillion, considerably more than the total value of world trade in agricultural products. Most of the Gulf city-states are building hallucinatory skylines--and, among them, Dubai is the unquestionable superstar. In a little more than a decade, it has erected 500 skyscrapers, and currently leases one-quarter of all the high-rise cranes in the world.

This super-charged Gulf boom, which celebrity architect Rem Koolhaas claims is "reconfiguring the world," has led Dubai developers to proclaim the advent of a "supreme lifestyle" represented by seven-star hotels, private islands, and J-class yachts. Not surprisingly, then, the United Arab Emirates and its neighbors have the biggest per capita ecological footprints on the planet. Meanwhile, the rightful owners of Arab oil wealth, the masses crammed into the angry tenements of Baghdad, Cairo, Amman, and Khartoum, have little more to show for it than a trickle-down of oil-field jobs and Saudi-subsidized madrassas. While guests enjoy the $5,000 per night rooms in Burj Al-Arab, Dubai's celebrated sail-shaped hotel, working-class Cairenes riot in the streets over the unaffordable price of bread."

Interjection: Is it time to bring back into print Fred Halliday's Arabia Without Sultans? Or for someone to pen a volume 2? Definitely time to revive the sentiment...

Back to Mike Davis:

"...the wealthy oil enclave of Abu Dhabi (like Dubai, a partner in the United Arab Emirates) brags that it has planted more than 130 million trees--each of which does its duty in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, this artificial forest in the desert also consumes huge quantities of irrigation water produced, or recycled, from expensive desalination plants. The trees may allow Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed to wear a halo at international meetings, but the rude fact is that they are an energy-intensive beauty strip, like most of so-called green capitalism....

Will the electorates of the wealthy nations shed their current bigotry and walled borders to admit refugees from predicted epicenters of drought and desertification like the Maghreb, Mexico, Ethiopia, and Pakistan? Will Americans, the most miserly people when measured by per capita foreign aid, be willing to tax themselves to help relocate the millions likely to be flooded out of densely settled, mega-delta regions like Bangladesh?...

Even in the most optimistic simulations, the agricultural systems of Pakistan (a 20 percent decrease from current farm output predicted) and Northwestern India (a 30 percent decrease) are likely to be devastated, along with much of the Middle East, the Maghreb, the Sahel belt, Southern Africa, the Caribbean and Mexico. Twenty-nine developing countries will lose 20 percent or more of their current farm output to global warming, while agriculture in the already rich north is likely to receive, on average, an 8 percent boost."

(All italics are mine.)

Review of Natacha Atlas' "Ana Hina"

Here's a link to a very laudatory review of Natacha Atlas' Ana Hina, by Gérald Arnaud, published by Africultures. Unfortunately for the monolingual reader, it is published in French.

It's a very useful review, but without wanting to detract from its overall worthiness, I'd like to quibble with a couple details:

Natacha was not raised in Morocco, but in the Moroccan and Jewish districts of Belgium.

The author claims that in Egypt during the 1920s, at the same time that the Muslim Brothers were inventing "ethnocentric Islamism," "music brothers" were creating the exact opposite: a culture that mixed harmoniously the traditions of the West and the East. I don't particularly care for this rather careless binary opposition: "intolerant" Brothers vs. "tolerant" and "open-minded" musicians. The Muslim Brothers, for all their faults, played an important role in opposing, and overthrowing, the venal and corrupt Egyptian monarchy which kowtowed to the British colonialists. In addition, some of the renowned Egyptian musicians who were responsible for incorporating "Western" sounds into Egyptian music were considered tainted by their association with the Egyptian aristocracy, most particularly Mohamed Abdel Wahab. Moreover, the musical mixing of East and West was not a "harmonious" process, but one that was highly contested and argued over. Abdel Wahab was often considered to have gone too far towards Westernization in the process, whereas Umm Kulthum was much more cautious about introducing such elements. (See Virginia Danielson's "The Voice of Egypt": Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century for an account of some of these debates.)

Arnaud also claims that reviewers have trashed Ana Hina in the US and the UK--but I can't find any evidence of this. Only very favorable reviews, like this one from the BBC, which states: "Ana Hina is set to be one of the year's finest albums." I agree.

MTV Arabia and Kufiyas

I returned from Palestine/Israel on the 24th. While there I had the opportunity to see Palestinian hip-hoppers G-town perform, and to spend part of a day in the Shu'afat refugee camp with bandleader Muhammad and a couple other members of the group (Giant M and Dr. E). (I hope in the future to write a post with more info about G-town.)

Muhammad told me that he doesn't think much of local (Palestinian) radio or television, but he really likes MTV Arabia, and especially the program, "Hiphopna" (Arabic for "our hip-hop"). Otherwise, satellite t.v. programs in Arabic don't cover Arab rap. (There are an amazing number of Arab satellite stations, many of which play lots and lots of music, but in all my time flipping channels, I never saw any videos or performances of Arab rap, or any non-mainstream music, for that matter.) So, it would appear that US corporation MTV is filling a significant gap in coverage of an important local(ized) popular musical form.

I had an interesting conversation about MTV Arabia (launched in November 2007) with Omar in Ramallah this Monday, the day I departed. He noted that the veejays on "Hiphopna" often wear kufiyas--but that the show doesn't play any Palestinian rap. Although during my six weeks in Israel/Palestine, I always stayed in places with lots of satellite stations, I had not seen MTV Arabia. I did some hunting yesterday, and found some video clips featuring one of the vj's--Palestinian-American Fredwreck (Farid Nassar)--wearing a cap with a kufiya pattern, as well as the photo above. (Fredwreck is wearing a red kufiya cap here, in a "Jeddah episode.")

Omar is doing research on the subject of the US use of hip-hop in cultural diplomacy. (I highly look forward to seeing the published results of this research.) His research suggests that those of interested in imperialism and cultural politics in the Middle East should be paying close attention to phenomena like MTV Arabia. Whereas it has become more or less conventional wisdom that US government-sponsored efforts like TV satellite channel al-Hurra and Radio Sawa have been failures (see Marc Lynch's latest post here), corporate efforts to accomplish roughly the same goal have been little criticized, as far as I can tell. (After talking to Omar, I am somewhat more skeptical about the positive uses of hip-hop for US cultural diplomacy than is Marc Lynch--see his latest thoughts here.)

So, here's a provisional estimate of what is going on with MTV Arabia. (Inshallah, someone will do or is doing some serious research on this, and will be able to make a more definitive analysis. Hell, I don't really even have much data!)

MTV Arabia's show fills a gaping hole: it broadcasts and disseminates Arab hip-hop, something no other Arab media, whether radio or satellite television, is doing. So it's a US corporation that gets credit for filling this critical cultural vacuum. And in turn this US corporation determines which Arab hip-hop artists are going to get wide play. (And which are not: to wit, politicized Palestinian rappers, like the very influential DAM, not to mention all the others. And I don't know which others.) Mind you, hip-hop style, particularly when it comes to clothing, is ubiquitous in the Middle East, and hip-hop is very popular among Arab youth. And hip-hop, of course, has "rebellious" and "authentic" resonances, given its history in the US. It is this aura of realness, oppositionality and hipness that hip-hop music and style can trade on as hip-hop circulates abroad. The corporate reality of hip-hop, as documented by astute observers like Jeff Chang, on the other hand, is not well known, and rather cleverly disguised. It therefore makes sense that MTV Arabia veejay Fredwreck might deploy hip-hop's "radical" credentials as well as evoke Palestine by flying his kufiya flag--at the same time as corporate interests are promoted and Palestinian hip-hop in particular gets erased or ignored.

I in no way mean to diss the hip-hop talents of Omar Boflot, the Egyptian rapper who was voted the top MC by Hiphopna's judging committee or Lebanon's MC Zoog, voted the "people's choice," at the end of the show's first season. (See ArabianBusiness.com's report here.) Both demonstrate skills, and I'm glad that the show has brought them to prominence. Omar Boflot honed his rapping abilities in Ghana. Check him out performing on the final episode of season one of Hiphopna here:

(But on the other hand, I'd still rather listen to the likes of DAM, or Clotaire K or Rayyes Bek from Lebanon, or MBS or Lotfi Double Kanon from Algeria, or any number of rappers from Morocco like Bigg or Muslim or Fnaire.)

I also don't want to diss the kufiya-wearing Fredwreck. He's Palestinian-American, and so unlike many hip-hoppers who have donned the kufiya, we can be sure that he understands what its symbolism is all about. Moreover, Fredwreck has not been afraid to articulate his opinions about Palestine--which he had visited three times as of fall 2006--when interviewed. For instance, here's what he had to say when interviewed by dubcnn in September 2006:

It’s like apartheid all over again you know what I’m saying but worse. They’re just stealing peoples' land out there and the people fight back they want to ask “oh they’re being terrorists” you know saying “they’re trying to attack us” but you know who attacked who first? You know who occupied whose country? Israel. And like this week you have the United Nations here and the United Nations have not one time…Just any country from the United Nations was to let happen to them what has happened in Palestine, I don’t know what those countries would do so it’s a really sad situation out there.

Moreover, Fredwreck, who is best known for his production work with Tha Dogg Pound, also launched a hip-hop effort to oppose the US invasion of Iraq, known as the STOP Movement. It resulted in, among other things, the release of two anti-war rap songs featuring the likes of KRS-One, Everlast, Mobb Deep and the Alchemist. (Download "Dear Mr. President" here and "Down with Us" here.)

There is even a surprising acknowledgement of Fredwreck's Palestine politics on the MTV Arabia website. The short description of Fredwreck says that "'he now counts his favourite city as Al Kods (occupied Jerusalem)..." "Occupied Jerusalem"!? Can we expect some right-wing attacks on MTV for its anti-Semitism?

But despite Fredwreck's personal politics, ultimately, I think, his kufiya baseball caps, and his Snoop Dogg affiliations, just provide MTV Arabia with a superficial patina of street cred and rebellion. (As do the green tips for living that are listed on the MTV Arabia website under "Social Campaign.") All in the interest of US (imperial) cultural diplomacy and corporate profit.

As I finish this, I have, as it happens, just read an article about an earlier era of cultural diplomacy in the Sunday New York Times. It concerns a photo exhibit that focuses on the State Department's deployment of "jazz ambassadors" in the era of the Cold War (check out the amazing slide show here--you don't see these photos in the print edition--except for the Armstrong which I've reproduced).

What struck me (and I'm guided in this thinking by my discussions with Omar) is that whereas the jazz musicians were willing to play abroad on behalf of the US government, they weren't simply puppets. Rather, they were quite politically aware. For instance:

"[Louis] Armstrong canceled a 1957 trip to Moscow after President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to send federal troops to Little Rock, Ark., to enforce school-integration laws. 'The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell,' he said. 'It’s getting so bad, a colored man hasn’t got any country.'

Administration officials feared that this broadside, especially from someone so genial as 'Ambassador Satchmo,' would trigger a diplomatic disaster. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles told Attorney General Herbert Brownell that the situation in Arkansas was 'ruining our foreign policy.' Two weeks later, facing pressure from many quarters, Eisenhower sent the National Guard to Arkansas. Armstrong praised the move and agreed to go on a concert tour of South America."

Louis Armstrong in Cairo, 1961 (credit: Louis Armstrong House Museum)

The article goes on to discuss current US government efforts to deploy US musicians as cultural ambassadors, but unfortunately focuses mostly on jazz musicians and not on the hip-hop ones. Again--and I am informed here by my discussions with Omar--I'm skeptical that any US hip-hop ambassador, whether corporate sponsored or government sponsored, would show the political integrity and acumen of the likes of Satchmo.

ADDENDUM (July 2): I should have mentioned that the canonical study of the US "jazz ambassadors" is Penny M. Von Eschen's Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War. I am told that a film based on this subject is in the works.

New Release from Natacha Atlas: "Ana Hina"

It's always an exciting event when a new Natacha Atlas album is released. Ana Hina is already out in Europe, but not due to be released on CD in the US until September. Fortunately, you can purchase downloads, from iTunes or amazon.com or emusic.com.

In some ways, Ana Hina represents a continuation of what Natacha has been up to since the beginning, "fusions" of Western and Eastern music. The difference is that this album represents more of a look backward, a "revival" of earlier fusion traditions. In particular, those of Abdel Halim Hafez (Egypt) and Fairuz (Lebanon). So rather than Arabic tunes set to reggae or hip-hop or dance beats, Natacha returns this time to famous East/West fusions that go back fifty years or so. As Natacha explained when she performed some of this material in Chicago in September 2006, she wants to show that East/West fusion isn't something "new" but something that musicians in the Middle East have practiced for decades.

My favorite tracks on this album are the 'Abdel Halim tunes and one of the Fairuz numbers. All of them are done pretty much as straight covers, as tributes, not deviating in any remarkable way the originals. (The bandleader, pianist and arranger, as in Chicago, is Harvey Brough, and the band plays all acoustic instruments.) When Natacha introduced the 'Abdel Halim Hafez songs that she performed in Chicago, she said what attracted her was their jazz feel. "Bayni wa Baynak Eh?" (What is there between us?) is a well-known 'Abdel Halim song, whose instrumental riff, if you can believe it, is drawn from the Woody Woodpecker cartoon theme song! (Thanks to Martin Stokes for this information.) The Woody Woodpecker influence is somewhat stronger in the Abdel Halim original. Check it out for yourself: here is Woody Woodpecker, and here's Abdel Halim. (For the lyrics to "Bayni wa Baynak Eh?", go here.) The other Abdel Halim song Natacha does is "Al-Aseel," a somewhat lesser-known song, and even more jazzy than "Bayni wa Baynak Eh?" (Listen to the original here.) Of the three Fairuz covers ("Ya Laure Hobouki," "Le Teetab Alayi," and "La Shou El Haki"), my favorite is "La Shou El Haki" (Why this talk?). Written and arranged by the Rahbani brothers, it has that typical light, snappy feel that is so characteristic of their work. The other song I particularly like is "Hayati Inta Reprise," a cover of a song on Natacha's previous album, Mish Maoul. Particularly effective on this track is the accordion work, and especially the solo, of Gamal Kurdi (who used to play accordion with Abdel Halim Hafez.)

These were the highlights for me, but all the tracks are of a consistently high quality. "Lammebada," the opening number, is a revered song from the Arab Andalusian tradition, that has been recorded numerous times. Check out Catalonian singer Maria del Mar Bonet's live version, on youtube. It has also been recorded by La Mar Enfortuna, who opened for Natacha at the Old Town School of Folk Music in September 2006. I'm never fully convinced by tracks recorded by Natacha in English, but her version of Nina Simone's "Black is the Color" is serviceable. Also worth mentioning is the very pretty, "He Hesitated," an anti-war song, which is about a soldier pondering whether or not to shoot.

If you are familiar with Abdel Halim Hafez and Fairuz, you might think, like one of my Palestinian friends does, that Natacha's versions are pale imitations. My response is, no, Natacha isn't Abdel Halim or Fairuz, nor does she pretend to be. She is doing tributes to their music and their spirit. I think they are admirable renditions, and I fully endorse the idea of trying to bring their artistry and their tradition of cultural openness to Western audiences. This is a great recording, and I recommend it highly. Check it out, and then go seek out the originals as well.

International “Wear Your Kaffiyeh With Pride” Day: June 6

I only learned about this event today, organized in England by iMuslim, in response to the Dunkin' Donuts kufiya flap. Read about it here. I have no idea how many people donned kufiyas in response.

Meanwhile, check out Lorraine Ali's excellent commentary in Newsweek on the DD/Rachael Ray kufiya spat. Some choice excerpts:

Shouldn't we be more offended that Ray was shilling their weak iced coffee, a beverage that should be criticized for impersonating, well, iced coffee. But cries of "Bad java!" just don't seem to catch the attention the way racist rhetoric against Arabs and Muslims does...It's doubtful the ad would have been pulled if a handful of critics found Ray's garb too Hispanic or too African-American. The groups themselves would have been dismissed as bigoted or insane.

Mutamassik & Morgan Craft in Sweden

Check out this vid of Morgan Craft and Mutamassik performing at the Clandestino Festival in Gothenberg (Göteborg) Sweden. It's a kufiyaspotting; it's a desert camouflage spotting; it's avant-garde agit-prop. It reminds me, for some reason, of Jimi Hendrix doing "Machine Gun."(Thanks, Giulia.)

Keep your eyes and ears out for Mutamassik's forthcoming release, That Which Death Cannot Destroy. In the meanwhile, download the teasers from RoughAmericana.

"Hate Couture": A Kufiya Slideshow from the Sidney Morning Herald

Despite the awful title, this is a pretty decent slide show about kufiya fashion, politics, and history, from an Australian perspective. (Thanks to Wayne, who alerted me to this over 10 days ago.) The report was inspired by the Rachael Ray/Dunkin' Donuts flap.

The report has good visuals (and if you look closely, you will notice that at least a couple are taken from previous postings on hawblawg). Nice soundtrack (Goldfrapp and Palestinian rap group DAM). Informed commentary from a Palestinian-Australian. And interviews with various young Australian kufiya wearers, who know...absolutely nothing about the history or political significance of the kufiya.











And in case you completists missed this one, here's German actress and former fashion model Diane Kruger decked out in her kufiya (I learned about this from the slideshow.)

More kufiya (and hijab) fashion: Art Basel Parties

I can't 'grab' this photo from the terribly trendy art parties in Basel, so go here. This is found in the Fashion & Style section of the New York Times. Thanks, Kelley.

But also check these out. Are this and this further examples of hijab chic, or maybe even niqab chic?! You tell me.

Palestinian Hip-Hop: G-town

Yesterday I finally got to attend a live performance of Palestinian rap, by G-town, from Shua'fat. They performed at the French Cultural Center (FCC), on Salah El-Din Street, in East Jerusalem. The event was part of the FCC sponsored program, Fête de la Musique en Palestine, and it was opened by Jack Lang, former Minister of French Culture! (Lang used to make efforts to promote French rap, back in the day.)

I was very glad to make the discovery of this group--which only happened because I happened to walk by the FCC the day before, and saw the advertisement for the event. G-town are quite good, charismatic performers, interesting lyrics that mostly have to do with Palestinian concerns, and good beats. The venue was not ideal for a hip-hop event--the garden of the FCC seems more suitable for sedate cocktail parties and the life. But the band was enthusiastic, if a little ragged in the execution. The crowd was quite young, pre-teens and young teens for the most part.

I chatted a bit with Muhammad, the group's leader, after the show. He said he learned English from rap lyrics. (He speaks English quite well.) The artists he listened to most while in high school were Tupac, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. Muhammad said that he considered this rap to be a kind of resource that he could use to express the reality in Palestine, and particularly, the fact that Palestinians in the Occupied Territories as well as those who carry Jerusalem identity cards, live in a ghetto like blacks in the United States. They face violence, racism, residential segregation, etc. The G in G-town, in fact, stands for "ghetto."

(photo shot by: me; Muhammad is on the right)

One of the band members said that G-town has been in existence since 2002--but they didn't actually perform til 2006. I asked what the older folks thought about the rap that his group does, and he said, at first they thought it was all about bling-bling and gangstas, but then they listened to it and realized that G-town was discussing serious political and social issues. His father supports what he does and has attended his concerts.

Check out G-town's myspace page here. You can download some free tracks if you've signed up for myspace, and can also check out some photos of G-town in performance. I wondered about whether bands like G-town have opportunities to perform, but apparently they do. A researcher I met who knows the group said that they had performed at a Shu'fat refugee camp cultural festival last weekend at the Hakawati theater in East Jerusalem. The lineup included a wedding band (bad, she said), a comedian, and G-town (the headliner).

Part of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shu'afat is composed of Shu'afat refugee camp, and some of the group's members are from the neighborhood, and some in the refugee camp. The refugee camp and the adjacent village of 'Anata are in the process of being encircled by an Israeli-built wall. Soon, there will only be one exit out of Shu'afat. Anyone who does not carry a Jerusalem identity will be stuck inside. G(hetto)-town indeed! (For my photos of the Wall and Shu'afat, and more info, go here, here, and here.)

G-town have self-released a CD, called Derdaka (which means, talking nonsense). I have no idea how one could obtain it--they gave me a complementary copy.

I also met the man at the FCC who was responsible for putting on the show. He told me that there are five French Cultural Centers in Palestine-Israel: West Jerusalem, East Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah and Gaza. France is the only foreign country with a cultural mission in Gaza. He told me as well that the French rap group M.A.P. (Ministère des Affaires Public), from Lilles, performed last year in Nablus as part of the Fête de la Musique en Palestine. They played at al-Najah University, outside, and 2,500 to 3,000 people showed up. I was quite surprised, given the conservative reputation of Nablus and al-Najah, but he said that no one complained and that in fact, the reception was quite enthusiastic. The FCC brought M.A.P. (whose members include two men of North African origin) back to Palestine in April, and the group performed in Gaza. My informant said that no objections were raised, Hamas didn't complain, and the band was received enthusiastically. He also said that the FCC shows French movies with Arabic subtitles, and that these attract large audiences as well.

Go here for a bit of video footage of MAP at al-Najah in Nablus. You can see how big the crowd is. And kufiyas are in evidence. And check here too.

And check out this video of a member of MAP rapping at the Wall, in front of some graffiti of Leila Khaled.

Settlers in Kufiyas Beat Palestinian Peasants

I'm fairly confident that this was hardly reported in the US--but it's very dramatic footage: "masked" (i.e. kufiya-swathed) Israeli Jewish settlers, carrying baseball bats, beat up an elderly Palestinian farmer. Such events are not at all uncommon in the Occupied Territories--here's a report from Ha'aretz of a similar event last year. Thanks to Israeli human rights group B'tselem, this particular beating was videotaped. B'tselem passed out 100 video cameras to Palestinians, in the hopes that such events would be documented. The project is called "Shooting Back."



Thanks to Elliott, who alerted me to this report on BBC.

These attacks by "masked" settlers remind me of the days of the Israeli death squads--the "undercover units" that were put into operation in the Occupied Territories in 1988 by then-Minister of Defence Yitzhak Rabin, as a means of taking out intifada activists. As Anita Vitullo reported in Middle East Report (No. 178, 1992), as of 1992 these undercover squads, which typically performed their operations in "traditional" Arab dress (which always included kufiyas), had killed over 100 Palestinians.

What usually happens in the cases of settler attacks is that the perpetrators are not charged. In this instance, two settlers have actually been arrested. I'm sure it is only thanks to the fact that the attacks were recorded on video, and that the video got into the hands of international media, like the BBC.

This is in marked contrast what happened in the wake of the recent attack on two Palestinian youths who were hanging out at the mall in the Israeli settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev in the East Jerusalem area. The Palestinians were set upon by 80 Israeli Jewish youths from the settlement, and badly beaten. The Israeli settlers wanted to ensure that the mall was Arabenrein. No onlookers intervened. The attacks ended only when the police intervened. To date no one has been charged. No doubt this was not reported in the US, but it was reported by Ha'aretz.

Why were these Palestinian youths hanging out in the mall? There aren't any malls, or anything like them, in the Arab areas of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem municipality provides five times as much funding to Jewish areas as to Arab areas. But everyone pays the same taxes.

For photos, and descriptions, of settlements, the Wall, checkpoints, and expropriations, please check out my flickr account. This is what I've been checking out for the last few days.

This is not a separation barrier

The Wall, Abu Dis
Originally uploaded by tsweden

I'm posting a lot of photos on my flickr account (go down a ways on the righthand column and click, or go here), and I also end up writing descriptions. I reproduce one below. I visited the wall at Abu Dis (east of Jerusalem) on Thursday.

A construction worker invited me on to the roof of a 5-story building he was working on. When I got to the top he said, "Nice view, eh?"

The "separation barrier" is ostensibly a security measure, to protect Israeli Jews from suicide bombings and other terrorist acts.

In fact, tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs reside on the other side of the wall. And the Jewish settlement of Ma''ale Adumim (pop. 35,000) is on THIS side of the wall, just down the road from here, to the east.

I met a middle-aged gentleman who lives very near here, right next to this beautiful wall. He has two brothers who live just the other side of the wall. He can't visit them without getting permission from the Israeli secuity (often hard to get) and driving by a very circuitous route. (There is NO crossing close to here.) He used to have 200 sheep, but now only has 6, because of problems with water caused by the wall.

Another man I met used to work as a head nurse at a Jewish hospital on the other side of the wall. Now, he can't work there any more, and has to eke out a living selling coffee and small pastries at a tiny kiosk.

A head nurse....

This is not a "separation barrier."

Kufiyaspotting #38: Jonas Brothers

JONAS BROTHERS
Originally uploaded by ♥ PICKET FENCES & ROSE GARDENS ♥

Thanks to Melanie, who spotted this one for me. And she writes:

While babysitting, I was watching a Jonas Brothers commercial on The Disney Channel. What do I see carefully placed around the neck of one of the brothers? A kufiya. It was on the screen for no more than three seconds of the commercial, but it was clear to me what I just seen. The "fashion" accessory has even trickled down to the Disney kids.

Melanie hunted for a photo from the commercial, couldn't find one, but found this instead. I think it's Nick who is wearing the black-and-white, and Joe in the blue one. Click on the photo to see a larger version.

I think I may have found the commercial that Melanie saw. It's not real clear, but I'm sure that there is a kufiya around the neck of one of them:



Will Michelle Malkin step in again to protect our children from this new jihadi threat?

For those of you who don't know--and I had to look this up--the Jonas Brothers are a pop-rock band who appeal to a 'tween demographic, as far as I can tell. They appear often, in person and in ads and in soundtracks, on the Nickelodeon Dhannel, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network.

Perhaps kufiya wearing is an attempt to appear a bit more hip, to instill a hint of street cred?

Kufiyaspotting #37: K-Salaam and Beatnick's Mixtape, "New York Is Burning"

K-Salaam is an Iranian-American DJ, born Kayvon Sarfehjooy. He has just put out a new, free mixtape, together with Beatnick, called NY is Burning. It features several prominent rap and dancehall/reggae artists, including Mos Def, Sizzla, Outlawz, Damian Marley, Dead Prez and Capleton. The title refers to the anger in New York City over the not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell murder trial. The mix-tape was released as advance publicity for the forthcoming K-Salaam & Beatnick album, Whose World Is This?, due out on July 29. Download it here.

It's really an excellent mixtape. I've not listened to it enough to give it any kind of review, but I'm really partial to the Outlawz track.

Please note the blunt-smoking young man on the cover, decked out in a cap with "rasta" colors and a kufiya.

Moreover, Junior Kelly opens the track "Freedom" by saying, “Freedom in Iraq, freedom in Palestine, freedom in Cuba, freedom in Ethiopia.” And K-Salaam (I think) opens Outlawz's track, "We Want In," with the shout "Free Palestine!"

So we can tell that the kufiya on the cover isn't just another instance of "fashion."

Moreover, on the K-Salaam and Beatnick myspace page, K-Salaam writes the following, regarding the forthcoming Whose World is This?

I would also like to dedicate this album to all people who have had their land stolen from them, from New Orleans to Palestine. We must take it upon ourselves to learn about what is really happening around the world, rather than watching the news because we are not going to get any type of truth from watching a media broadcast that is funded by vampires. Believe it or not, what goes on in places like Iran and Palestine has a direct effect on what goes on to working people and people of color everywhere. If you stand up and demand justice for people somewhere else, then there is a greater chance that you will live in justice in your neck of the woods. Otherwise, what is going to stop these major corporations and imperialist powers from continuing to seize land without hesitation; then destroying it, and rebuilding it to their own liking; just as they are doing to Brown people in Palestine, and Black people in New Orleans; just as they did to the Indigenous people in the United States and everywhere else. There can never really be justice on stolen land.

It's a pleasure to report on an instance of hip-hop kufiya fashion that is actually connected to some informed politics.

Palestine Kufiyas

Kufiyas, Jerusalem
Originally uploaded by tsweden

As of Friday, I'm in the land of the (Palestinian) kufiyas. Kufiyas are for sale (mostly to tourists) all over the Old City of Jerusalem. My photo shows a typical display. Unfortunately for local producers, almost all the kufiyas you see for sale are made in China. As per an earlier post, there is only one remaining kufiya manufacturer in Palestine, in the city of Hebron. I hope to visit the factory sometime in the next couple of weeks.

As it's summer, you don't see many Palestinians wearing kufiyas, just older men, presumably from the villages, who wear them in the traditional way, as headgear. I did spot one woman in Islamic dress, who was wearing a kufiya as a scarf. A friend of mine tells me that young Palestinian don't in fact wear them as scarves or headgear anymore. He claims that they've adopted US style baseball caps (in Texas we used to call them 'gimme caps') that say things like UCLA or NY Yankees.

For more of my photos of tourist kufiyas go here, here, and here.

To see more of my photos from my Palestine trip, go here, or click on my flickr site in the right hand column.

Afrita (Frida)

Afrita (Frieda)
Originally uploaded by No Logos

I'm in Jerusalem, and our dog Frida, a catahoula, who is back in Arkansas, is very sick. It seems like it's touch and go. We rescued her from being put down in January 2006. Please, anyone who reads this, send some good thoughts Frida's way.

Frida, get well. I'm thinking of you.

Love,

Dad

More Invincible: "People Not Places" + Mutamassik mp3 and Kufiyaspotting (#36)

Thanks to a comment by Invincible on my previous post, I now know about her song, "People Not Places." You can hear it and read the lyrics here. It's part of Expressions of Nakba, an international virtual art exhibit put together on the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe that created roughly 750,000 Palestinian refugees.

The song describes a "birthright" tour through Israel, that reveals the hidden traces of Palestine at various Israeli tour sites.

Blue white flags
For the birthright Tour I’m on
Never mention 3 villages the airport is on
recent history buried but it speaks thru the sand
all jews- law of return-I don’t seem to understand
a land without a people for people without a land? But
I see a man standing with a key and a deed in his hand

Invincible writes: "One of my main aims is to destroy the myth of a 'Jewish birthright' to a land Palestinians are denied the Right of Return to." (Check out Birthright Unplugged.)

Check out Invincible's blog where she gives an account of playing a show in Leipzig, and how promoters were uneasy about her kufiya, because they're often worn by neo-Nazis in Germany.

Plus: Awhile back I received an announcement of a new track from Mutamassik, posted on the Rough Americana website. It's called "B. Shebang (Bastille Mix)," and I highly recommend it. But also check out the other free downloads there, from Mutamassik and her husband, Morgan Craft. I'm really looking forward to the release of Mutamassik's new album, "That Which Death Cannot Destroy." For my review of Mutamassik's last release, go here.



I posted this photo of Mutamassik almost three years ago, before I was "kufiyaspotting" in a focused way. (It used to be up on the Rough Americana website, and was taken by Arthur Jaffa.)

Kufiyaspotting #35: Rappers Invincible and Finale on Gentrification in Detroit

Here's some "conscious" rap from Detroit rapper Invincible, with guest Finale, performing their song "Locust," which critiques the processes of gentrification in Detroit. It's part of a longer documentary on the displacement and the "predatory planning" going on in Detroit, and shows folks who are attempting to develop sustainable development alternatives.

Invincible appears with a purple-and-white kufiya around here neck, Finale, with a black-and-white one. It's a pleasure to write a kufiyaspotting where about folks who are politically progressive, where you can be sure that they wear scarves around their necks nut just because it's hip fashion but in the context of a serious political statement.

Invincible's myspace page is here. Finale's is here.

Violet informed me awhile back about Invincible, and I meant to write about hear earlier, but didn't get around to it. Check out the promo video below for her song "Sledgehammer," which features her in the purple kufiya again, and a good word from Talib Kweli.

And I quote Viola: "Invincible's an amazing activist and performer...she just recently tore it up for NYC's Israeli Apartheid Week show "Pick up the Mic; Break Down the Walls" along with Sabreena Da Witch (Abeer) from Lyd, Rebel Diaz, and more! She's also a member of Detroit Summer and the U.S.-Palestine Youth Solidarity Network, doing hip hop workshops with youth in Detroit and Palestine!"



And there's even more about Invincible here.

Kufiyaspotting #34: Nas

Someone sent me this one. Nas has a new album coming out, as of this date untitled. It was to have been called Nigger, but that title has been abandoned due to the resulting controversy. A couple of tracks have been "leaked," including one called "Be a Nigger Too," along with a poster series, of which this item is one of several. You can listen to the song, and see other posters, here.

Early in his career Nas (given name Nasir Jones) was one of the most prominent rappers who belonged to the Nation of Gods and Earths (Five Percenters), but by around 1999 or so, he had left the Gods. Evidence for his departure appears in his song "God Love Us," from Nastradamus, where he raps, "Cause next to Jesus on the cross was the crook niggaz, uhh/but he forgive us." And note the cross he wears on his Independence Day site.

But all this doesn't keep him from following in the footsteps of Kanye, Jigga, and all the others.

Now that the New York Times has covered it, is the "jihadi chic latté" controversy over?

On Friday, the New York Times covered the Rachael Ray/Dunkin' Donuts/Kufiya thing.

What I find interesting about the report is that there was an internet backlash against the backlash spawned by Rachael Ray. As the Times puts it:

"From there, a backlash to the backlash started to take hold.

An item about the controversy had more than 2,300 votes and 830 comments on Digg, a news aggregation site. A YouTube video, “Rachael Ray Is a Terrorist,” poked fun at the situation, with the narrator saying, “Yes, because when I look at Rachael Ray I think 9/11.” That video drew more than 2,300 comments, and a related story on The Huffington Post had more than 1,200 comments."

For the record, The Huffington Post, to date, has FIVE posts dealing with the Dunkin' Donuts terrorist scarf. Here's a list:

1. "Wednesday night on 'Countdown,' Keith Olbermann [MSNBC] declared Dunkin' Donuts his "Worst Person in the World" for caving to the lunatic fringe..." Check out the video.

2. A post from Gershom Gorenberg: "[Daniel] Pipes, Michelle Malkin, [Pam] Geller et al should pay attention: The words alcohol , algebra and algorism are all really Arabic. They are proof of a nefarious Islamic plot to destroy Western society." When Gorenberg first read about the hullabaloo, he thought it was an item from The Onion.

3. From Daoud Kuttab: "Turning a centuries old symbol of a proud people into a claim of terrorism is unacceptable to the millions of people around the world who proudly wear the keffiya."

4. The original post with, to date, 1498 comments.

5. From Erin Kotecki Vest. She calls it Dunkin' Donuts' "Freedom Fries" moment.

Whew! Anyone else tired of this?

But wait, check out the comments on wayneandwax, to a post that linked to my post on Dunkin' Donuts and Grand Theft Auto, and in particular this one, from theantisuck:

"Back in high school, the only kids I knew rocking the keffiyeh were involved w/ or supported the US pro-palistine movement, the kind of kids who would wear similarly slightly controvercial military gear like army jackets and, yes, Che shirts. I knew a lot of radical youngins who wore them, some second generation arab kids and a bunch of white kids too.

Now I think its sort of a popularization of that MIA chic - graffiti/militant/bright colors etc I see it a lot in nyc in day-glo colors by a lot of hipsters & a TON of black youth - that not just fashion. I do think theres an interesting aesthetic and cultural link between gangster rapper and PLO chic glorification / perception of violence in america.

the keffiyeh, not worn across the middle east but very native to the gulf, the heartland, & it has been politicized, not first by westerners but by radicals themselves, why else would say, berber militants choose to wear it when its almost as foreign to see on heads in the streets in Casablanca as it is here. I pity the avereage gulf man who now gets a political association for wearing his normal clothing. But that association was not just made by americans, but mulsims across the world who see it everyday on aljazeera reporting in palistine.

soooo Quadir Habeeb vs. Rachael Ray? Ray’s use almost bothers me more b/c its just simple cultural appropriation. Habeeb’s use is more offensive but more interesting and politicaly engaging."

"Jihadi chic latté"?--courtesy wayneandwax.

More on Rachael Ray, Dunkin' Donuts, and Kufiyas

Now that Dunkin' Donuts has apologized and pulled the ad, this controversy is just about over for this news cycle. But in the interest of completeness (otherwise known as being hysterically obsessive about kufiyas), I'd like to call attention to a couple more reports on the item.

First, there is rightwing commentator Michelle Malkin's post (from GOPUSA.com) of May 28 (read the entire piece here).


"The keffiyeh, for the clueless," writes Michelle, "is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons."

"The scarves are staples at anti-Israel rallies in San Francisco and Berkeley."

She name-checks prominent kufiya wearers, some of whom who have been kufiyaspotted by hawgblawg: Ricky Martin, Hugo Chavez, Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Howard Dean, Colin Farrell, Sienna Miller, Kirsten Dunst, Kanye West and Meghan McCain. And she also mentions designers and fashion outlets, including Balenciaga, Topshop, and of course, Urban Outfitters, and goes into details about the recent flap over Urban Outfitters' "Victimized" t-shirt.

(Malkin has gone after some of these folks before--see her post on "hate couture" from 2006.)

Malkin takes partial credit for Dunkin' Donuts' decision to withdraw its ad, and praises the company for its "sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists." "Too many" US companies, she says, "bend over backward in the direction of anti-American political correctness."

Michelle concludes:

"It's just a scarf, the clueless keffiyeh-wearers scoff. Would they say the same of fashion designers who marketed modified Klan-style hoods in Burberry plaid as the next big thing?

Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence -- unintentionally or not -- they matter. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In post-9/11 America, vigilance must never go out of style."

Michelle articulates the familiar conflation of support for Palestinian rights with Islamic jihad, terrorism, beheadings of hostages, "anti-Israel" sentiments, anti-Americanism, leftists, and by extension, the KKK. Her rhetoric is not just characteristic of right-wing commentators, but of centrist and liberal thinking as well.

I agree with Michelle on one thing: fashion is significant. Folks, wear your kufiyas.

(I also note that Michelle weighed in against Fun'Da'Mental's All Is War and other so-called "jihad rap" back in June 2006--check out this video comment on Vent. I have numerous previous posts on this controversy.)

And now here is some more for the completists:

Celebs are People Too comments (thanks, Chris): "Note to Malkin: these types of scarves are available at Target. Get over yourself," and suggests "Readers, if you care about the state of this nation, you’ll send in your thoughts to Michelle Malkin and let her know America, similarly, has no use for her."

I'm all for criticizing Ms. Malkin, but why not do it on the basis of support for Palestinian rights, rather than resorting to Target? (I'm pretty sure it's not sold there, but the point of CAPT is of course rhetorical, i.e., that such scarves are entirely mainstream and harmless.)

And then there is a report from the New York Post, with a comment from Ahmed Rehab of CAIR:

"I think it's a mistake to demonize a single article of clothing," said Ahmed Rehab, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"Yes, maybe some suicide bombers have worn it, but so have a million other non-suicide bombers. It'd be as ludicrous as decrying clothes because all 19 people involved in the Sept. 11 attacks wore clothes."

In the United States and Europe, the gray and white scarf is much more of a fashion statement than a political one, Rehab said.

"Yes, it has symbolized Palestinians, but it's also a yuppie fashion statement," Rehab joked. "I've seen young blond women wear it on the Tube in London and in Lincoln Park in Chicago. If it's become a political statement, I didn't get the memo on it."

Rehab--why bring up suicide bombers, and why deny that it's any kind of political statement?

Finally, another kufiyaspotting, from wayneandwax: a photo of a kufiya for sale at the great music store, Newbury Comics, in Cambridge, Mass. The item, wayne informs me, is from david & young: check here



and here--described as a "peace scarf"--the same designation Urban Outfitters originally used.

Kufiyaspotting #33: Kufiya Pulled from Dunkin' Donuts Ad, but Okay for Grand Theft Auto 4

Thanks to Hisham and Shiva for alerting me to the Dunkin Donuts kufiya furor, which has been posted many times, including the Huffington Post. Conservative blogs made a fuss about a Dunkin Donuts ad featuring t.v. personality Rachael Ray, wearing a black-and-white kufiya around her neck.

Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin called it a "jihadi chic keffiyeh"--a clever designation I'd not heard before. Michelle was reluctant to launch a boycott of Dunkin Donuts because, she says, its managers "have braved boycott threats and attacks over their lonely, principled stance against illegal immigration." (Here's more on the story from the Boston Globe.)

Rachael Ray has been criticized for her Dunkin Donuts' relationship by rival chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain, referring to the diabetes and obesity epidemic among young people, says it's like "endorsing crack for kids."

But maybe Rachael, whose maternal grandparents were from Sicily, was just indicating her ethnic identification, since Sicily was ruled by the Arabs during the ninth and tenth centuries...

Meanwhile, I've heard no furor about the kufiya associated with Grand Theft Auto IV. So I'd like to raise my own objections.



Check out this video for the song "Nickname" by the rapper Qadir (sometimes also spelled Quadir) AKA Da Poet. "Nickname" is part of the music for the recently released video game, the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto IV. This game series has been criticized for its violence, but that is not my concern here. Rather, it is the fact that Qadir, who is a Muslim, and has a reputation for being a "conscious" rapper, has decided to wear a kufiya in a video that features lots and lots of guns. The theme of the song is: "I've got a nickname for all my guns," and the nicknames consist of the names of rappers (dead and alive), like Big Pun, Tupac, and Lil Wayne. The lyrics are actually clever, Qadir has good flow, and it's a catchy song.

But Quadir Habeeb is a "conscious" rapper, and a Muslim one to boot, who so impressed Chuck D (of Public Enemy) that he signed Quadir to his label, SlamJamz.com. So what is he doing in a video where he demonstrates a fond intimacy for all the guns in his big arsenal, and at the same time is wearing a kufiya?! Talk about reinforcing all the associations that US conservatives and right-wing Zionists have attempted to make between the kufiya and jihadi terrorism! (See above.)

For more info about Qadir, check out his myspace page.

Quilty responds to Angry Arab

I posted a link to Jim Quilty's fine report, from Middle East Report Online, on the recent events in Lebanon in an earlier post. Someone posted a comment, asking what I thought of Angry Arab's comments on Quilty's articles. I said, "not much," and in particular I objected to Angry Arab's claim of MERIP's "editorial congruence with the Hariri Inc." Recently, Quilty penned his own response to Angry Arab. I asked him if I could reproduce it, but now I find that Angry Arab has done so. So check it out.

Kufiyaspotting #32: Shwayze in Pontiac ad

Thanks to Dave who spotted this for me. (I can't spend all my time surfing around on youtube.com.) Yet another hip-hop kufiya convergence. Sorry, I'm abroad, and I don't have the software to produce an image of the kufiya-clad Shwayze, performing the song "Buzzin'." (Malibu-rapper Shwayze is sans kufiya in the original vid for the song, which you can view here.)

New Urban Outfitters Controversy: Palestinian T (and Freshjive's Arafat T)

Urban Outfitters has become involved in yet another Palestine-related fashion controversy, this time over a t-shirt featuring a Palestinian kid with a kufiya around his neck, cradling a weapon, with the word "Victimized." Thanks to Hisham for alerting me to this report from Haaretz (May 22).

Fashion wars / U.S. store pulls 'pro-violence' Palestinian T-shirt

T-shirt sold by Urban Outfitters showed Palestinian youth carrying automatic rifle, map of West Bank, Gaza.

By Alison Avigayil Ramer

Popular U.S. clothing store Urban Outfitters has halted sales of a T-shirt apparently supporting Palestinian violence that has sparked outrage in the American Jewish community.

The T-shirt, created by Los Angeles-based designer "Fashion Jive," depicts a young Palestinian boy carrying an M-16 rifle, over the word "Victimized." The T-shirt also shows the Palestinian flag, a map of the Palestinian territories and a small white dove. The item sold online for $25.

"If Urban Outfitters is good at something, it is getting publicity," remarked Ami Cohen, works for American Apparel in Tel Aviv. "This company has a history of coming into conflict with
Jews."

Several years ago, the company played on the "Jewish American Princess" stereotype by selling T-shirts with the slogan "Everybody Loves a Jewish Girl," surrounded by dollar signs and
shopping bags.

In 2007, it again came into conflict with Jewish and pro-Israel consumers for selling versions of a traditional Arab headdress, the kaffiyeh, as an "anti-war scarf."

Although the firm's CEO, Dick Heyne, argued that the company had not intended "to imply any sympathy for or support of terrorists or terrorism" by selling the kaffiyeh, some argue that selling of the "Victimized" T-shirt does just that.

"Of course this T-shirt is supporting terrorism," said Leah Weiss, a fashion designer who recently immigrated to Israel. "I've joined a Facebook group to boycott Urban Outfitters and get rid of their clothes. I will never shop there again."

The T-shirt also sparked debate among Jewish bloggers, who discussed the elements of violence depicted in the T-shirt. JBlog Central reported that one surfer had branded the item of clothing a "brutal, bloody Jew-hating tee shirt."

Stacey Strober, Urban Outfitter's Store Operations Manager, said in response that the shirt had been removed from shops and the online store, and that the company had never intended to cause upset.

"Please understand that we do not buy items to provoke controversy or to intentionally offend. We have pulled this item in all of our locations and will no longer be selling it online either."

Others, however, expressed support for the T-shirt and its message.

"All fashion is political in nature. Since most people today aren't directly involved in politics, fashion is a good way to reach people and raise their awareness about the Israeli occupation," argued Sami Zeibak, a Palestinian fashion journalist living in Tel Aviv.

"Jewish people should not be offended by this because it is not anti-Jewish and not anti-Israel, it is anti-occupation."

Check out the response (May 21) to all the criticism by Rick Klotz, who owns Freshjive, which produced the t-shirt. Klotz in particular takes on the (predictable) claims that the shirt is anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli, and pro-terrorism. Below I reproduce some of his comments:

"This shirt shows various Palestinian kids with guns. I believe the image can be interpreted in many different ways, but some people are choosing to jump to the conclusion that it means that I am somehow "jew-hating".

And in any case, is it not simply true that some Palestinian kids have become child soldiers due to the ongoing battle between Palestine and Israel?

There is a stylized version of the word "VICTIMIZED" at the bottom of the design. Is it not simply true that some Palestinians and especially Palestinian children are victims of this terrible conflict? I am of the opinion they are.

So where does "OPENLY ANTI-ISRAEL", "GLORIFIES PALESTINIAN TERRORISM AND CHILD ABUSE", "VICTIMIZING JEWS", and "BRUTAL BLOODY JEW HATING T SHIRT" come from? Is this the SPIN some of you choose to place on our design statement to DEMONIZE us?....

Some people criticized the image for being in poor taste, and suggested a more positive graphic would have been more appropriate. I say if you think it is in poor taste, don't buy it. My business deals in the graphic arts and I believe that one of the highest purposes of art is to spark discussion by challenging people to think in new ways about serious issues.

The entire point of this graphic, and other graphics, is definitely to push an opinion and a topic I would like our customers to pay some attention to (rather than blindly buy our product for fashion and aesthetic reasons). To inspire thinking and create a public dialog on such topics is extremely important, and discussions from both sides of the fence are extremely beneficial to come to realizations and hopefully mutual understandings. Respectful dialog between people who disagree is essential to the health of a democratic culture."

Klotz also calls attention to other t-shirt items produced by Freshjive. Hawblawg readers may be interested in these items, The Good Old Days! line:



and the somewhat less aesthetically interesting Peace in the Middle East line:

Fun^Da^Mental Documentary

In the course of hunting for more Fun'Da'Mental material, I discovered that the documentary on the group, which is included on an invaluable bonus DVD that comes with the CD for All Is War: The Benefits of G-had, is available to watch, and download online here. Directed by SpiritualKids, it is called "If I Wanted Your Opinion I Would have Given it to You." It's well worth the watch. I particularly enjoyed the concert footage from the early days of the band's existence, but there is also a lot of interesting commentary from the band's various members over the years, including not just Aki Nawaz and Dave Watts, but also vocalist Lloyd Sparkes and Nawazish Ali Khan, the qawwali artist who sings and plays harmonium and violin with the band.

And there's more kufiya material. In the film, Aki (who always seems to have one on) calls the kufiya a "PLO scarf" and he says "it's a symbol of oppression, resistance and fighting back."

Jim Quilty on "Lebanon’s Brush with Civil War": from MERO Online

It's been a long time since I've blogged. Here's the explanation: I was busy finishing up the semester, and getting ready to travel to Israel/Palestine. On May 11 I began a one-month teaching gig at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba/Bi'r Saba'. I'm affiliated with the MA Program in Middle East Studies (MAPMES). I can't promise I'll do a lot of blogging while here. So far it seems that teaching and trying to finish up papers has preoccupied me, but I'm going to try as of today to make more of an effort.

So, here's a link to Jim Quilty's very timely and informative piece on the recent events in Lebanon, published by Middle East Report Online. Here's a sample paragraph--but be sure to read the entire article:

Then there are the negative ramifications. Regardless of its militia’s discipline, and no matter how low the body count in the first two days, Hizballah’s sweep through West Beirut has done irreparable damage to its image among moderate supporters, particularly in the Sunni and Shi‘i communities. By the end of Lebanon’s civil war, the party had vowed never to wield its arms against other Lebanese, saying these were reserved for use against Israel. A good deal of public tolerance of Hizballah among those outside the party rested on trusting Nasrallah to keep that promise. Given the climate of sectarian fear that Lebanon’s political class has nurtured since 2005, the specter of firefights involving ski-masked militants, the very embodiment of “them,” was bound to conjure up horrific memories of the 15-year civil war, and with it the resentment of those Lebanese who never want to return to those days. True, the Hariri-owned media (like most Lebanese media) is a neo-feudal institution whose principles of disinterested journalism have badly lapsed since 2005, but silencing media voices (and worse, allowing SSNP partisans to vandalize and torch the premises) could not but confirm accusations that the opposition is authoritarian. For Lebanese Sunnis, it is not difficult to see these actions as an assault upon the memory of Saad’s assassinated father. The ensuing bitterness is unlikely to be assuaged by reminding them how many opposition media outlets Rafiq al-Hariri shut down when he was prime minister.

And just in case you missed these items published by MERO last month, check out Hilal Elver's very informative article about the latest in the headscarf controversy in Turkey, and the article by the ever-informative Joel Beinin on neoliberalism and working class struggles in Egypt.

Review of Le Trio Joubran, Palestinian Oud Trio, on NPR

It's not often that the national media pays any attention to contemporary Palestinian music, so I was very pleased to hear Banning Eyre's favorable, and quite compelling, review of Le Trio Joubran's latest album, Majaz (مجاز), which was released last October. The review was broadcast yesterday (April 29) on All Things Considered. I've only listened to a couple of cuts on the album, but I can still highly recommend it. Don't just read the review on line, but also listen to it, since you get to hear the music. To hear more tracks from Majaz, go here, to emusic--which is doing a great job of making music from all over the world, including Palestine, readily available. Emusic also has the entire Sabreen catalog, as well as Tamaas, the solo release from the eldest of Le Trio Joubran, Samir.

(I reviewed the Joubrans' earlier album here.)