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December 20, 2012 1:04 pm
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Israeli Arab Hip Hop Artists, Who Compared Israelis to Nazis, Decry Honor Killings (VIDEO)

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avatar by Anav Silverman / Tazpit News Agency

A screenshot from the music video.

In cooperation with U.N .Women, an Arab Israeli hip hop group known as DAM, released a music video last month about the brutal reality of honor killing in Palestinian Arab society. Entitled, “If I Could Go Back In Time,” the song describes the life of a young woman murdered by her family for refusing to go through with an arranged marriage. DAM’s songs often justify terrorism against Israel and have compared Israelis to Nazis.

Suhell Nafar, a member of the Lod-based hip hop group, which has performed internationally, explained that “the song is not a specific incident but it describes the phenomena of honor killing in general,” as reported by WAFA news agency at a Ramallah press conference held for the music video in November.  According to the WAFA news report, 12 women were murdered by male family members in Judea and Samaria between January and August of 2012 in “honor” crimes.

Soraida Hussein, the general director of the Women’s Technical Affairs Committee (WATC) based in Ramallah and Gaza, stated that “we live in a society that is allowing its members to kill each other.”

“The video is one of the most powerful tools in our effort to bring social change,” added Hussein.

The music video was made available on YouTube, where it has been viewed over 145,000 times, in order “to ensure the dissemination of its message and initiate debate,” said Nafar, who also co-directed the video.

In 2011, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas issued an order to repeal a decree which had allowed criminals guilty of assault or murder in the “defense of family honor” to be treated with lenient legal provisions. In a press release that accompanied the music video, Abbas’s decree was described as “ineffective.”
A report conducted by U.N. Women, (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women)  and the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Women’s Affairs  covering  the periods of 2011-2013, reported that honor crime perpetrators are still protected by Palestinian law, which allows criminals to enter a plea of extenuating circumstances.

Over 5,000 women die each year in honor killings, which are committed around the world against women “for tarnishing the name and honor of the family.”  In May 2011, the body of Ayah Barad’iyya, a 21-year-old English major at Hebron University was discovered by PA police in a well in a village northwest of Hebron.  Her killing, unlike most honor killings, was heavily reported on by PA media at the time and “not kept under the wraps,” as related by Haaretz.

“We should throw these words [honor killing] out of our dictionary,” said Nafar in a Maan News Agency article. “No one asks the right questions, no one tries to shed the light on the human face; it is just another death. A death justified merely by the fact of being a girl,” he stated.

In 2011 the band was invited to perform at a Portland public school, prompting an outcry from pro-Israel Americans. In an online petition that opposed their invitation, Christians United for Israel wrote the following about their music:

The lyrics demonize Israeli Jews, calling them rapists and Nazis, justifying terrorism against them.. (“You’re a Democracy? It’s more like the Nazis…Your raping of the Arab soul gave birth to your child: The suicide bomber.”) These lyrics are threatening to Jewish students at Lincoln, and do not represent the mainstream opinions of Palestinians and Arab Israelis.

The music video can be watched below.

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