In attempting to counter the BDS movement, Israel & its supporters blither on about the separation of culture from politics & wax sentimental about poetry & music uniting warring factions in the great spirit of “Kumbaya.” Baloney! You can’t harmonize apartheid with justice or tyranny with freedom.
Music is as much an instrument of rebellion against tyranny as is the soundtrack of love. It is regarded suspiciously by dictators which is why many of the troubadours of freedom have been brutally murdered. Israel wants to use it to support colonialism & ethnic cleansing.
It’s hard to remember in the cacophony of misguided political analyses supporting Assad & surrounding the bombing of Syria that it began in 2011 as a popular uprising against the Assad regime. Ibrahim Qashoush was a fireman & poet who led protests opposing & mocking the Assad regime with his anthem “Yalla Erhal Ya Bashar”, or “Come on, Bashar, time to leave.”
On July 4th, 2011, our brother was found dead in a river, his throat cut & vocal cords ripped out. He is hailed as the “nightingale of the revolution.”
We remember him as a troubadour of the revolution & honor him with all those who have died fighting & singing for a world suitable for human beings to live & love in.
This is a video of Ibrahim leading protesters in “Come on, Bashar, time to leave” only a week before he was murdered by the Assad regime.