‘Our drum beats blast through this apartheid wall’

by Adam Horowitz on July 7, 2009 · 18 comments

02 HATTLER assalamu alaikum - original photo by Jennifer Hayes
(original photo courtesy of Jennifer Hayes)

I love the poster above. It reminds me of Woody Guthrie's "this machine kills fascists" guitar. I saw it at the beginning of a great music video by the German bass guitarist Hellmut Hattler (the poster is also stuck on the Wall itself). The video is for Hattler's song "Assalamu Alaikum" about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here it is:

The video has been nominated by PoliticsOnline and the World eDemocracy Forum for the 2009 "Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics." It's going up against Twitter, Whitehouse.gov and Google – vote for it here!

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{ 18 comments }

1 Michael LeFavour July 19, 2009 at 9:16 am

I would like to tear down the apartheid wall too. It is time to allow the Jews out of their bantustan the Arabs have confined them to.

2 ThorsProvoni July 7, 2009 at 6:16 pm

The problem lies not with the conflict over with Palestine but with the Zionist Imperial System, which threatens the human race collectively: Jewish Peril 1933 Versus 2009. Thus I prefer the Egyptian mega-hit I hate Israel to Helmut Hattler's Assalamu Alaykum: Where Have All the Political Songs Gone?

3 ismail July 7, 2009 at 6:37 pm

Actually, we are only a threat to Joachim's mental health. Too late.

4 All American July 7, 2009 at 7:33 pm

What do you mean, "we?"

5 ismail July 7, 2009 at 7:52 pm

Not the antisemites, of course. What a big silly you are.

6 Thom July 7, 2009 at 7:56 pm

The guy in the poster is a moron if he takes that with him to protests. I'm pretty sure pointing something at soldiers that in poor light could be mistaken for the barrel of a rocket launcher is a bad idea.

7 Shingo July 8, 2009 at 12:11 am

Good comment Thom, It's not like Israel need a reason to kill women and children now is it?

8 Thom July 8, 2009 at 12:54 am

When people with rocket launchers have been known to shoot at the people you are protesting against, it's a good idea not to look like a person with a rocket launcher. TV cameramen have gotten themselves killed that way.

9 Shingo July 8, 2009 at 1:44 am

"TV cameramen have gotten themselves killed that way." That's because Israel targets journalist as well as women and children. When was the last time a rocket launcher was taken along to a protest in Israel, must less used during the course of the protest?

10 bullwinkle July 8, 2009 at 10:52 am

oh, you mean the ziofascists.

11 Thom July 8, 2009 at 12:03 pm

Israel doesn't target journalists or women and children (other than armed ones). One reason they kept journalists out of Gaza was to avoid the bad P.R. when some fool journalist wandered into a firefight. Dunno, I do know that last week a Palestinian woman tried to commit suicide by pointing a fake gun at Israeli soldiers.

12 Koshiro July 8, 2009 at 2:03 pm

If Israeli troops are actually incompetent enough to mistake *that* for a rocket launcher, I might yet come around and believe the Israeli version of the USS Liberty affair.

13 Thom July 8, 2009 at 6:55 pm

Seen from the side, yeah. Seen from in front, where all you can see is a barrel pointing at you against a black background, in fading light, and at a distance? In the time it takes to aim and fire a rocket launcher?

14 John M July 9, 2009 at 4:15 am

This is a poster for a Japanese street musician protest group called the Transistor Connected Drum Collective (note TCDC in the lower right corner). Here's a video link to watch them in action: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids... This video seems to be a 2003 video of a musical protest against the US invasion of and dispatch of Japanese Self-Defense Forces to Iraq remastered to protest Israel's summer 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

15 John M July 9, 2009 at 4:15 am

[Continuing] The poster shows a chindonya, a brightly-dressed musician who used to perform (usually with a few companions I believe) in Japanese streets maybe 40-50 years ago for advertising purposes. Chindonya would simultaneously play a drum and flute or horn and distribute fliers. The shadowing three grey ideographs (Chinese characters used in the Japanese writing system) behind the English lettering are read as "kakuri kabe," which means "wall of isolation." To pick up on some of the above comments, the spectacle of Israel's IDF blowing away a horn-blowing and drumming chindonya who happened to be cavorting, say, near the Wall or one of the separation points with Gaza would be so ludicrous that as a cinematic concept it might be worthy of a short movie treatment by some moviemaker working in the mold of Japan's Kurosawa.

16 Susan July 9, 2009 at 8:06 am

BTW: great music video!

17 Shingo July 9, 2009 at 8:22 am

Of course Israel targets journalists or women and children. They always have. "The Israeli army has always struck civilian populations, purposely and consciously. The army has never distinguished civilian from military targets, but has purposely attacked civilian targets." Ze'ev Shiff (Israeli journalist and military correspondent for Ha'aretz. ) Everyone knows they kept journalists out of Gaza was to avoid new getting out as to what they were doing. They learned from the Lebanon war that the media woudl expose their lies. By blocking the media, in violation of their own supreme court, when Al Jazeera reported they were slaughtering civilians, they could dismiss is as Arab propaghanda. "Dunno, I do know that last week a Palestinian woman tried to commit suicide by pointing a fake gun at Israeli soldiers." They usually commit suicide just by standing in the way of a stray IDF bullet.

18 Susan July 9, 2009 at 9:52 am

Found a more recent photo on Wikipedia. You are right, that would be quite ludicrous! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9...

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