(Update: English captions added to the video @ red button)
An Israeli song about learning to kill and dehumanizing the enemy is going viral in Israel. After Israel’s Army Radio canceled a live broadcast of the song and banned the song from the station it was thrust into the national (and international?) spotlight. A Matter of Habits, the title track of popular Israeli rock band Tislam’s new album has everybody talking. Tislam’s co founder, Izhar Ashdot, is husband and life partner to Israeli novelist Alona Kimhi (both legendary artists in Israel). Kimhi wrote the lyrics after a Breaking the Silence tour of Hebron a few years ago.
Thus far the song has 2,174 ‘dislikes‘ on youTube, if that’s any indication of the controversy it’s generating. Some critics are literally fuming about the content while others are clearly more offended by the fact it’s been censored by Army Radio although it’s still getting play on Israel radio.
It’s not a shoot and cry — it’s corpse-like cold in it’s directness which is why it is threatening: “The cousin like an animal/Used to blood/Doesn’t feel suffering/Is not human.”
Uri Blau at Haaretz writes people do not want to know, they don’t want to think about it:
Under Dekel’s baton, the Army Radio station introduced a new slogan to its broadcasts: “What’s happening now.” Until this week the slogan sounded simply hollow, but the censorship of Ashdot’s song proved that it is also the opposite of the way Army Radio operates. In his decision, Dekel did exactly what the public wishes, as reflected in the responses to the song’s banning. What’s happening now is that many people don’t want to know, don’t want to hear and don’t want to think about what’s being done in their name and what happens to their children when they don a uniform and are transformed from boys into an occupying force.
But Dekel is a journalist rather than Army Radio’s public relations agent. He is supposed to report to his listeners what’s happening on every patrol by soldiers and at every checkpoint manned by Border Police. “Our heart is already coarse and our skin is so thick, deaf and blind in the bubble of the present,” sings Ashdot. By imposing censorship on the song, Dekel proved that every word is true, and chose to conceal the truth, to whitewash the reality and to pat ourselves on the back. That’s a mistake and it reinforces an image of what’s happening that is definitely not what’s happening now.
The song was welcomed by liberals as a protest of Israel’s actions in the West Bank but fiercely criticized by others, who defaced Ashdot’s official Facebook page last month, with one angry reader referring to Ashdot as a “draft-dodging dog” — though he didn’t evade mandatory service.
Army Radio stuck by an advance invitation that Ashdot perform in its studios but expressly vetoed the playing of this song. The station later issued a statement saying there was no room on the military station for a song that “denigrates and denounces those who have sacrificed their lives for the defense of the country.”
“I am worried when songs are banned for broadcast in a democratic country,” Ashdot told Israeli media, adding he was shocked by the “incitement” against him that the statement encouraged. The decision and statement were issued by Yaron Dekel, a veteran journalist appointed to be the station’s military commander in February.
……
Michael Sfard, an activist attorney who represents Breaking the Silence, called the decision a “sad instance of political censorship” and wondered if an interviewer speaking, not singing, the same critique would be censored.
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The political party Meretz, which opposes Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank, used its social media platform to recommend the song and ushered its supporters to YouTube to ‘like’ “Ashdot’s courage and Kimhi’s uncompromising text.”
Jerusalem Post: One song our soldiers won’t be marching to
And these words caught my attention:-They translate as“Hey, what here is ours and what belongs to you?”Who is he singing to?Who is the “we” and who the “you”?Is the Arabic-styled font intended to suggest Arabs are the “you”?Is this a political song?But to the point: IDF soldiers learn to defend and to do that, they must be trained in warfare and how to kill. There is no room for pacificism here.
For background on the origins of Kimhi’s Breaking the Silence tour check out A song was born: The tale of a controversial tune by Yuval Ben-Ami at 972+ . He offers a translation of the lyrics below.
Learning to kill
Is a matter of momentum
It starts small
And then it comesPatrols every night
In the casbah of Nablus
Hey, what here is ours
And what is yoursAt first just a drill
A rifle’s butt bangs on the door
Children in shock
A family terrifiedLater – closure*
There’s danger already
Death is lurking
Behind every cornerCocking the weapon
Arm shaking
Finger is firm
Against the triggerThe heart goes wild
Beats, terrified
It knows – next time
It will be easierThey are not a man, not a woman
They are just an object, just a shadow
Learning to kill
Is a matter of habitLearning to fear
Is a matter of momentum
You start small
And then it comesThe news from above
Reaches the street
There’s no hope of living
The end is so nearProphecies of terror
Like the crow of a raven
Close the shutters
Close up in the homesWe’re just a few
And they are so many
A tiny country
Devoured by enemiesThey have only hate in their hearts
Evil, dark urges
Learning to fear
Is a matter of habitLearning cruelty
Is a matter of momentum
It starts small
And then it comesEvery boy is a man
Craving victory
Hands behind the head
Legs spreadIt’s a time of danger
It’s a time of destruction
Soldier, toughen up
There’s no good in compassionThe cousin like an animal
Used to blood
Doesn’t feel suffering
Is not humanField uniform and chafing
Exhaustion and routine
From stupidity to evil
The route is shortAll ours, all ours
Israel’s land
Learning cruely
Is a matter of habitSon, son– stop
Son, son – come back
Come to me, sweetheart
Come to me, my babyThe sky is so gloomy
Outside, already dark
Tin soldiers still
Under the bedCome home, son
Come home
Home
HomeLearning to love
Is a matter of tenderness
A careful step
In a cloud of gentlenessWe will hesitate, we will come apart
We will soften, we will round out
Learning to love
Is a matter of habitBeing human
Is a matter of momentum
It grows like an unborn child
And then it comesFor just one minute
Just now, just today
To be on the other side
Of that same checkpointBut our heart has hardened
And our skin is thick
Deaf and blind
In the bubble of the presentWe will observe in amazement
The falling angel
Being human
Is a matter of habit*”Closure” is a military term referring to a situation in which inhabitants of a village or town are prevented from traveling outside it.
Mondoweiss contributor Ira Glunts had this to say which about wraps it:
A country raised on “purity of arms” and all this other crap is reacting like a cornered animal to charges of cruelty and worse.
Ben-Ami predicts the song will be legendary and all we need to do is be patient. I’m sitting back and grabbing the popcorn. This isn’t going away anytime soon.
(Hat tip Mondoweiss commenter Dickerson)
I bet IDF command-people tell these IOF-soldiers that there are armed terrorists lurking out there, to make them frightened and to make them feel justified in exacting (ahem) collateral damage (i.e., killing and injuring innocents), wantonly destroying property.
A lot of room — when telliong soldiers about supposed battle conditions and supposed threats — for fearful talk, lies, carelessness, misinterpretation of facts, belief in statements made by torture victims or those avoiding torture, decisions made in considerable lack of supporting evidence, maliciousness, etc.
And the USA’s military went from one which was somewhat honorable to one in which MyLai events occurred more frequently to the one now seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the IDF went from Deir Yassin and the expulsions of 1947/48 (mostly denied and covered up, thereby corrupting the moral standing of the soldiers who heard these cover-ups but did not speak out to contradict them) to the occupation of today, with excursions into Lebanon in 1982 and later, and the bloody-mindedness never changed. Ethnic cleansing was called removal of possible (or likely) internal enemies, but the rights of those not ethnically cleansed were not respected (and court judgments were not respected by the military or the government), further signs of a criminal-like military and government.
My guess is that the song hits the raw nerve of denial denied. More power to it.
Update: English captions have been added to the video @- red button
It is a powerful ballad, both musically and poetically. The evolving chorus and harmonization in minor thirds are haunting. Some of the post-production editing with electronic instruments detracts, but otherwise this is a vibrant example of what is very good in current antiwar art.
The response to it evokes images of people banning the Dixie Chicks, the ongoing pressures against Roger Waters since he began advocating BDS in 2011, and the seeming disappearance of Invincible since she created People Not Places.
RE: “Song critical of the IDF goes viral after being banned by Israeli Army Radio” ~ Mondoweiss title writer
I HAVE A BONE TO PICK: Not really, but it sounded good. Anyway, the song might in a sense be critical of the IDF, but its about a whole lot more than that. After all, much of the lyrics can easily be applied to the U.S. military in Iraq. Or Vietnam. Or . . .
Is the Arabic-styled font intended to suggest Arabs are the “you”?
Definitely. There are other clever uses of fonts in the clip: childish handwriting, army font, religious font, Likud font, children’s book font, 60s-style peace font, etc. Some I couldn’t put my finger on, but are familiar and arouse certain associations.