Saturday, August 16, 2014

Listen: “Love in the Time of Genocide” performed by Haidar Eid

In this video, the Palestinian intellectual and activist Haidar Eid, in Gaza, performs “Love in the Time of Genocide,” adapted from a poem by the late Egyptian poet Abdul Rahim Mansour.
The words are unadorned, but Eid’s performance is haunting, set against images from Israel’s most recent massacre in Gaza:
Between contractions and pain
We will be reborn
Between contractions and pain
Wisdom will be born
The song of freedom will be born
All that has passed and gone
Is still being born in your eyes
At the end of the video are these words from Eid himself:
The Palestinian people, and Gazans in particular, have been living an unending massacre since 1948. We can no longer negotiate about improving the conditions of oppression; it is either the full menu of rights, or nothing. And that means the end of occupation, apartheid and colonialism.

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