A new music video produced by 7amleh takes on the sectarian military recruitment policies employed by Israel to foster divisions in the Palestinian community

A new music video produced by 7amleh takes on the sectarian military recruitment policies employed by Israel to foster divisions in the Palestinian community.

7amleh has produced a new music video for acclaimed Palestinian artists Jowan Sadafi and Tamer Nafa which challenges Israel’s sectarian military recruitment policies.

The video follows a group of Israeli scientists attempting to create a new type of Arab, a metaphor for attempts by the Israeli State to weaken shared Palestinian identity through efforts to recruit Palestinian Christians and Druze into the military. For more details about Israel’s sectarian recruitment policies.

Read the full lyrics below (English translation):

Welcome to your army suit

Welcome to your two-way radio

Welcome to your perfect accent,

Welcome to your whitewashing girl

Welcome to your bread and butter in your M16

How could you lay their saw on your family tree?

Step by step

Little by little

We are turning into

Israelis

They stripped us of our land

They stripped us of our identity

They dressed us with boots

And a military suit

He went to the army that went into his house and displaced his family

Killed some, expelled some, and divided the survivors

Some resist, some bargain, and some fight us instead

(Chorus)

Step by step

Little by little

We are turning into

Israelis

They stripped us of our land

They stripped us of our identity

They dressed us with boots

And a military suit

The clerics wrote a new religion and found us a nationality

Our father became the father of militarism

The rout and the mind were uprooted

Ignorance was planted and fertilised with the shitty sectarianism

(Chorus)

Step by step – welcome to the first

Slowly – welcome to the Slow slow

We are transforming – welcome the zombies

Into Israelis – welcome the ghen ghen

They stripped us of our land – welcome the civilized

They stripped us of our identity – really, you are a boss

They dressed us with boots – you deserve an airplane

And a an army suit uniform – but they won’t let you fly

Why why why why why why why why

Why do you lay their saw on your family tree?

Why why why why why why why why

Why do you lay their saw on your family tree?

He pulls me over to side of the road

I got a sparkle in my eye and many dirty words

Yes I have an ID, it is you who lacks the identity

You have light bombs, but still no light in your neighborhood

What? This is poverty, unemployment, innocence, naivety, treason

To be settled with them you need to be ashamed of us

You can be angry because our situation is truly outrageous

From bad to worse

I have a dream to end the Jewish state’s regime

I have a nightmare to live under an Arab state regime

Either a settler stepping on my head, or a beast ISISing my head

Yes, from bad to worse, it doesn’t matter

A Syrian child on a Turkish beach, it doesn’t matter

Or a 4 children on Gaza beach, doesn't matter

Fleeing a knife or fleeing an Apache

It doesn’t matter, it really doesn’t matter

If you’re a an Israeli jailor or a Hamas fighter, in their eyes it doesn’t matter

In their eyes, you are still an Arab, my brother, it doesn’t matter

(Chorus)

Step by step

Little by little

We are turning into

Israelis

They stripped us of our land

They stripped us of our identity

They dressed us with boots

And a military uniform

______________________________________________________

Written, composed and performed by Jowan Safadi & Tamer Nafar

Music production by Jethro Beats and Tam Cooper

Mixed by Tam Cooper

Backing vocals - Nasrin Gendawe

Actors:

Arab Soldier – Nehad Rada

Big Boss – Ward Kayal

Male Doctor – Rami Yunis

Female Doctor – Kela Sappir

Israeli Soldier – Shoshi

Male extra #1 - Eyas Rizik

Male extra #2 – Majd Shakor

Girl – Marwa Slayeh

Man with child – Issam Sabbah

Little girl – Tia Sabbah

Little Boy – Abudi Sabbah

Makeup:

Tanya Yirushalmi

Special thanks to:

The Arab Cultural Association

Indigenous Sessions

Ahdab Khatib

Bassem Zubedat

Tameem Zoabi

Wassim Kheir

Rola Zubedat

Director of Photography:

Suhel Nafar

Directed & Edited by

Eli Rezik