We write this piece as (disappointed) fans of the Palestinian hip hop group DAM at a time when the fierce attack on Gaza reminds us of grim realities that are the everyday stuff of life and death for Palestinian women and men.
With songs like “Who’s the Terrorist?” and “Born Here,” DAM gave thrilling political voice to a new generation of Palestinians who were no longer silent about the racism of the Israeli state. They challenged the state violence that was devastating Palestinian lives and communities, whether in the ghettos of Israeli cities or the territories occupied, suffocated, and bombarded since 1967. This was political music; sharp, angry, born of experience.
Given DAM's unapologetic and sophisticated political positions, it is surprising that when they decide to champion women’s rights, they succumb to an international anti-politics machine that blames only tradition for the intractability of (some) people's problems. Why, when they decide to speak up about violence against women, do they suddenly forget the gritty and complex realities of life on the ground in the places they know?
DAM’s new music video, “If I Could Go Back in Time,” is about the “honor crime,” even if the final credit insists that there is no connection between killing women and honor. Directed by Jackie Salloum, who gave the world the intelligent beauty of Sling Shot Hip Hop, it operates in a total political, legal, and historical vacuum. The setting is not given. Perhaps one is not needed when the story seems so familiar. The threat of a forced marriage. A brother hits his sister. A car somewhere. Some woods somewhere. A grave dug. A woman shot in the head by two men, her brother and father. The only indicator of who the people in the video are is the family home where a mother answers the telephone and where a group of men recite the fatiha together to bless their decision. Muslim men.