in february 1998 i visited palestine/israel. what i saw and heard shocked me and when i returned i recorded an angry sad album backbone telling the stories of those encounters. backbone is still one of the albums i am most proud of (and has sold the least copies!!!!).
anyway adam cleaveland sent me a link to a video he made using the track ‘home’ which he has put on youtube here with photos and video footage from his visit in 2005.
the track is sung in two halves. the first is sung by me as a zionist jew returning to the promised land, seeing the palestinians as the equivalemnt to the canaanites to be driven out in the name of god. the second half is sung by jon as muhanna arab, a palestinian i met who had seen his house and land destroyed and then lived in a beaten up caravan which was regularly stoned by the settlers. he also sings of ibrahim who we met – i have a stone from his house that had been bulldozed by israeli soldiers after spending 5 years building it. he asked us to take a stone to remember and tell the story. the chorus is ‘there’s no place like home’.
sadly it seems very little has changed in nearly 10 years. this video brought it all back to me…
Very many thanks for this Jonny… powerful and depressing to reflect how little has changed. Thanks too for all your helpful and thought-provoking stuff over the past 12 months. Very Happy New Year!
Thanks for the amazing reflections. Now I know why I love Backbone. I was in Israel/Bethlehem in January 2007 and then in Jordan in September 2007 – one major change that’s happened is the construction of this physical wall and how many families are ripped asunder not to mention the economic reprecussions because they cannot gain access to walk through this wall. As hellish as it was for me to make the trek from Jersusalem into Bethlehem at least I could do it. Here’s a short interview I did with the pastor of Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church – http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/07/becky-garrison-a-palestinian-p.html.
Your comments bring home the fact that living in the safety of my English home, I don’t know how blessed I am.
Thank you
I must be one of the few who purchased the CD. I love it. Our band played “Justice” for an Amos theme in worship. I’m glad to see someone else doing something creative with it.
I must be one of the few who purchased the CD. I love it. Our band played “Justice” for an Amos theme in worship. I’m glad to see someone else doing something creative with it.