Quick Action: Defend Palestinian Traditional Dance!

Lina Khattab, 18-year-old first-year media student at Bir Zeit University and dancer in the El-Funoun Palestinian cultural dance troupe, was arrested on 13 December during a march by Bir Zeit University students to Ofer military prison.


She is active in Palestinian national and political activities at the university, and is one of a number of active Palestinian students who have been arrested and imprisoned in an Israeli attempt to clamp down on Palestinian students’ activity and organizing through student unions and protest groups. Lina is being held without charges, and allegedly “investigated” on the bogus suspicion of “throwing stones,” an allegation used freely by Israeli military courts against all Palestinians who demand their rights through protest.

Read more about how how you can take action now and demand freedom for Lina Khattab: http://samidoun.ca/2014/12/take-action-free-lina-khattab-imprisoned-student-and-folkloric-dancer/#action

~~~

For more information on traditional Palestinian cultural dance please see our post on Debka: Palestinian Folk Dance.

~~~


Participate!  If you find other very quick actions people can take, such as easy to sign letters or petitions, media storms, or flash mobs, be sure to leave us the details in comments.  We may be able to feature them in an up-coming post.  If you would like credit for yourself or your organization, be sure to include your by-line as you would like it to appear, and a URL if appropriate. You can alternately contact us by private message on our facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/boycott4peace

Thanks!  We are the change!

~~~

Boycott for Peace! 

http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/boycott4peace

~~~

E-mail, reblog, tweet, share, or pin, using the buttons below:

Debka: Palestinian Folk Dance

Palestinian Folklore: Debka

Keeping Palestinian Traditions Alive

The tradition of debka dance has several variations among Mediterranean regions and the Tigris River, but ever since 1948 debka has taken on a new meaning for Palestinians. Palestinian debka has become a very important tool at instilling in the Palestinian a sense of identity and steadfastness in the younger generation.

For example, the lyrics for Al Zareefa at-Tloo originally told the story of a two lovers who are expressing the pain of separation. After 1948, the lyrics came to express the pain and homesickness of Palestinians in the Diaspora who were separated from their homeland and loved one. Some of the lyrics to the song are included in the next paragraph.

Oh Zareef al-Tool stop so I can tell you

You are going abroad and your country is

Better for you

I am afraid that you will get established there

And find someone else and forget me

Illustrations of the debka date back to the Phoenicians where drawing on pottery show the act of dancing in circles around a piper. Another narrative on the origins of the debka dance describes the thumping the floor hard with the feet as representing the act of compacting dirt, straw and mud into a material to use to make the roofs of Palestinian homes. The stomping represents pastoral work scenes from tilling the soil, harvesting, planting, and celebrating the rain. The stomping eventually led to a rhythmic dance movements and songs.

Instruments that accompany debka are the oud or lute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oud), mijwiz or clarinet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mijwiz, tablah or hand drum 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabla, and daff or tambourine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daf.

In the majority of dance, the female dancers wear the traditional Palestinian costume. 

For additional information on the traditional Palestinian costume: http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2014/12/palestinian-embroidery.html

Marcel Rabayy’a, a debka choreographer, describes debka as an expression of humanity and after viewing some debka dances in the links underneath the love and passion these dancers put into the art is clearly a hallmark of the dance.

~~~ 

Videos of the debka being preformed at various Palestinians functions are included for easy access:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssTcNpaRTQE
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3HFmsdiuaw
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMoBcJ16Rfs
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-W7Kn_B1hs

~~~

Boycott for Peace! 

http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/boycott4peace

~~~

Use the buttons below to e-mail, reblog, tweet, share, or pin: