New York (AFP) – Rock icon Roger Waters has joined Palestinian artists for a new song billed as a response to the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
To the sound of the oud lutes of Le Trio Joubran, one of the most prominent groups performing Palestinian traditional music, Waters recites verse from Mahmoud Darwish, considered the poet laureate of the Palestinians.
Darwish’s poem, “The Red Indian’s Penultimate Speech to the White Man,” on the surface comes from the voice of a Native American mourning settlements that will permanently alter the land but clearly draws a parallel to the Palestinians and Israel.
“Where, oh white master, are you taking my people — and yours?” the British rocker recites in the English translation over the lutes and an ambient backdrop.
Waters, best known as a former member of Pink Floyd who conceived the rock opera “The Wall,” has long been a passionate supporter of the Palestinian cause and has angered Israelis by leading calls for a cultural boycott.
Le Trio Joubran wrote on Facebook that the collaborative song, entitled “Supremacy,” was meant as a response to Trump. They called Jerusalem the “#CapitalOfPalestine.”
Trump has broken international precedent by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordering the US embassy’s move from Tel Aviv to the holy city.
Israel occupied mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It sees the entire city as its capital.
The Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Washington plans to open its embassy in Jerusalem to mark Israel’s 70th birthday in May, delighting the Jewish state but enraging Palestinians who mark Israel’s creation as Naqba, or their “day of catastrophe.”
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