Oct 09 2013
Jordanian Band Tour Runs Into Political Bumps
By Daoud Kuttab
This week, a Jordanian band went on a tour that includes the Golan Heights, Nazareth, Haifa, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. But the popular music group which is rated as one of the top five in the region faced a concerted social media and online attack as having participated in a politically unacceptable act.
Because the band members received visas from the Israeli embassy in Amman the band was attacked as having contributed to normalising relations with the Israelis.
The band, Autostrad, identifies itself as “an Ammani world, reggae, funk band from Jordan. Fronted by lead singer Yazan Alrousan, Autostrad was formed in 2007 with guitarist Hamza Arnaout, keyboardist Wisam Qatawneh, bassist Avo Demerjian, saxophonist Bashar Abdelghani and drummer Burhan Ali.
The online and social media campaign was launched by a number of young Jordanians and Palestinians, including some who are citizens of Israel .In an article published on a number of progressive sites, the writer says the band is welcome to Palestine only after it is liberated.A hashtag “welcome after it is liberated” also went viral as attacks against the music group mushroomed.
Efforts to boycott Israel are generally focused on international academics wanting to visit Israeli towns, not Palestinian locals inside Israel. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel says that it has developed guidelines on this issue in consultation with Palestinian civil society organisations since 2007. “All Arab-passport holders entering any part of historic Palestine (67 or 48) on an Israeli visa are normalising with Israel. Continue Reading »