“Sing us a Mawwal”: The Politics of Culture-Brokering Palestinian Israeli Musicians

Abstract

Setting aside the numerous all-Jewish bands (such as “Habreira Hativ’it,” “Sheva,” “Gaia,” and “Essev Bar”) active in the musika etnit scene, I focus here on the socio-cultural interactions of those collaborations that cross the boundary between Israeli Jews and Israeli or Palestinian Arabs. The Israeli/Palestinian contrast addressed in this paper’s title masks considerable complexity. Who or what is Israeli? Palestinian? Within Israel, the unmarked category of Israeli is often assumed to denote an Israeli Jew of European descent, but that identity applies to few of the musicians to be discussed here: Some are Jews of mizrahi or Sephardic descent, while others are Christians or Muslims who identify as Arab or Palestinian depending on context, due to the situational and instrumental nature of identity. Adding to the complexity, some of the Palestinian Arab musicians are Israeli citizens, while others are not.