We may not all share the same politics or the same opinion on the best path to peace in the Middle East but we do agree that singling out Israel as the only democracy in the region like the American and British governments do, is a misrepresentation of the facts on the ground.
For decades now, Israel has committed several atrocities killing thousands of Hamas fighters while the world has turned a blind eye.
Since 2014, according to the European Parliament, 150 000 Palestinians have been killed,33 000 of them being babies and children.
Two weeks ago the Palestinians in Gaza decided enough is enough. They went to attack and killed around 1500 Israelis and seized around 199 hostages. In the attack, Hamas fighters flew paragliders from Gaza and used bulldozers to poke gaping holes in a barrier fence to gain access to Israeli territory.
This surprising and shocking unprecedented attack by Hamas suddenly became a big concern to the super-powers of this world, especially those in the West. It attracted world-wide condemnation for Hamas for such brutality. The same atrocities which the Israelis had been committing for decades on the Palestinians without a word from America or Britain were being condemned.
Because it was Israel’s turn to suffer what the Palestinians had experienced over the years, suddenly all hell has broken loose. Israelis came with a vengeance and started to kill thousands of Palestinians through bombardments and air strikes which included the murdering of hundreds of innocent civilians who had taken shelter at a Gaza hospital.
Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the U.S. and a number of other Western countries. The violence continues.
I try as best as I can not to indulge in politics, but when it comes to well-known celebrities getting politically involved in world’s political affairs, I can’t help but to make a comment.
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It is in this context that I watch the behaviour of Hollywood celebrities and their views regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Tens of Hollywood celebrities have voiced support for Israel in a statement calling for ‘a solution that brings peace to the region.
The likes of Ziggy Marley, Mayim Bialik, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Minnie Driver, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, Scooter Braun and Sylvester Stallone, among many others, signed a petition denouncing boycotts against Israel and highlighting the need to stop Hamas from firing rockets at Israeli cities.’
Why were these celebrities quiet In the many years Palestinians have been killed by Israelis? I ask.
The statement featuring 193 names of celebrities who included producers, actors, directors and musicians says Hamas cannot be allowed “to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage.
Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields.
“We join together in support of the democratic values we all cherish and in the hope that the healing and transformative power of the arts can be used to build bridges of peace.”
Mike, a friend of mine who I was with when Bob Marley came to Zimbabwe in 1980, says that he is dismayed at Ziggy Marley’s support of Israel given his father’s revolutionary stance. Remember Bob Marley wrote several revolutionary songs between 1973 and 1980 which included Revolution, Get Up Stand Up Stand Up For your Rights, I Shot The Sheriff, Burning and Looting, Them Belly Full But We Hungry, Redemption Song and War. Marley wrote these songs out of frustration and anger on behalf of the people who felt suffocated by curfews and police brutality in Jamaica.
When Marley came to celebrate Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, Mike and I briefly spoke to Ziggy, aged ten at the time. He was clinging on to his mother, Rita. After greeting them both, we asked Ziggy if he was going to follow in his father’s footsteps as a revolutionary singer. His response was simply, “Yeah man!”
So signing a petition in support of Israel is not what one expects from a Jamaican-born revolutionary and son of Bob Marley given the history for Israel and the Palestinians since 1948
However, I can understand Ziggy Marley signing this petition. Ziggy Marley has a personal connection to the country through his Israeli wife, Orly, and their Jamaican-Israeli daughter, Judah Victoria.
He has toured Israel at least four times in the last five years to visit his in-laws and to give performances. But does he really believe in Israel? Does he think that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is justified?
Does he think that supporting Israel in its fight against the Palestinians, is the way to go for a revolutionary? What do the rest of his Jamaican brothers and sisters think? What does he think his father, the great Bob Marley, would have thought about his support for Israel?
In August 2018, Ziggy Marley strode quietly onto a tiny Tel Aviv stage with his nine-piece band and knee-length dreadlocks, his humility belying the sheer talent that enthralled his fans for two hours.
“Shalom Tel Aviv. Jah Rastafari. OK let’s do this,” he shouted as the band launched into I Will Be Glad from one of his solo studio albums: Rebellion Rises.
Ziggy Marley brought energy and intensity to the thousands in the packed Barby Club in Tel Aviv.
Jogging in place incessantly and occasionally shadowboxing as he played, he kept the crowd entertained from start to finish.
The eight-time Grammy Award winning artist was making his fourth visit to Israel. Most of the songs he played were from Rebellion Rises, his seventh solo studio album, which has received critical acclaim and has been described as a call to action. by reviewers.
After the opening song of thanksgiving, Marley strapped on a guitar as the concert switched gears with two protest songs expressing his yearning to change the world, See Dem Fake Leaders followed by World Revolution. Indeed these could be described as revolutionary songs, but we are not sure to whom they were directed. We still ask the questions:
Yes, World Revolution? Is Ziggy just paying lip service because his father sang about revolution? Or is he a true revolutionary?
If Bob Marley were still alive, whose side would he take, the Palestinians or the Israelis (Bearing in mind that his grandchildren are Jewish-Israeli Jamaican)?
Knowing Bob Marley from his music and knowing his ideology, I strongly believe he would be against endless occupation of Palestine (West bank is UN recognized as Palestine, together with Gaza strip), against illegal colonisation of that land, against inhumane blockade of Gaza where the supply of running water, fuel, food and electricity have been cut-off by the Israeli government and against apartheid which is silently present in Israel.
I do not foresee the prospect of peace in Palestine for as long as the Israelis think that they are superior to the Palestinians and continue to occupy their land. A two-state solution where Palestinians and Israelis can have their own separate land could be the only solution.
Bob Marley must have long predicted what is happening now between Israel and Palestine when he wrote the tune War, which goes something like this:
Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned
Everywhere is war
Me say war
That until there are no longer
First-class and second-class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war
That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all
Without regard to race
Dis a war
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued
But never attained
Now everywhere is war
War
etc.
Bob Marley's message is revolutionary and motivational, but executed with an amiableness that I'd compare to another revolutionary, Mahatma Gandhi. Marley foresaw the Israeli/Palestinian conflict coming long before his death and I am sure that if he had his way, he probably would have persuaded his son, Ziggy not to marry an Israeli.
Thus staying true to his spirituality, self-awareness and revolutionary attitude. Bob Marley must be turning in his grave at the thought of what is being perpetrated in his name especially from his own children. Ziggy, take heed!
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