With the recent wave of negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian diplomatic leaders, it is not difficult to get lost in the talking points, such as “settlement moratorium” and “two-state solution,” and forget the humanity behind this enduring conflict. At the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, lies the concept of cultural identity. Over the past 60 years, several wars have been fought, and still are, over the ownership of cultural, territorial and religious traditions. Thus far, this process has left a clear winner. During the time after its founding in 1948, Israel has established itself both culturally and politically as a major player in the international scene. This did not come cheaply, today a resilient and suspicious Israeli population prospers, but still under constant threats of terrorist action. Palestinians on the other hand, have little to really call their own after decades of struggle. Divided geographically as well as politically, the Palestinian people face increasingly harsh economic circumstances, and a cultural tradition which is largely defined by its opposition to Israel and their right of return to the Palestinian territory.
Faced with this fragile cultural environment, the Ibdaa Cultural Center was founded 1994 with the desire of providing children in Dheisheh refugee camp with a way to express themselves. This self-proclaimed grassroots organization is today widely recognized for fostering the traditional Palestinian dance debke within Palestinian youth, and presenting this dance to audiences all over the world. By providing the youth with an artistic escape from an environment saturated with conflict, the Ibdaa Cultural Center embodies what this blog aims to investigate, namely: art as a means of conflict resolution. In April of 2010, I was fortunate enough to speak with one of the organization’s co-founders, Ziad Abbas, who enlightened me on the origin and mission of this project, as well as its reception abroad and characteristics of the current Palestinian cultural identity.
HISTORY
The idea for this organization came about when a French group called Discovery, which organized cultural exchanges with students from the North and South of France, decided to establish an international exchange with children from Palestine. From this first exchange came the inspiration and opportunity to develop cultural activities for Palestinian children, which would eventually include cross-cultural exchanges of their own. “We had the desire to just do a project just for children,” says Abbas, “no organization deals with children needs in that period, because of the occupation and the whole situation in the camp.”
Dheisheh refugee camp is one of the most overcrowded of all Palestinian camps within the West Bank, with more than 9,500 persons (1999) in an area measuring half of a square kilometer. Without much room or resources to play, explore and express themselves, children grow up with a strong nostalgia for a homeland they never even knew. Many cite their villages, which were in fact the homes of their grandparents when they were children, as their hometowns instead of Dheisheh. They yearn for their own tradition, their own cultural heritage, and in many ways that is what The Ibdaa Cultural Center attempts to give back to them.
Ibdaa, whose Arabic meaning implies “to create” and according to Abbas implies “to create something out of nothing,” developed quickly from its first group of students. “In the beginning we were 2 leaders and 30 children in the streets, after three years we became 32 leaders,” says Abbas proudly, “now I can say we have hundreds of leaders in the camp.” While at first the group was met with some hesitation from members of their community, primarily because some did not want to have young boys and girls participating in activities together, the cultural center eventually gained popular support. “The people understood that our mission was very valid, and it is related to the people’s daily life of the camp” says Abbas, claiming that the organization’s concept was not just to create a positive environment to children but also to give “a voice to the Palestinian refugee.”
CULTURAL IDENTITY AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Giving a “voice” to refugees is an important point to keep in mind as we consider the extent to which Ibdaa is working towards conflict resolution. The idea is not to bring children together and enlighten them on the concept of peace, or somehow through dance, lead them to forgive and understand the injustices done to them. Instead, they tend to focus on their role as cultural and community leaders, aiming to provide a positive environment for their respective societies, and in doing so, allowing the youth to better their own lives and communities. “We want our children, not just to throw stones; we want them to think, we want them to dance, we want them to be in touch with other children in the world, we want them to learn how to be leaders, be connected to their community, to support their community, this is the whole idea,” says Abbas, “it’s not the idea of violence or non-violence or that kind of stuff.”
The concept of developing a cultural identity while also educating others about the condition of the Palestinian people, through cross-cultural interaction, is really at the center of all that is organized by Ibdaa. By teaching the youth this traditional Palestinian dance, the organization is helping this particular youth to learn about their own culture, and fulfill a void they have collected as a fourth generation refugee. This is an effort that is continued throughout the many other activities and programs that developed out of the original dance group. These include: dance, art, theater and media projects, a women’s income generating project, a computer lab with skills training, the first women’s basketball team in a Palestinian refugee camp, and even a history project, which educates the kids on their history and heritage, taking many of them to the land where their villages once stood, for the first time in their lives.
Inherit within this concept of a Palestinian cultural identity, and most artistic projects performed by The Ibdaa Cultural Center, is the idea of establishing a voice for the Palestinian refugee within the international community. This is particularly significant considering that dance groups from Ibdaa have had the opportunity to tour around the world, showcasing their art in Europe as well as in the United States. While the large majority of routines are more conservative in their tone, including traditional wear and music, there are a couple that appeal much more to political sensibilities, to an extent that may seem alarming to Western audiences unfamiliar with the Palestinian refugee situation. A specific performance, titled “Mortigal: Political Prisoner” develops a scene in which a man is taken, rather forcibly and violently, by a military official, chained and blindfolded, and tossed around on stage. The music, which accompanies this routine, is also graphic and pointed in its political tone. The performance presents quite a contrast to the more traditional dance numbers in the groups’ repertoire, often shocking audience members with the violence being acted out by children in their early teens. Its aim is very clearly to inform the audience, of the suffering of all Palestinian people as refugees.
After watching these performances, I asked Mr. Abbas about their political nature, and whether or not this kind of programming has ever gotten the organization in trouble with Western audiences. “We were confronted when we were traveling in Europe or in the States,” says Abbas “some people don’t want part of our dance in the States, and we refused to do that, and we insist, this is part of our culture and we will insist on this.” The idea of teaching Palestinian youth about their heritage, without educating them on their rights, seems dishonest and unfair to Abbas, as well as not very productive. “There are some groups,” he explains “that are trying to impose their agenda, to have projects with Israel, to not speak of rights of return, (they say) ‘we want the children to just to focus on music, and just to live their lives, and teach them about peace.’ Okay, we teach our children about peace and education, but we teach them about justice too.”
In developing this cultural and political identity, Ibdaa has never advocated for the use of violence. Their political stance is consistently against violence and instead focused on basic rights, and justice. Mr. Abbas and his organization remind us that conflict resolution does not simply mean the end of violence, but it means resolving problems. The Palestinian people are not only looking for peace, but they are searching for better economic opportunities, the rights to establish their own state and voice in the international community.
By providing the youth with creative and educational opportunities, the Ibdaa Cultural Center uses art to resolve individual conflicts, and better the opportunity of young Palestinians growing up in an environment that is not supportive of a prosperous future for them. Better explained by Abbas himself, “children they are coming from refugee camps, they grow up under curfew, they are surrounded by fence, they couldn’t see Jerusalem which is ten miles from them, do you think they are going to start singing about Michael Jackson songs? They will not sing to Michael Jackson songs, they will be connected to the songs related to their reality. They will create their own songs.”
The idea is to give the youth the capability to finally create opportunities for themselves. To “create their own songs.” In this sense Ibdaa has succeeded. Since its founding in 1994, many members of the organization’s dance groups have been able to prosper, “some of them are finishing their education right now” says Abbas, “some of them are in graduate school, some of them are in medicine school, some of them are amazing, they are leaders in their community.” It is evident through these quotes, and the passion on Mr. Abbas’ voice that the main objective of giving kids the tools they need to succeed has been accomplished, and to this extent, Ibdaa has worked towards a more prosperous and peaceful Palestine, a place where the resolution of conflict with Israel is more likely than it would have been 20 years ago. As explained by Abbas, “in my generation I learned how to throw stones before I learned to read and write.”
The center has indeed managed to “create something out of nothing,” by giving children a new platform for knowledge, filling a large gap in their lives. Using art, the Ibdaa Cultural Center has helped people in grim humanitarian conditions to learn about themselves, and to serve as messengers for the injustices suffered by their communities. In doing so they may not have directly affected the decisions made by Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Mahmud Abbas, but they have shaken the foundation of a structural violence that has for so long condemned Palestinian refugees to a dire predicament.
As future agents of change, both locally and internationally, I think we can learn a lot from Ziad Abbas and the Ibdaa Cultural Center on where genuine progress can be made within conflict scenarios. Personally, I take two main lessons from this case study: first, if you want to bring real change for the people within a conflict environment, you have to be true to the history and not expect peace without solutions and justice; second, the most genuine efforts to resolve or improve any conflict will not come from internationally mandated standards or campaigns, but from driven leaders within the areas of conflict. As with all my future articles, I hope this has brought up some questions in your mind about the concepts of conflict resolution, art, international “Peacebuilding,” and how different people around the world are dealing with their individual conflicts. If so, I encourage you to share some of those thoughts, questions and examples that come to mind, so we can all benefit from your input.
Sources:
"Interview with Ziad Abbas." Telephone interview. 20 Apr. 2010.
The Children of Ibdaa - To Create Something Out of Nothing. Dir. S. Smith Patrick. Arab Film Distribuitor, 2002. DVD.
Rosenfeld, Maya. "Power Structure, Agency, and Family in a Palestinian Refugee Camp." International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol.34.No.3 (2002): 519-51. JSTOR. Web. 24 Mar. 2010.
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