This blog was written by Laura Hassler, Director Musicians Without Borders
when truth can no longer be hidden, then the telling of truth will be forbidden
– Laura Hassler, September 2024
In all my many years of public speaking for Musicians Without Borders , only twice have I been instructed by the inviting party what (and what not) to speak about—both times in the last few weeks.
What not: anything ‘political’, which I understand in today’s context to include:
the unspeakable nightmare seen every day on our phones and screens: the killing, maiming and displacing of hundreds of thousands of children, women and men in Gaza, now also in Lebanon, by Israel with active or tacit support of the US, the UK, the EU.
the unspeakable violence of relentless bombing, of chasing people from one unsafe area to another, then bombing them wherever they seek shelter.
the unspeakable targeting of universities, hospitals, and schools; and of medics, aid workers, intellectuals, journalists, artists, and poets.
the unspeakable deliberate use of starvation—the denial of access to food and water—as a weapon of ethnic cleansing.
the unspeakable bulldozing of people’s homes and of communities’ infrastructures by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, the seizing of Palestinian lands, the closing of media outlets, the murder of civilians.
the unspeakable lies and denial of responsibility by the very sources of the weapons being used daily to perpetrate this horror.
any reference to history and context. Any recognition of the conclusions of global–including Israeli–human rights and humanitarian organizations, of the International Court of Justice, of the International Criminal Court—of systemic injustice, apartheid, occupation, war crimes, genocide.
the erosion of the credibility of such concepts as Universal Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, the Genocide Convention, or the UN, once established as a forum of all nations to protect and enforce these global agreements and to limit and control the use of war and arbitrary violence by any nation or party.
What I am allowed to speak about: PEACE and how music can contribute to peace.
La-di-da.
As anyone post-Martin Luther King should, by now, know by heart: the ‘verb of peace’ is justice. And the way to peace is the search for ‘truth’—seeking and fearlessly revealing truth was one of the basic tenets of Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence.
I have seen a meme on social media: when truth can no longer be hidden, then the telling of truth will be forbidden. And that is what we are seeing: journalists targeted and killed in Palestine; renowned international speakers denied entrance to Germany for conferences about Gaza; British nonviolent activists’ homes broken into at night by armed (police) thugs, arrested with no charges, denied access to lawyers, property stolen or destroyed, electronic devices confiscated with no redress; nonviolent protesting students in the US beaten by police, black-listed for future employment, suspended, expelled, even deported; smear campaigns against public figures speaking against genocide.
Somehow, I had not imagined that well-intentioned organizations, interested in promoting the power of music for peacebuilding and social change, would be frightened of mentioning the actual context of our work: the grim, unspeakable horrors of war that make creative peacebuilding both necessary and relevant— this context not limited to, but definitely including, Palestine.
But there you have it: the Unspeakable may not be mentioned.
People working for peace must speak out against war, must speak truth, must confront power, from every platform we have, including the modest ones. If we cannot speak the truth, if we cannot denounce war, what right do we have to even use the word ‘peace’?
Unspeakable.
The following piece of music and text is written and performed by Fabienne van Eck, a cellist living in West Bank, and head of our programs in the Middle East.
Forced Displacement
I kept imagining all those people, forced to leave their houses, walking through the streets. Not knowing where to go. Not knowing if they can go back home. And when they can go home, will it still be standing?
Do they know where to go? All those people who keep walking and walking, not knowing if they will ever reach a safe place.
I asked my friend Anas from the north of Gaza to share his videos with us. He filmed his surroundings every time he was forced to flee – again and again – looking for a safe haven for his family. His children walked for hours, keeping tight hold of their plastic bags containing a few belongings. They are still smiling. Because somehow, they still believe that their parents are taking them to a safe space.
This video is dedicated to Fateena, Waseem, Ibrahim, Abeer and Anas.
Cellist and music: Fabienne van Eck
Audio Production: RJ Music Productions
Filming ‘Gaza Scenes’: Anas Arafat
Videographer and Lighting: Tamer Samir
Special thanks to Wonder Cabinet in Bethlehem and Ibrahim Owais
Directed and edited by Rober Handal
Produced by Fabienne
