Music and the Gaza Genocide: Palestinian Resistance and Sumud in the face of Zionist Liquidationism

Abstract

This essay builds on a lecture and discussion at the “Palestinian Performing Arts and the Creation of Post-memory” symposium hosted by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh on May 13th, 2024. It surveys and analyses the role of music during the Israeli genocide and Palestinian resistance in Gaza from October 7th, 2023. Developing this theme to reflect discussions at the conference, and in light of events since, this contribution expands on themes of sumud, or steadfastness, on violent colonialist attempts to liquidate the resistance, and on the musico-cultural effects of this confrontation. I argue that the musical activities of those attached to both the Palestinian liberationist camp and the Zionist occupation are revealing of what is at stake in a civilisational confrontation. The paper draws on the work of Marxist leader and novelist Ghassan Kanafani, where he identifies the collective, popular and historically conscious nature of Palestinian music, its entwinement with popular history, and its “lovers” (‘ashiqeen), as hinting at the vanguard role of the colonised and oppressed in battles for the future of humanity. The concluding reflections were written in the context of Zionist attempts to decapitate the resistance through the killings of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Yahya Sinwar—both also literary figures—and other important leaders and former political prisoners, through commentary on their roles in the generation of popular collective imagination.