Source: Screencap / Youtube
The conflict between Palestine and Israel has endured for years, causing many outside nations to show their allegiance to either side at the risk of alienating the other. Realizing the depths of the issues between their people, an Arab rapper and Israeli educator released a rap video that has gone viral due to their ambitious aims to tear down racism between the cultures.
For the track “Bo Nedaber Dugri (Let’s Talk Straight),” Arab rapper Sameh Zakout and Israeli educator Uriya Rosenman hurl insults at one another in an attempt to combat racism from both sides. The video, released initially on May 20, has just under 100,000 views on Youtube and a reported 4 million across social, is fashioned in the same vein as Joyner Lucas’ “I’m Not Racist” song and video. The two are seen in the video hurling racist barbs at each other for over six minutes.
The New York Times profiled the pair, which revealed the origin of how they met and how the song and video were developed over time. Despite their disparate upbringings replete with racist and harmful assumptions of the other, the pair have forged a strong friendship and hope to continue to keep having difficult conversations about what’s happening in their native lands.
“Some things about my country are amazing and pure,” Rosenmann said in an interview. “Some are very rotten. They are not discussed. We are motivated by trauma. We are a post-traumatic society. The Holocaust gives us some sort of back-way legitimacy to not plan for the future, not understand the full picture of the situation here, and to justify action we portray as defending ourselves.”
Read the entire profile in full here. Keep scrolling to see the “Let’s Talk Straight” video.
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Photo: YouTube
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