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Palestinian Resistance

Decent Essays

Palestinian resistance for years has promoted peace through dance. Dance has played a major part in the resistance movement as a cultural stimulant and a criticism of the oppression (Rowe, 442). In a comprehensive analysis of “Dance Criticisms in the Occupied Territories”, Rowe points out that, “By prompting individuals within a community to engage in a collective evaluation of local artistic production, such criticism can help sustain a cultural commonality within the community and guide artistic visions of a collective future (442)”. Palestinian dance is used at various occasions to honor or celebrate in varied ways. The history of Palestinian dance spans approximately two centuries and therefore, with roots in the culture, has a very …show more content…

Of course, since Rolston mentioned that early muralists were constantly under risk of arrest or of death by Israeli troops when the territories were under heavy occupation these forms of art were obviously viewed as offensive and even dangerously incisive. As he points out, Israel felt that these messages were enough of a threat to employ a group of soldiers to carefully erase the illustrations. There is additional evidence of Palestinian artists painting murals of Palestinian women within Israel’s borders intending to disturb the public (Rolston, 48), but their motives are subject to the dispute of narratives whether it was meant as a move for peace or as a direct incitement of violence. Hamas even rejected murals and public forms of cultural resistance. For instance with the coming of Arafat with the Oslo Accords before the Second Intifada, artists were ordered to black out their murals by Hamas because it would “destroy the peace process (47)”. In addition, when Hamas banned posters remembering Arafat, muralists rebelliously painted Arafat next to the leader of Hamas (50). This caused rivalry and unrest within …show more content…

Yet here is born an important movement that not only denies the condemnations of Palestinian demise, showing a clear rise in Palestinian culture but also inspires peace and an end to the conflict. The silent words of each expression may seem a threat to Israel; however, as a pose to a violent movement, these art forms are effective as a path for resolution. Several scholars point out the importance of these non-violent forms of resistance that provide a medium of expression for the Palestinian people other than with violent means. Al Areqi quotes Darwish, who promotes that a nation needs to protest for its identity not only through violence,

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