It was such a great experience being able to talk to Aaron and Guy from the Heartbeat Jerusalem project! I need to focus my thoughts, there is so much more I want to learn! I assumed this project would be more like a West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. I don't know why I imagined this was classical music. While both of those projects are amazing, they seem very different in their own ways. It seems like a great experience for the Israelis and Palestinians to not only learn about music but to also inshallah tear down the walls of distrust between them. I went to the Hip Hop Hudna music website and really enjoy listening to it. Not that I'm any sort of music expert, but for several reasons I think it's pretty amazing music.
It was also really interesting to hear Aaron's take on normalization. Having never traveled to the Israel or Palestine, despite what I read about, it is still hard for me to imagine the inequality between the two groups. I understood from Jenna that her problem of normalization is that it pretends that everything is fine when in reality it is not. But I had never been explained that it creates a false setting of equality between the two groups when in reality they are unequal in their society. Aaron also touched on the fact that each groups says about the other, "We want peace but they don't". It was interesting that he said this because that is what I keep hearing from many different voices. Everyone is stuck in this 'its them' mentality.
Finally, I wish we could have heard what Guy was saying. I want to know from him the sort of reactions he has received being an Israeli working on this project. What challenges has he faced? What does his family think? What did you think about it when you first began working on this project? What got you starting in the project?
I am so glad we got this opportunity. I am really moved by the project. I hope that if/when I travel to Israeli I will get a chance to see the Heartbeat project and the kids who are participating in it.
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