‘Band of Lovers’: The Lebanese Artist who Helped Cement Palestine’s Revolutionary Culture

By Ramzy Baroud

At any time when Israeli troopers stormed our neighborhood in a Gaza refugee camp, we might rush to cover a couple of VHS tapes of Al-Asheqeen band.

Possessing such revolutionary contraband can be sufficient to earn one a extreme beating, an arrest and a heavy fantastic.

For this reason, after I discovered that the chief of the band, the legendary Lebanese artist, Hussein Munther, often known as ‘Abu Ali’, had handed away on Sunday, September 17. I used to be overwhelmed with nostalgia.

‘O world, bear witness to what has occurred to us, and to Beirut; bear witness to (our) standard battle ..,” Al-Asheqeen sang concerning the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. I can’t think about {that a} single little one of my technology didn’t know that tune by coronary heart.

Munther died, however left behind a wealth of 300 songs, all devoted to Palestine, and to Arab and international solidarity with the Palestinian folks.

Munther was not alone. His fame, and affect, was a part of the well-deserved reputation of the Al-Asheqeen band, roughly translated ‘Band of the Lovers.’

The reference to like right here is to the love of the homeland, to Palestine and to Palestine alone.

The band, based in 1977, has outlined, greater than some other, the connection between Palestinians within the Shatat – diaspora – and people in occupied Palestine, with that of the homeland, with Palestine as an thought, a tangible actuality, a historical past, a tradition and far more.

The message of the band has helped Palestinians stay sturdy throughout probably the most tough of instances – the Beirut siege in 1982, the Sabra and Shatila Bloodbath, the relentless exile, the wars, the betrayal of mates and the cruelty of enemies.

The content material of Asheqeen, usually transmitted within the thunderous voice of Munther, was penned by Palestine’s most well-known poets, the likes of Ahmed Dahbour, Mahmoud Darwish, Tawfiq Ziad, Nuh Ibrahim and Samih al-Qasim.

A fast scan of the historic and cultural references made by the band demonstrates that Palestine, for these beloved artists, was not a spot in time, pushed by a single faction or an ideology; it was Palestine as an everlasting fact that is still, and can stay unchanged.

They sang for the Arab revolutionary Izz al-Din al-Qassam (1981); for Beirut (82); for the Shatat; for the ‘youngsters of the stones’ (87), for the Intifada ..

They sang for Palestine, as a lady, Zareef al-Toul, tall and proud, lovely, rooted in her land, legendary in her dignity and revolutionary in her resilience.

And who else may convey all of those sentiments in a framework of energy and poise however Hussein Munther, who, apparently – additionally tellingly – was a Lebanese artist, with a Shami accent, and a Palestinian coronary heart.

Munther was an “Arab-Palestinian-Shami-Lebanese undertaking of the very best caliber,” an Arab author, Thahir Saleh, wrote at Aljazeera Web.

In reality, the whole thing of the Asheqeen undertaking was an Arab one, involving the late Abdullah Hourani, Hussein Nazik, Mizr Mardini, the sisters, Maha and Misa’ abu al-Shamat, together with numerous Arab and Palestinian songwriters, performers, set designers and organizers.

The pan-Arabism of Asheqeen mirrored a interval of Arab revolutionary battle wherein the Palestinian trigger didn’t belong solely to Palestine, however to all Arab nations.

Most Palestinian political teams, together with Fatah below the management of the late Yasser Arafat, contributed to this historic achievement.

Outdated movies of Asheqeen performances confirmed the highest leaderships of main Palestine Liberation Group (PLO) teams, all represented equally, sitting within the entrance row of the band’s live shows.

Munther and Asheqeen toured quite a few Arab and worldwide capitals for years, rightfully incomes the title the ‘Voice of the Palestinian Revolution.’

Although lots of those that helped kind the band, lots of its early members, tune writers, and now, ‘Abu Ali’ himself, have departed this earth, the songs of Asheqeen proceed to resonate loudly in each Palestinian metropolis, village and refugee camp. They’re heard all through Lebanon, in Syria and in lots of Palestinian and Arab properties the world over.

The best achievement of Hussein Munther and his ‘Band of Lovers’ is that they’ve demonstrated that revolution just isn’t a rifle, however the tradition that provides the rifle its precise which means.

Furthermore, they’ve helped cement the widespread values of Resistance amongst Palestinians as the one solution to liberate the wounded homeland.

However the Resistance of Asheqeen and Hussein Munther, often known as ‘Abu Ali,’ is one which outcomes from a collective and unrepented love for Palestine and her folks.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He’s the writer of six books. His newest ebook, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Imaginative and prescient for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Communicate out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Analysis Fellow on the Middle for Islam and International Affairs (CIGA). His web site is www.ramzybaroud.internet