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Gaza's Attack on Modernity

(Corriere della Sera-Italy, 14 July 2010) Lorenzo Cremonesi - Basher Bseiso, 20, a singer from the "Peace Group" (Fariq Salam), very popular among young rap-lovers in Gaza, explains: "We are victims of the repressive religious government which, due to a distorted reading of the Quran, prohibits free music." Jamal Abu al-Qumsan, 43, director of the most famous art gallery in Gaza, sends out from his home: "Thanks to all of you democratic people, from all over the world, who are fighting the Israeli embargo of Gaza. But please, at the same time, could you also denounce the Hamas repression of intellectual freedom?" In the culture war in Gaza, the more extremist wings of the religious front want to close the beach to girls; they forbid any privacy for unmarried couples; they consider Western music and fashions as a danger to public "morality." Hamas has now imposed a "Godfather" regime on its own people. Punishment doesn't only mean prison, or even torture; rather, it means ostracism, losing one's job, denigration, social isolation. Bseiso speaks with rage of having been beaten up on April 28: "I was riding my motorcycle when a group of Ezzedin Al Qassam militiamen came up alongside me, knocked me to the ground and beat me with sticks." Until a few days ago, Qumsan couldn't sit down or lie on his back due to the beatings he suffered between May 5 and May 12. They say that in the former beach house of the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, the cellars have been turned into torture chambers for the "enemies of Islam."
2010-07-22 08:07:12
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