Enslaved by the past, liberated through history
by Judenratt

"(?)This idea of history sorta has us all fucked up. There is past behind us and we're always struggling under the weight of the past. And the future in front of us is an even bigger weight where i wanna do something that lasts after i'm dead. Anything but to really be here right now" (Brian, from the US band Catharsis in Reflections magazine, issue 13)

Late 1982, the corner of Allenby and Yehuda Ha'Levi streets in Tel Aviv. You can hear the music coming from probably the only "new wave punk" clubs in the Middle East, "the Penguin", that has just opened it's doors not long ago and will serve as the main underground club in Israel for about a decade. The sounds reaching the streets please those kids with weird haircuts, the minority among a conformly dressed crowd who gathers outside to breath fresh air or to talk, or to do whathver you need to do after you pay a pricey entrance ticket and got bored by watching people dance or looking at the black walls. One of those kids is called Ron.

Ron is one of the few that actually looks different, in a "postcard from London" sense: a badly done mohawk, leather and boots. Coming back from London some weeks ago, he liked what he saw there and actually purchased the first Exploited LP and even a Discharge 12". If you could have a glimpse over his collection, you would see The Fall, XTC and Ian Dury too, along with 70s' rock and israeli schmaltz. Ron likes the music at the "Penguin". The DJ tonight may spin a Joy Division or a Siouxsie 12"s but definately not even a track by Minor Threat, Black Flag or the Necros. But fuck you - be patient! Anywhere in the west (maybe besides Italy), it'll take probably one more year until Hardcore starts becoming a major underground force so you cannot expect anything out of the "holy land" in this matter.

Some of the people in the "Penguin" are over 20. It means that they already served in the army for 3 years and are probably going to be called the compulsory, 3 weeks at least, annual reserve duty. Many of them are going to be sent to Lebanon. Yeah, only 3 hours drive north from Tel Aviv, where the frontier lies, Sharon's forces and it's allies had already unleashed a tremendous attack on the "Cedar Country", leaving a trail of death and destruction on their way to Beirut.

The Sex Pistols poster, which hangs on Ron?s room wall, just besides the Maccabbi Tel Aviv basketball team photo, will soon became orphan and destined to get dusty in a drawer, together with all the belongings of a now dead soldier. But that'll happen in some weeks, now the mohawked, and still civil, boy enjoys a cold falafel, bought just before the last of the many stands in one of the most important streets in TA, closes. "It's true that Bauhaus are coming to play here"?, asks Ron. "Yeah, that's the rumour" he gets for an answer. But he won't enjoy seeing them or Rober Smith playing guitar with Siouxsie on their trip to the "only democracy in the middle east". He won't hold a DK album, or vote for Rabin, and then Nethanyahu and then Barak and then Sharon. That's because the latter will use him as a war expenses. The ex mowhaked boy and ex soldier, may he R.I.P., was buried in the Rishon Let'Zion cemetary.

Hardcore never made an impact in Israel until the late 80s, and even then it was used mostly as term describing crossover and even thrash metal bands. But

it may surprise punk historians to know that the '77 craze reached Israel actually later on that same year. I had an article about a "punk night" from early 1978, if i remember right Rami Fortis played a show there. Fortis was a rocker, with 60's garage and 70's rock influences. His debut LP released the same year is pretty good, actually closer to punk then you probably may think. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the tracks will eventually appear on one of those "Killed By Death" comps.. But if it will, i guess that'll be Israel's sole contribution to the ancient world of punk, since local punkers didn't released anything until the 90's. The israeli underground music scene was pretty active, but most of the output can be categorized as somewhere between new wave and industrial. There were "punks", if you consider people with crests & studded leather jackets and GBH records. But the Lebanese war wasn't a catalizator for political conciousness in the underground music scene.

Anarcho Punk bands like Crass, Conflict and Subhumans (UK) made an impression on a small group of young punks from the Tel Aviv area and it led to the creation of a short lived "Pacifist Youth" group and to the creation of an anarcho punk band called Noon Mem around 1987-88. The band split up after releasing a tape in 1990 and playing an handful of shows, sadly not fulfiling the potential we, the fans of the band, thought they had. As the 80's turned into the 90's, the "Intifadah", the palestinian uprising against the israeli military occuppation, was already past it's second year. Those chaotic years, like the Lebanese War, didn't led to a radicalization of the israeli underground scene. But certainly they had an impact on us, some teenage punks from the north of Israel.

We started our own band,Nekhei Naatza, with the aim of not only playing HC-Punk and singing political texts but also with the aim of igniting a whole local scene. As pretentious as it may sound when i put into paper, we thought it was a possible mission. Partly, those tasks were accomplished, as we manage to survive until 1997 (even though with large periods of actual unactivity) releasing a a handful of material, playing shows and being the pioneers of the whole " israeli punk explosion" of the early- mid 90's, that was to develop into different sub - scenes, all of them active until today. The zine who two of us did, despite the fact that only a couple dozens were printed, served as a contact for those in need of some punk rock action, message'n'all.

I still remeber how much we hated the "israeli underground scene": the artistic pretentiousness of bands, the music they played (which part of it i can actually appreciate nowadays) and the lack of solidarity. We more or less spent our adolescence listening (with an almost chronological coherence) '77 punk, oi!, anarcho punk, early USHC, european hardcore and '88 SxE. In other words, in our healthy teenage manichean minds we thought they stand for "art and sophistication" while we obviously wanted "louder and faster", but also "political". We really hated the tendency of the majority of israeli "punks", that while painting A signs on their ripped jeans, they oftenly spouted off reactionary in not blatant racist views. We were so indignant to discover an article in a teen magazine, for example, revealing that a bunch of "punks" from a jewish settlement in the occuppied territories of the west Bank, were busy stoning arab cars in the afternoon. It may have been a sensationalist lie, but the reality still was that talking to "fellow punks" was no different then engaging yourself in a conversation with a common israeli: the probability of encountering neendarthalic views is more then frequent.

Now is fall 2001 and i'm in this area called Dalecarlia in Sweden. I still don't know if i will be back in the Jewish Military State in a matter of months, years or if i will ever live there again in my life at all. For several reasons, many that doesn't have anything to do with this article, i decided to move to Sweden. Actually, none of the reasons got to do anything with the fact that for many, Sweden is, if not the mecca of European hardcore. But definately, and in different levels, the merciless attack that israel is carrying out against the Palestinian people got to do with the fact that i decided to move out. Sadly, the 2nd Intifadah (a.k.a. "El Aqsa Intifadah") also didn't generated any real protest from the burgeoning HC & punk scenes. I don't expect any kind of solidarity towards the Palestinians from the israeli HC scene. It may happen, but then it'll definately take me by surprise.

My cousin told me that she went to some hippy flavored rock festival not far from the place not long ago i used to call home. She saw a young punk band discharging their sonic attack or maybe their badly practiced set - who knows, she's not a big punk fan and cannot really tell the difference. Being the social person she is, she talked to the guys in the band. After being asked if she likes the music, she said "not so much, but my cousin is in a band called Dir Yassin", "ah", was the reply, "stupid arab lovers".

Yeah, i mean, not all the so called punks sink that low. Now meet Ravid. He's not a racist bonehead and also unlike them, he's connected to what passes of as "d.i.y." hardcore in Israel. I can see him sitting and listening to the new Pennywise CD while riding home from school. He took bus number 25, crossing all central Tel Aviv, finally getting down in the northern part of the city called Ramat Aviv. In those few seconds in when he took down his earphones and walked towards the exit of the bus, he managed to hear something about arab terrorist shooting jewish persons in the settlement of Tkoa. When the part about a palestinian ambulance fired by the IDF came (if the israeli radio decided to broadcst it - probably not), he was already shaking his baggy trousersed ass towards his parents home just across Tel Aviv's university.

He doesn't know that the area where he lives was called once Sheikh Munis. The inhabitants had to fled away, scared of being shot by zionist forces. It happenned long ago, in 1948, even before his parents were born. But still, there are people living mostly in refugee camps who remember that fact until this very day. Those remembering it may be even Ravid's age, but the memories of the catastrophe continue to live on, regardless of reality and idealization and their positive or negative impact it actually has on those refugees.

In Israel, history is a welcomed burden. But as you can guess, it's assembled from the pieces that fits the israeli ethos: the diaspora, the jewish holocaust during WWII and the war which many arab countries fought against the jewish minority. On the history book that Ravid learned from, controversy is avoided and facts are ommitted. So there it says that Arabs "escaped" and not that the were driven out (either by force or by death threats) and that the jews simply took what's left, a reward after being unjustely attacked.

Don't get me wrong: there are and were israelis who didn't bought the zionist narrative, sought for facts and were able to prove wrong many assumptions, which were vital for the israeli propagandistic effort. And even if we're still a minority, there were many who read those "post zionist" researcher's works and were able to develop a critical attitude towards the "land of the jews". But yet, the vast majority of the jewish is immersed in their narrow minded and twisted perception of their past. Fire needs to be fought with fire - the past is the locked door but also the only exit out.

I think the only solution for the bloodshed will germinate when israelis will acknowledge the disaster that zionism brought to the palestinian people. The past, in a religious and nationalist charged atmosphere like the middle east, can be very dangerous. So i want to make it clear - i'm talking about comprehension of it and not about an effort to bring back a "golden era" that never really existed. Right now, the only feeling that most israelis feel towards palestinians is hatred. Truth, you can say the same about the palestinians. But the latter had to put with more then 30 years of military occuppation, curfews, raids to their homes, humilliations and oftenly injures and murder. Regardless of your stand on terrorist groups, the actions perpetrated by organizations from the PLO decades ago to the Hammas nowadays, don't even come close (not in number of victims and actions or ammount of destruction) to what Israel did to the palestinians. Nobody in his right mind would say that the inhabitants of Tel Aviv have been living in the same conditions or fear then those in Gaza.

And still, some people in Israel, even supposedely out of "society's boundaries", don't get it. I remember a concert we organized some years ago, which was a benefit for a non profit organization called "Doctors From Human Rights". The organization supplies the occuppied territories of Cisjordania and Gaza with much needed medical assistance and medicines. One of the members of an hardcore band on the bill, came to me complaining of our racism, since the money went "only to arabs". Anyone who is even slighty aware of basic facts concerning the israeli occuppation, knows the abysmal economic differences between jews in Israel and arabs in the occuppied teritories and hence, a reply to such dumb statement is an insult to intelligence. Maybe the guy was young and ignorant, but then the israeli "scene" is, to paraphrase the old saying, blissed to the maximum, because like him there are many. You see, besides a bunch of committed d.i.y. hardcore punks ("doing it yourself" as an ethical choice) there's another "d.i.y. scene" which are running their own affairs just as a temporary state, as they hope to be able to go to bigger things.

To be honest, most of the stuff that has been labeled as hardcore or punk since the mid 90's is totally irrelevant and uninteresting for me. With all the anarchronistic problems that such a queston should arise, i still need to ask myself "If i was 14 now, would i be interested in those Epitaph bands?". I don't think so. When i was 14 i wasn't just into aggressive music per se: heavy metal was available at any record shop, but it never interested me, probably because everything about it just seemed to me to be so fake and unpassionate. One of hardcore's main weapons seemed to be it's honesty and lack of pretentiousness. Right now, as it happenned with many other subgenres and youth cultures, large parts of it are a commodified, sanitized version of hardcore.

So should we "reclaim it back" or just move forward, taking the values and elements that we want and just settle somewhere else, with an ethic but without so rigid bordrs? Obviously and undisguised because of the used rhetoric, i choose the later. Also "moving forward" is figurative speech, as things evolve out of people's participation and at a quick graduality. Choose your allies, your lovers, your comrades and your rivals and don't look back too much. Yeah, i know that it seems impossible for somebody to top Siege's demo or BGK "Jonestown Aloha". But i'm sure those people left the scene without having the chance to listen to Infest or Born Against and i really wasn't prepared for the Guyana Punchline 12".

So i think that it's good to understand the past: the sounds, the ideas and also the maneouvers many tried to pull on us to make a quick buck. Still, it's not only impossible but also highly undesirable to relive the past. It is pathethic in the charming sense, but just that. Take idea(l)s but don't see yourself "keeping the flame", as neither the 70's, 80's or 90's are gonna come back and need no warm reception. Nostalgia buries urgency, so fuck that.

History in the israeli - palestinian conflict sense may be a burden, but also the critical first step towards a solution. In hardcore, it's a raw, inspiring testimony of passion, hatred, hope and rage. But again, i think that too much recycle may end in an boredom OD. But besides the hardcore scene, history in the senses i've been reviewing superficially here, may have another immediate meaning for you, the american reader. Just keep reading.

Now i could just come up with some name like "Jordan", put him in some place in the US, let's say Milwaukee or Raleigh. Lots of journalist use this literary device with the hope it makes their articles more credible and it gives their readers a human touch in contrast with those abstract "politics". Yeah, sure, whathever.

This Jordan dude was downloading some cool old skool hardcore from the net, staying up all night and early morning awake, chatting and compiling his new CD's. Then he heard about the Twin Towers attack. Was he carried away with the patriotic stream that flooded north america and most of the west? Did he even knew where Afghanistan (or central asia for that matter) lies in that old map that by some amazing grace honors his parent's house? Did he suddenly found all that "anti american" hardcore kids, with their Born Against or Propaghandi patches, to be childish, or worse, traitors?

Or maybe his mood resembled those words described by the argentinian author Roberto Arlt in a novel from the 30's: "(?) and besides, life had very little importance for him, for a long time he was waiting for a catastrophe; it happenned and instead of being haunted by the terror he found deep inside himself a cynical indifference that shrugs his shoulders in fron of whathever be the destiny".

I don't know who is the "average" american reader of this magazine, for some reason i tend to think that is a person with at least some vague knowledge about the role of the US in the world and it's consequences upon millions. But i may be mistaken: it's not so rare to found reactionary and conservative views in bands and zines so i feel like i must stress it out: the US is hated by a lot of people in the world and more oftenly then not, the hate is justified. Even while trying to emulate it culturally, socially or economically, there's a deep resentment for america. Even in the (non US) west, where almost all mass media is trying to market the "freedom = america = freedom" equation, many kept track of the US behaviour in the last century and can smell the Bush's rancid hypocrisy all across the atlantic.

And outside "the west", things are even clearer. Many in latin america know who was the main responsable of overthrowing a democratically elected president in Chile and crowning a tyrant instead, a pattern repeated many times all over the continent. In south east Asia people remember Vietnam and many in the Balkans had just suffered so called "collateral damages" in the form of innocent killed and injured by US made and delivered weapons.

I cannot be "anti american" - not only much of my knowledge and ideas were influenced by US authors and activists but i also like some of it cultural output, most obviously many american punk and hardcore bands. I was amazed, touched and excited when i heard about Seattle '99 and later on Washington. I think it was a wake up call and i hope that by learning past atrocities committed by US governments and mistakes made by US radicals, a mass oppossition to the madness inflicted by american entrerprises can keep developing and expanding.

Even if i could, i'm not interested in get you on a guilt trip. You're not responsible for the US foreign policy or the military complex. The same way i wasn't the one to blame for the oppression of the palestinians or those cool vegan anarchists from south africa i met some years ago didn't invented the apartheid system. But the minimum responsability you have right now is to to make the citizens of the US aware of the brutality their government, agencies, monopolies and policies they have been commiting, all over the world, for the last 100 years. History may be a burden and that's the only way to get rid of that.

If you start doing your homework right, then something can be done about Israel too, as many other changes in the world. Without you taking part, they'll be destined for an early grave. Substantial changes in the US will be greet by countless others and only from that point our egalitarian dreams will start taking shape. Present back to history and then launched into the future.