I can sit with my grandfather and talk about music for hours. About songs that make you feel hope and love in a room. Like velvet; soft to touch; actually there with you. It connects him and me in a way that other dimensions of our lives never could. It is something in the essence of it all; in the humane personal level that it brings us to. Diplomats trained in opera back in the 17^th century could feel it and so did the man playing the accordion in war-torn Syria. A piece of music has interlocutors, parts moving in unison and in opposition to create a harmonious reality. Something to behold. Something to feel. I wish it were here. Right in this room. I wish it was velvet. So that we could all touch it.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is marked by its tectonic divide that shakes the region and the world at large. By now we are familiar with the intractable nature of solving this conflict politically—two peoples, one land. The reality is that there is little to no point of convergence between the political aims of both sides. However, this does not close the avenue for peace. In fact, looking outside the political realm is perhaps the most strategic thing to do at this point in the conflict.

On a theoretical level, the end of the Cold War facilitated a shift from not only using ‘hard power’ and its analysis of geopolitics to now incorporating an assessment of how cultural phenomenon and the interaction of ideas can frame and affect certain political situations. Specifically, the emergence of ‘soft power’ has allowed elements of culture to play a unique role in international relations. It is here that we are able to conceptualise the role of music, as an element of culture, in this conflict.

Music as a means of resistance and nation-building

Indeed, you don’t have to look too hard to see that culture has been used as an instrument of division in Israel-Palestine. Perhaps that is why its role as a potential player in the peace process has ultimately been disregarded. In her book about music and conflict, leading professor, Anais Fléchet, writes that music is often overlooked as ‘fanciful’ and primarily an inconsequential force in the matrix of politics. She argues that this lack of analysis limits music’s ability to find its place in conflict resolution.

Certainly, it is recognised that types and genres of music are not universal. However, Fléchet, like many others studying in this field, show how the essence of music and the feelings associated with its practice is something that is indeed shared across all people. This is its power. Music, through its universal characteristic of expressing emotion allows it to transcend boundaries. And here, in the midst of the conflict, boundaries are certainly in fashion.

In the recent documentary, Palestine Underground, filmmakers showcase the interaction between this division and the vibrant music scene that is being created in the West Bank. The scene is set with Ramallah DJ and producer ‘ODDZ’ jumping over the eight-meter ‘separation’ wall. This visual is accompanied by his powerful words, “you can’t build a wall and say you can’t go and do this, it’s music, it’s a right for everyone.” This imagery is certainly a physical expression of music’s ability to breach the divide. Indeed, this music scene sees itself as a means to connect Palestinian people with each other and with their own culture. To keep up to date with Palestinian cultural events, head to the website: https://www.events.ps/ar

From Resistance to Coexistence: narrating interdependence through music

The issue then is whether music also has the ability to connect different groups of people. ‘Connect’; that is to bring together people without assimilating cultures and dissolving identities. This, in itself, is the crux of the issue for this particular conflict—the fact that the lives of Palestinians and Israelis on this land are both shared and separate and, on account of their incompatible political aims, they have no means to navigate this relationship.

Notably, the framework provided by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra recognises this issue and configures a forum that helps understand how music can fit into the peace process. Co-founders, Daniel Barenboim, an Israeli-Argentinian conductor and Edward Said, a militant Palestinian intellectual, found common ground in the power of music and established an orchestra made up of young musicians from Israel, Palestine and other Arab countries.

For Barenboim, the project and its focus on music is recognition of the fact that “empathy is vitally necessary.” Here, he references the idea that music provokes the function of empathy and its important ability to connect estranged groups of people. In other words, music has the potential to become an ‘alternative form of diplomacy’.

Indeed, with music as a mediator, the project importantly functions as a space for dialogue outside the political realm of the conflict. Nevertheless, as Frédéric Ramel, a professor at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris, points out, “[it] has no direct political influence but has created a new political consciousness that is extremely powerful.” This influence on consciousness that Ramel speaks of confirms the idea that music has a way of framing human interaction in ways that will necessarily affect the political situation.

Looking forward: the art of reviving a space for music within the peace process

Sadly, in the highly polarised post-Oslo era, there has certainly been a steep decline in these projects of coexistence. Consequently, there is a space where real work needs to be done in order to revive and reshape these initiatives.

I believe this new space is being forged in particular parts of the upcoming music scene. Popular band Apo and the Apostles is made up of lead singer, Apo Sahagian, an Armenian who lives in Jerusalem’s Old City, a former PIJ intern, and four other band members who all live in Bethlehem. Although they live within this highly politicised region, their songs are far from the type of protest music you would expect. For example, their hit song ‘Fil Zaman’ is about young reckless love—a common human experience. However, the scenery for the music video is set against the separation wall that runs along Bethlehem. The band picked this spot for its aesthetic appeal. To them, their music is just that: music. But that does not mean the way in which it is received has a function that is much more powerful. Indeed, while this imagery of the wall was not intended to be political, it certainly sparks the political mind or ‘consciousness’ and allows its listeners, whether they be Palestinian, Israeli or an Australian like myself, to relate to this situation on a more personal, humane level. I just bought my tickets to the Palestine Alternative Music Festival. Apo and the Apostles will be playing and me, an English speaking Australian, will be listening. It is a testament to the reach of music.

Whether it be the underground Palestinian music scene, a project like the West-Eastern Divan or bands like Apo and the Apostles, music certainly has the capacity to structure important social spaces within the current edifice of the conflict. This is not a solution to the problem. It is rather a comment on how the environment around the conflict needs to shift in order to achieve any real progress. And whilst empowering and defining these spaces will be a politically sensitive issue in itself, the new line of inquiry that this would open up will certainly be a positive element in the present circumstances. I believe music can grab onto the prospect of peace for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and help compose a vision for the future.