Gaza artists give the Great March of Return a new beat

A group of Palestinian artists produced a music video entitled “Red Spring” against the backdrop of the six-week mass Palestinian protest near Gaza’s eastern border – dubbed the Great March of Return.

“Music is a form of resistance, just like any other weapon,” producer Bashir Besaiso told MEMO. The verses he performed alongside Mohammed Al-Baz, Min’im Awad and Ehab Khrais, Besaiso explained, sought to tackle the internal, external and regional circumstances that have led to the situation in Gaza today.

“We wanted to address what makes people rise up like this and go out in protests,” he continued.

The chorus of the song, directed by Mo’taz Al-Araj, echoed sentiments of frustration over the world’s indifference to the reality of Palestinians under siege and occupation and their struggle, indicating that they are only remembered when they are killed. The colour red, in reference to bloodshed, was cited as having become their only companion.

When we die, they remember to speak about us
Raise your voice
Everyone knows who we are
How’s the universe going round and not pulling us?
Just this colour, red, is our companion

One verse in the song suggested that Gaza’s besieged residents can only rely on themselves to change their reality: “When the whole universe stands against you, you become forced to change your bitter reality on your own.”

The video also paid tribute to fallen Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja, who was shot dead by an Israeli sniper while covering the Great March of Return protests in April.

Armed with a camera in Gaza: Who is Yaser Murtaja?

At least 112 Palestinians were killed and over 13,000 injured over the six-week period of protests, which began on 30 March marking Palestinian Land Day and ended on 15 May – the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), in which more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced by Jewish militias in 1948 to make way for the formation of the state of Israel.

Demonstrators called for Palestinian refugees to be granted their right to return to their towns and villages from which they were driven in 1948, and for an end to the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007.