in Nablus: Darna and Al Najah University

Things went as expected: after rain comes sunshine. Last evening was wonderful. We were invited for a delicious dinner by Sami Hammad of Nablus the Culture and could discuss all our positive as well as difficult experiences of the day amongst eachother. This morning I joined François for a visit of Darna, a network of Nablus based associations. Darna is not only a network of up to 44 different associations, but also physically housing associations, giving them offices, internet-connection, training and other facilities. The associations who are members of Darna are especially active with small children, youth and women. Darna has been very important for the realisation of the Nablus-part of the project which the Opéra de Lille has sponsored by sending four young teachers during a period of four months since January to work with children in the area. © Benjamin Dieltjens (Het Collectief) gives a clarinet-lesson in Nablus © Being presented to the direction of Darna and to some of the member associations of the network has broadened my perspective a lot. I found the president Mesadi Saif, the director Hadeel Faidi and translator/coordinator Youssef Haji a very open minded and peace-oriented group of people, wanting to offer to the children and youth of Nablus alternatives to the violence which defines their everyday lives, especially those living in the difficult conditions of the refugee camps. The violence is not only there because of the intrusions of the Israeli army the last months and because of the death toll this has taken, but also because of the generalised acceptance in this part of the Palestinian society of violence as an answer to the inflicted violence of the Israeli army. I definitely hate the glorification of the martyrdom of those who fall for the so-called ‘just’ cause of defending the Palestinian nation, or worse of those who blow themselves up in public spaces in Israel. The pictures of such ‘martyrs’ are allover the streets and especially in the refugee camp. Although I can understand this, I cannot live with it nor accept it, and surely not sympathise with it. I was therefor very releafed to understand that the people I met of Darna were clearly focussing their action on bringing children and youths away from this senseless and futureless world of violence. I imagine and understand that this cannot necessarily be defended openly by tearing posters away from the cultural centres or in the streets of the camps, because I imagine that this is even a dangerous thing to do, but what counts is the actions taken in order to get away from it. One of the member associations occupying offices in the building of Darna is defending non-violence as a way to fight against the occupation by organising sit-ins at checkpoints, etc. Another member association is teaching human rights to youths and another one is organising theatre workshops and performances allowing children and youth to express their feelings about what happens in their day-to-day lives. Concerning the planned performance of the children of Balata at the Opéra de Lille, I came to an agreement with François that he will prepare a special performance of about 10 to 20 minutes. The performance as it was made in and for Balata is not suitable as such for the audience in Lille. François will be in charge of making the kids of Nazareth and Nablus to work together during their five days in Lille preceding the concert of 21st June in order to present a new piece, possibly based in part on the piece which was developed with the young teachers of Lille. We can trust François to develop something strong with these wonderful kids I have seen in Balata and with the ones I know from Nazareth. François has a very special gift for this, so he will succeed also here. This afternoon was spent on rehearsing the concert of tonight at the Al Najah University concert hall. The concert was very specially dedicated to the people of Nablus as an invitation to get away from the noise and nervousness of their lifes. The musicians composed a concert programme around very quiet and meditative pieces of music of composers from very different periods and styles, such as Berio, Brahms, Berg, Stravinski, Feldman, Bruch and Rihm. François introduced all the works to the audience, explaining in a few words something about the composers and about when they wrote the compositions. After the concert we were invited at a goodbye party at the French Cultural Centre of Nablus, where I had the great pleasure to meet again and discuss with Muhamad Atta Yousof, the dean of the School of Fine Arts of the Al Najah University. We could discuss in detail about the problems Ictus experienced at the University and discussed some concrete ways to continue our collaboration in the future. He is a very fine dean indeed, able to give a place to criticism, discuss it openly and frankly and construct upon it. I respect him a lot. I also introduced Jean-Luc Plouvier to the ladies of Darna (Hadeel Faidi and Messadi Saif), something which helped him get a different perspective of the work which he had seen in Balata. I am curious to hear tomorrow whether the musicians feel like going back to Nablus. François and myself do for sure.