“In My Heart”

Matthew Yglesias titles his post about the demo in Bahrain “Freedom’s March Halted By Riot Police,” and calls it a golden opportunity for the administration that has brought us several pleasant surprises in its second term. What would those be?

Mahmood Al-Yousif, in anticipation of this protest, couldn’t remember a month in the last six years when there hadn’t been some kind of demonstration in Bahrain.

The situations in Lebanon and Bahrain can never be compared. In Lebanon the demonstrations were spontaneous where the whole society participated, regardless of sect or religion. In tomorrow’s demonstration I am sure we will see that the vast majority of demonstrators are in fact from the shi’a community, tainting the demonstration as a sectarian event rather than representative of the whole Bahraini society.

I would also have preferred it had Al-Wefaq exercised democratic principals and not sanctioned banners like the following in various places in Bahrain. The banner advertises the venue (Sitra), the time (1530) and the date (March 25th, 2005) which is fine, however the thing I don’t agree with is their statement that “it is your nationalistic duty to attend”, that to me is trying to force people to show up and not leaving it up to the individual to decide.

But thanks to Ygelsias I found The Arabist Network who in a different post linked to this event and called it “cheesy and opportunistic.” I’m a cynic and I must disagree. You can read more about Israeli pop star David Broza and Wisam Murad of the Palestinian Music Group, Sabreen, and listen to their song, “In My Heart,” here. Richard Silverstein believes it’s unlikely that a broadcast/performance sponsored by both Israelis and Palestinians has ever occurred before but welcomes correction if he’s wrong.

The song, and the sentiment behind its creation, are lovely.