‘The Last Shall be First’
In memory of Bobby Sands (1954-1981)
2017. Asher-Zax direct their machines at the occupation.
69 years of Israeli state occupation of Palestine.
Recorded Live at the Plaster in Haifa, 6th May 2017
3rd week of the Palestinian prisoners hunger strike.
Texts by Frantz Fanon from ‘Wretched of the Earth’.
Meira Asher – Electronics Voice
Eran Sachs – Electronics
Ben Riftin – Sound
Video Still: Laetitia Boulud
a Sound march
As part of the Women Wage Peace movement in Israel and Palestine, On October 19th 2016 I joined the last day of the March of Hope. We travelled from the Western Galilee to the dead sea where we met our Palestinian partners, then travelled to Jerusalem where we marched to the house of the Prime minister to conclude the march with a final assembly.
At the approach to the street of the Prime Minister’s residence a black barrier was present.
Supported by worldwide solidarity events and the participation of the Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee thousands of women marched throughout Israel between October the 4th and October the 19th. The march demanded from the leadership of the state to work with respect and courage towards a solution to the ongoing violent conflict, with the full participation of women in this process. Only an honorable political agreement will secure the future of our children and grandchildren.
Speakers/Singers in order of appearance:
Laymah Gbowee, Dvora Pearlman, Women of Shefa-‘Amr, Laila Najar Amouri,
Clemence Abud, Talia, Guy, Huda Abuarkoub, Hagit Lavi.
recorded, edited and produced by Meira Asher.
Photo: Ruty Kedar Lior
Miriam Schickler’s audiowalk Echoing Yafa (played here in part) follows Marconi’s thought that sounds never die but grow progressively fainter. Imagine that all the sounds that have ever resonated inthis region, she writes, still reverberate somewhere, however faintly.
Echoing Yafa recovers some of those sounds and relocates them to the place that they originated from, Manshiyyah, once a busy neighbourhood of Jaffa and a place that, except for the remnants of two buildings, today is visually no longer conceivable and is usually considered to be a part of Tel Aviv.
Echoing Yafa tells the stories of some of the former Palestinian residents of Manshiyyah and thereby re-enacts what has been destroyed and irreversibly changed throughout the events leading to, and during the war of 1947/1948, and by current processes of displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian community in today’s Jaffa. Visit echoingyafa.org for the complete audio walk in Arabic, Hebrew and English.
Thanks to the refugees of Manshiyyah and the rest of Yafa, as well as their family members. This work is dedicated to them and all other refugees.
Created by Miriam Schickler
Research: Lubna Massarwa
Sound Design: Binya Reches
Production Assistance: May Jabareen
Music and Sound Art: Boney Fm, Meira Asher, Finkelbert and Eran Sachs.
Actresses and Actors: May Jabareen,Yael Rozanes, Rula Khalayly, Maysa Daw, Eli Rezik, Nimrod Ronen, Oz Marinov, Michal Eytan, Samar Qupty, Roza Wakeem, Anael Hoffmann, Neta Gonen, Abdelkarim Qashqoush, Shaul Robinson Feldman, Roey Marinov, Binya Reches, Yuval Auron, Lymor Goldstein.
