Political MC and activist Lowkey is providing a soundtrack to the revolution. Openly angry about Israeli Zionism, his music is fierce, passionate, and demands pro-activity. He talks to Kieran Yates about the current state of music, the need for a pro-Palestinian lobby, and why he would never buy Israeli goods...

 

You recently played a 'Stop the War' event - why do you think these events are important to be affiliated with?
Because I don't think there are any other alternative organisations at the moment for people like me, with the views that I have, that regularly organise, protest, and hold conferences. I think it's important to politically engage the youth, and encourage them in those kind of ways. Young people don’t have enough avenues and enough ways to express themselves, and I think 'Stop the War' does that.

How important is music as a platform for expressing those issues?
I think music now has become less and less expressive of the times we're living in. If you're listening to the pop charts now, you wouldn’t know there was a war in Iran, you wouldn't know there was a war in Iraq, you wouldn't know that the Palestinians were being brutally oppressed, you wouldn't know about the majority of things going on in the real world, in the majority of the world. We live in the comfortable minority of the world. It's the like the music being made now is just to keep us numb to the things that are going on.

Is there anyone you're listening to that does inspire you?
I'm listening to a lot of Tracy Chapman, I did some shows with Dead Prez, and that was great - I like them.

Where did your passion for Palestine begin?
One side of my family is Arab, and one side of my family is English. My Arab side always had a lot of anger at Palestine, and I always felt that growing up in the house I grew up in. For me it was always present in my family, my family always felt passionate about it. I also had extended members of my family who are Palestinian, so there was that, but regardless of my background and regardless of who I am, I think any human being from a human perspective should understand what we're talking about.

What was your experience of going to Palestine and witnessing the situation?
Palestine is in a very raw sense of colonisation. The feeling that you get when you’re there is that you're witnessing something really ugly, something really unusual; there's nothing normal about it. You know, Israel puts out all this propaganda about wanting to be a normal country, but it's not. You're not a normal country with what you’re doing. You're not a normal country when you legitimise Israel – you're legitimising ethnic cleansing and the displacement of millions of human beings. These names like Israel and Palestine are just names, but when you look at the actual situation of it, that's what you're legitimising, that's what you're excusing and justifying, and there's no justification for it, whether these people are Arabs or not, there's no justification for what is taking place.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift recently ran a piece about TFL posters promoting Israel as a holiday destination and omitting Palestine from the map... What's your views on that?
It's indicative of the whole Zionist expansion policy and what it means to them. It's the final solution; they have used the same terminology that Hitler used to reference the Jewish people. They talk about the Palestinian people as the 'Final Solution'; the extermination of any trace of Palestine.

Do you boycott Israeli goods?
Yes. We need to get to them by hindering their economic support they receive from places like the US. If that was stopped, then Israel would crumble, instantly. That's really what we need to focus on, we need to focus on the American government, we need to focus on Obama, we need to focus on the people there who are really responsible for it.

So what do you think can be done on our side to help?
Realistically, we need to build a Pro Palestinian lobby, involved with powerful businessman in the same way they built the Zionist lobby. The best thing to do is to try and carry political favour via big businesses. Look at it this way, Obama doesn't have the Pro Palestine lobby on his back everyday, and that's what he needs. I would say go to 'Stop the War' website, there's no excuse not to be involved.

For more info on Stop the War events, click on the link: <a href="www.stopwar.org.uk">www.stopwar.org.uk</a>

Note: Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) is pleased to announce the new single from rapper Lowkey - "We Don't Want Them," written in response to the recent election of British National Party (BNP) candidates to the European Parliament.

The track is available now on iTunes for 79p with Lowkey donating all proceeds to the LMHR campaign.

Photos: Mannray Powell