Channels of Rage (Arotzim Shel Za'am)
Anat Halachmi

Nathalie Rothschild

For Channels of Rage, a documentary set in Israel, scriptwriter director and producer Anat Halachmi followed local rising rap stars Subliminal (Kobi Shimoni) and TN (Tamer Nafer) and their respective posses for three years. This time period did not only involve shifts in the rappers' musical styles and qualities, but their friendship also took a roller coaster ride alongside the deteriorating situation of escalating violence in Israel/Palestine.

The films starts out in 2000, before the outbreak of the second Intifada, with a happy crowd of Arabic, Ethiopian, Persian, Jewish and Muslim 'brothers' in a tour bus MCing, joking and laughing. 'Look around you!' one of them exclaims 'only in Israel!' 'Film the coexistence!' they shout, with their arms wrapped around each other and their hands performing complicated handshakes.

Israeli Subliminal is described in the local rap scene as 'the one who rediscovered Hebrew language'. Whilst, during the course of the film, he and his companion The Shadow turn more and more patriotic, and are labelled extreme rightists (one of their songs is even banned on radio), Arab-Israeli TN goes in his own direction. He starts rapping in Arabic instead of Hebrew and English in order to reach out to his own people, and becomes more involved in the Palestinian cause. Their paths separate but still remain interrelated.

In a chilling scene, a pumped-up crowd cheers and hollers as Sub and Shadow enter the stage and soon impassioned cries are heard: 'Death to the Arabs'. The rappers tell their fans off, saying they will have none of it, anyone wishing death upon Arabs can go home. Afterwards Sub, somewhat burdened, admits to the camera that his fans will repeat what he tells them to repeat. He is aware of both his and Tamer's potential and ability to influence the people, especially youths, that they speak to and that follow them.

It is a shame then that neither of the rap stars succeeds in being positive models to their fans, each making increasingly fundamentalist claims to their lands. Both are advocating peace but with their separate views on how to reach it, reconciliation and agreement between the previous friends seem increasingly impossible. Subliminal and the Shadow write more and more patriotic lyrics and Tamer seems incapable of escaping the rhetoric of equating Jews to Nazis, occupation to the Holocaust and the methods of the Israeli Defence Force to Hamas, saying that the latter is justifiable. The rappers repeat the slogan 'It's not the people, it's the system, it's the government', but this seems less and less credible when both fall into the rhetoric their governments are feeding them.

Thankfully, some elements of cooperation do come out in the film. There are private conversations between the two rappers in which they try to communicate their views and regrets at the deterioration of their friendship. Tamer is also invited to perform at an Israeli rally against the occupation and he produces a song and music video with Aviv Gefen, an Israeli rock star who, in his youth, refused to serve in the army.

But we see that meeting on common ground is something of an impossibility when even within the separate camps there is no such basis for unification. Not only is there friction between rightists and leftist, the religious and the secular and so on, but Tamer, as an Arab-Israeli, finds himself trapped as a second class citizen in Israel and as a traitor to exiled Palestinians who fled in 1948. When his plans to tour in Jordan and Egypt seem to have failed, he concedes that he will have to come to the Arabs as 'shit from Europe'. Indeed, at the end of the film he sets off for his European tour and one can speculate that a Palestinian rapper would find a lot of support there…

The gangsta rap scene that Subliminal and TN attempt to replicate in Israel of course influences they way they choose to speak about the conflict, of what goes on 'on the streets', between 'brothers'. They adapt Hebrew and Arabic languages to hip hop, invent new slang and so on. This imitation of hip hop and gangsta rap does not seem to involve gun culture and gang fights, instead the imitation is limited to musical styles, lingo, styles of dress and, as the title of the film proposes, it serves them as a channel of rage. Unfortunately, though they are not initiating gang wars, they are perpetuating the hostilities around them instead of resisting them.

Interspersing the two musical careers with wider events, including a 'War Now' demonstration as well as a peace rally, waves of gruesome suicide attacks, Israelis retaliating by throwing stones at a mosque in Tel Aviv, celebrations of Israel's independence day, uprisings in the territories etc., this is a poignant and engaging film, which makes you want to shout out your anger at the desperate and sad situation that Israelis and Palestinians find themselves in.

Channels of Rage won an award for 'Best Documentary' at the Jerusalem International Film Festival.