Nobody Touch
The Weapons
"The last paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story-hard to understand and even harder to solve."
- Noam Chomsky
The performance is divided in three moments. Laying out a summary of the history of Israeli occupation, Rafael directly calls on the audience to show solidarity in the Palestinians’ struggle to break free from the violence inflicted by the Israeli state. This moment was live recorded, displaying on the cyclorama behind the him.
The second moment consisted in Rafael popping balloons in the colours of the Palestinian flag which had been laid on the floor; this was also live streamed. It not only introduced a moment of confusion, but it served as a link between the first and third moments of the performance. In fact, the use of live feed for these two moments introduced continuity between these moments and the short film which was then displayed in the same surface.
The third and final moment was a short film edited out of found and archive footage. The short film contrasted the official Israeli rhetoric of a God-given right to Palestinian land with images of the suffering this entails for Palestinians. The video proceeds to explore instances of Palestinian resistance, pointing to the possibility of a solution which puts a stop to the suffering inflicted by the Israeli apartheid state; this solution can only be brought about through political struggle.
FULL PERFORMANCE ON THE VIDEO BELOW