Marley’s message is hugely relevant to Israel’s on-going war on Palestinians
By Katim Seringe Touray
Robert (Bob) Nesta Marley, OM (1945 – 1981) was a Jamaican, songwriter, singer, guitarist, band leader – and activitist. Bob Marley helped take reggae, that rebellious Jamaican music genre, to every corner of the world. Marley’s music also carried along with it his message of love, humanity, Rastafarianism, and his un-alloyed support for the fight for justice, freedom, and equality, especially with regards to Africans, and the African Diaspora.
Marley remains one of the leading global icons, and the $16 million earned by his estate in 2023 was ranked 9th in the list of Forbes rankings of the earnings of dead celebrities. As of October 2024, BMW songs have had over 11 billion streams, and 5.4 million streams a day on Spotify and other platforms,
I first encountered Marley’s music in the mid-1970s, while I was in High School in The Gambia. Those were heady times, with the liberation wars of Independence in the Portuguese colonies in Africa (Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea Bissau), the struggles against racist White minority rule in Southern Africa (Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]), South Africa, and South West Africa [now Namibia]) all raging.
The liberation struggles in Africa were waged against the backdrop of the Cold War between the United States and her Western allies on one side, and the Soviet Union and her allies on the other. Thus, the United States, United Kingdom and Western countries backed the White minority rule governments in Rhodesia, and Apartheid South Africa, as well as Portugal in its war against Marxist Independence fighters in its colonies.
On the other hand, the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba steadfastly stood by the African National Congress of South Africa, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), as well as the liberation movements in Portuguese African colonies in fighting against the racism, injustice, and colonial rule. In the same vein, the US, the Soviet Union and their allies in the Cold War significantly fueled the proxy wars between Ethiopia-Somalia and the long, bloody Civil War in Angola.
Marley’s music came to Africa at this time, when its young people, including myself, were most receptive to his message. Athough he was not the only reggae artist with a message (there also was Jimmy Cliff, and later, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Culture, and Burning Spear), it was as if the rest of them were meant to prime us to be receptive to the poignant and urgent tone of Marley’s message.
As such, I became a huge fan of Marley from 1974, when Natty Dread, the seventh studio album of Bob Marley and the Wailers (BMW), and the first album without Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer (the other two founding members of BMW) was released. I soon caught up with Catch a Fire (1973), and Burnin’ (1973) the fifth and sixth BMW studio albums, and I have been a fan since.
I always looked forward to new BMW albums, not only for the music, but also the message of Marley’s songs. For me, every new Marley album was another book I had to devour. Those were the days of vinly when albums were properly and lovingly packaged, often with inner sleeves to protect the record and provide space for liner notes, credits, and lyrics. Fortunately now, Marley’s message is easily accessed from lyrics websites like AZ Lyrics.
Marley sang about a wide variety of subjects, from Rastafarianism to reggae music, love to liberation, as well as Apartheid to Zimbabwe. It is for this reason that his music and message still speaks to important social and political issues, some 43 years after his death. His message is thus highly relevant to the on-going genocidal war Israel is waging against the Palestinians, especially those of them in the Gaza Strip.
When the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres remarked that the October 7, 2023 attack, called Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, by Hamas-led Palestinian groups, “did not happen in a vacuum,” Israel asked for his head. The reality, however, vindicates Guiterres because Israel has blockaded the Gaza Strip for 17 years, and forcibly and illegally occupied Palestinian territory for 75 years.
The 2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have been a subject to particularly harsh treatment and isolation by Israel, prompting many to call the Strip the World’s largets open air prison. To paraphrase Bob Marley’s song, Concrete Jungle, from the Wailers Catch A Fire album, although Gazans had no chains around their feet, they were not free, and were illegally bound in captivity by Israel.
Israel, with the backing of the United States government, is the military might in their neighborhood. In the words of Marley, in Small Axe, from the second 1973 Wailers album, Burnin’, Israel is the Big Tree, which the Palestinians, the small axe, had no choice, but to cut down. Marley also asks in Small Axe why evil men (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters come to mind) should be boastful; playing smart, but not being clever. He went to to warn that the small axe is sharpened to cut the Big Tree down, as Hamas is hell-bent on doing to Israel.
In the face of Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, and the world’s apathy toward Palestinian aspirations for Statehood Hamas had to, as Marley said in Get Up, Stand Up (which he co-wrote with Peter Tosh) from Burnin’, get up and stand up for their rights. Although, as Marley said, you can fool some people sometimes, you cannot fool all the people all the time. Hamas saw the light, and decided they were not going to give up the fight, but they would get up and stand up and fight for their rights.
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, was brutal, and as Marley said in Burnin’ and Looting (from the Burnin’ album), the Hamas-led attackers burned Israel property, killed 1,139 people and took 254 hostages. As a result, there was a lot of “weeping and wailing” as Marley said, by the Israelis. The whole world witnessed what previously was unimaginable: the almighty Israel being psychologically traumatizedand brought to tears by Hamas-led Palestinian attackers Israelis had always thought were their minions.
The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel can also be seen from the perspective of Marley’s song, Coming in from the Cold, from the 1980 BMW album, serendipetiously titled Uprising. As Marley said Hamas, instead of looking “so sad, and forsaken” concluded, as Marley also said, that “when one door is closed, … the other is open.” Or you can, as Hamas did in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, blast your way through the $1 billion “Iron Wall”, or paraglide in.
Israel’s long and inhumane occupation of Palestinian territories, especially the Gaza Strip is also illegal under international law. As Marley said in Zimbabwe from the 1979 BMW album, Survival, “every man got a right decide his own destiny” and that this “judgement” is impartial. Indeed, because the UN Charter specifically provides for principle of “self-determination of peoples.” Self-determination is also integral to Basic Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, according to the UN. Israel and her supporters have, for 75 years, precisely denied the Palestinians these human and inalienable rights, and expects Palestinians to lay down like lambs. As was made clear by Marley in Survival, the Palestinians will have to fight, and they “gonna fight … fight for [their] rights.”
The Hamas-led attack on Israel shocked, to say the least, Israelis. Israel reacted within a matter of hours of the start of Hamas’ invasion, with a vicious aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Israel went on to declare a state of war, and invade the Gaza Strip, and bringing untold death and destruction to lives and property. The world has probably never seen such brutality and disregard for innocent lives.
Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip, has shocked the world, and from moral, military, and public relations perspectives has been nothing but a series of wrong, vengeful, and blood thirsty moves. To paraphrase Marley’s song in Bad Card, from Uprising, the Israeli’s might be tired of seeing the Palestinians, but they can’t get them “out of the race.” In addition, as Marley said, “its just a big disgrace” the way the Israel draws bad cards; they way they make wrong moves.
One particularly heinous bad card played by Israel in its war against Gazans is starvation, which is both a war crime, and a crime against Humanity. Just as Defense Minister Gantz promised in October 2023 that Israel would impose a complete siege on Gaza with “no electricity, no food, no fuel …,” Gazans are being starved, increasingly frequently to death, by Israel. In contrast to the emaciated children in Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu now sports a pot-belly. Like Marley said in his song, Them Belly Full (But We Hungry), from the album Natty Dread, while the Israelis have full stomachs, the Palestinians are starving, and just as Marley said that “a hungry mob is an angry mob,” the Palestinians are mad as hell.
Israel, from the start, said that it’s retaliation for Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack had two objectives: eliminate Hamas, and free hostages taken by Hamas and its allies Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Toward these ends, Israel invaded Gaza and has for over a year now, and counting, been killing Palestinians. As Marley said in Crisis, from the1978 BMW album Kaya, they are “still … killing the people,” and they are “having lots of fun.” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) forces who invaded Gaza, on their own volition, have shared videos of themselves on social media, celebrating and having fun over the despecable crimes they committed against the Palestinians.
Israel, with support from a compliant and sympathetic mainstream Western media has worked hard at demonizing and dehumanizing the Palestinians, to make the Genocide against them more palatable. To paraphrase Marley’s Bad Card, Israel has been spreading propaganda (and lies) against the Palestinians, in a bid to bring them to shame. But its not working. Although Israeli Defense Minister Gantz said the Palestinians were human animals many people, on the basis of Israel’s prosecution of its savage war on Gaza, see many Gazans (especially the women and children) as innocent victims, and the Israelis as the real human animals.
If the immediate cause of the on-going Israeli war on Gaza is Israel’s long blockade of the Gaza Strip, the root cause is the injustice of Israel’s illegal occuptation of Palestinian lands. Worse, Israel has an insatiable apetite for more Palestinian lands. The1920 Mandate for Palestine, and the 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine both called for Palestine to be shared by two states, Palestine (for Arabs) and Israel (for Jews), living side by side in peace, and with Jerusalem as their shared capital. Israel, however, has always wanted all of the land for itself. As Marley said in Real Situation, from the Uprising album, “given them an inch, they take a yard.” Give the Israelis a yard, and they will take a mile! So here we are, and as Marley said, it seems like “total destruction [is] the only solution.”
The global reaction to Israel’s war on Gaza has ranged from indignation and outrage to outright apathy and blind support for Israel. In the later sense, Marley’s song Guiltiness from the seminal 1977 BMW album, Exodus, has prescient relevance. Thus, guiltiness has hit many powerful people, who live the lives of false pretense everyday, as Marley said. Unwilling to force Israel to allow food trucks into Gaza, and out of guilt, the US government built a $230 million Gaza pier which failed miserably, and had airdrops to bring food to Gazans. In contrast, the US provided $17.9 billion security assistance (mostly arms) to Israel in the one year since October 7, 2024. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his supporters, Marley said in Guiltiness, are the big fish who always try to eat the small fish, and would do anything to achieve their wishes. But, Marley added, woe to these Downpressors (oppressors) who “will eat the bread of sorrow.”
Israel’s war on Hamas is a major crisis which is quickly developing significant global implications. As Marley said in So Much Trouble in The World, from the album Survival, “the way earthly things are going, anything can happen.” To make matters worse, Marley said, men are on their ego trip, blasting off on their spaceships, and a “million miles from reality.” In the earned euphoria after SpaceX’s Starship vehicle blasted of the launch pad last month and its main booster returned to neatly rest on the launch tower, Elon Musk (the SpaceX CEO and founder, the world’s richest person [as at October 1, 2024]) and his team were probably thinking of a Mars mission, and definitely not Israel’s US government supported genocide going on in Gaza.
So Much Trouble in The World also aptly describes the many false starts and fake efforts to negotiate an end on Israel’s war on Gaza. Marley thus cautions that although you might think you have found the solution, “but its’s just another illusion.” Meanwhile, it is the ordinary everyday people in Gaza, the “street people,” who Marley said have to “face the day,” and are the people struggling.
Although many attempts have been made to end Israel’s war on Gaza, none has succeeded, just as Marley said in She’s Gone, from Kaya, “fools have tried … wise men have failed.” In addition, Marley said in Crisis, from Kaya, that “so much [has] been said,” so little has been done.” In the one year between October 12, 2023 and October 24, 2024, US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken made 96 trips abroad, 49 (51 percent) of which were made to the Middle East in a bid to end the Israel-Hamas war. Of those 49 trips, 12 (24.5 percent) of them were made to Israel. Over the same period, Blinken visited Egypt 7 times, Saudi Arabia and Qatar 6 times each, and the West Bank 4 times. All of these trips, and others aimed at resolving Israel’s on-going on Gaza have come to naught. As of October 29, 2024, Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza has killed 43,061 people in Gaza, with over 10,000 missing (and presumed dead under the rubble of bombed buildings), and 101,223 injured.
One year after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, there seems to be no end in sight. Israel has expanded the war to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and is making good on a threat made in June 2024 by Defense Minister Gallant that Israel was capable of taking Lebanon “back to the Stone Age.” As Marley lamented in We and Dem from the Uprising album, “We no know how we and dem a-go work it out;” nobody knows how Israel and its enemies are going to work this out. What is clear though, to paraphrase Marley’s We and Dem, is that “someone will have to pay for the innocent blood that they shed everyday.”
It is also clear that Israel’s war on Gaza, and its related war with Hezbollah, as well as conflict with Iran, the Houthis, and other groups in the Middle East must stop. As Marley said in No More Trouble (from Catch A Fire), “We don’t need no more trouble, we don’t need no more war. Catch A Fire was released in April 1973, and six months later, the October 1973 Israeli-Arab war broke out. If only they had listened to Brother Bob!
Israel’s on-going conflicts are the latest wars in the battle that has been going on since its founding in 1948. Israel’s founding was based on the violent expulsion of 700,000 Arabs and the terrorism of Zionist groups. As such Israel has not, since its founding, known any durable peace, and seems to be destined to live – and possibly die – by violence. Who knows? As Marley said in Time Will Tell from Kaya, you might think you’re in Heaven, but you’re living in Hell. For many Jews that performed the aliyah (migration) to Israel in fulfillment of what to them is a Zionist imperative, what they thought was going to be heaven is now turning into hell.
But we shouldn’t lose hope. Marley’s message in his music offers an alternative to the doom and gloom that Israel and her supporters offer. And that is love. In his song, One Love/People Get Ready from Exodus, Marley called and pled to mankind for One Love, One Heart, and asked us all to “get together and feel alright.” Marley also asked if there should be a place for the “hopeless sinner who has hurt all mankind” because of his or her beliefs. The question is especially pertinent to Israel’s war on Gaza because so much of Israeli propaganda paints Hamas and the Palestinians as barbaric “human animals” that deserve no justice.
But, as Marley said in his song from Exodus, there’s a Natural Mystic blowing through the air. Although, as Marley said, “many more will have to suffer,” and “many more will have to die,” times are changing, and “things are not the way they used to be.” Israel’s war genocidal war on Gaza has turned it into a pariah State, instead the much-admired country it used to be.
Israelis should realize that they cannot bomb their way to peace. To paraphrase Marley in Natural Mystic, its impossible Israel to keep the Palestinians down because they have genuine claims to freedom, dignity, and statehood. The sooner the Israelis realize this, the better for them, the Palestinians, and all of humanity.
Katim Seringe Touray Ph.D. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kstouray) is a soil scientist and international development consultant, and writes about development issues, science, technology and global affairs. He can reached at katimstouray@yahoo.com.
