Arts and Culture 6 June 2011
As The Electronic Intifada mentioned last week, a new song entitled “Freedom for Palestine” has been gaining international notoriety since it made its recent debut on the internet. Lauded by rock-pop group Coldplay immediately after its release, the song, organized and produced by the OneWorld musician’s collective, Freedom for Palestine has been steadily climbing in hits on YouTube, garnering more than 190,000 views since its launch on 23 May.
OneWorld released a press statement saying that they plan to “make history with the first popular song to support Palestinians’ struggle for justice.”
The press release adds that since the release of the song, notable plugs have come from musician Billy Bragg, hip hop star Lowkey, and British comedian Mark Thomas.
Alternately, and true to his right-wing, pro-Israeli policy style, Fox pundit Glenn Beck took the time to slam the song on his program while spreading disinformation about the reality on the ground in Palestine.
The track can be now be pre-ordered through iTunes, for release on 3 July.
Proceeds from the song will go to anti-global poverty charity War On Want to support projects in Palestine.
UPDATE:
Israeli daily Haaretz reported today that Coldplay removed the link to the Freedom for Palestine song from their Facebook page, just days after it officially endorsed the song. An explanation has yet to surface from the band of why they decided to delete the song link from their page.
UPDATE (9 June):
The UK Guardian also reported that Coldplay had removed the link, but in a revision this morning, the author said:
I’ve just had an email from Frank Barat at OneWorld who tells me:
“Coldplay did not remove link from its Facebook page. Facebook removed the link because thousands of people (and computer generated posts) reported it as abusive.”
My apologies to Coldplay for misrepresenting them.
