Loading ...“Humane Blue Helmets” Lead Palestinian Laughter Revolution
RAMALLAH, West Bank – The sound of music and laughter fill the place for a few hours, leading some to forget it is a school of the United Nations organization for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, at the entrance of Ramallah, after it became a makeshift circus tent in which children are the protagonists.
Those responsible for the scene, which was repeated in the West Bank city of Nablus and in East Jerusalem, are the Spanish organization “Pallasos en Rebeldia” or Clowns in Rebellion, which celebrates the third edition of Festiclown in Palestine, keen to turn laughter into a tool for children to deal with the effects of years of occupation.
Wherever they go they are found with a swirl of kids eager to interact with them beyond any barrier of language, because humor, games and music are universal languages.
“Children we have found in places of conflict, oppression, poverty and war like this are alive. Human beings in these places are alive, generous, and welcoming,” the spokesman of “Pallasos en Rebeldia,” Ivan Prado, told EFE.
They have returned less than a year after their last visit, marked by the end of the Israeli military operation in Gaza, which left over 2,200 Palestinians dead, mainly civilians, a further blow to the history of a people marked by conflict.
Prado harshly condemned “the Israeli genocidal power against the Palestinians,” adding that one of the main differences from the previous Festiclown is that children are not as restricted as last year.
“Laughter is the food of hope. It mobilizes hundreds of muscles in the body, produces dozens of biochemicals that make you live the reality from another angle. Therefore it is very important in conflict areas or for populations as crushed as the Palestinians,” says Prado.
Prado, who calls the clowns “humane blue helmets” believes with a contagious passion in the importance of the clowns who “with clothing, energy, their falls, their nonsense, gets you out of that dark, sad place. I find the clown to be the best medicine against fear.”
Accompanying him on this mission are thirty people, including circus artists, the Catalan band Txarango and more than a dozen volunteers from Spanish programs for Palestine, today involved with local artists at the farewell of Festiclown, at the Palestinian National Theatre in Jerusalem.
They came here to “experience the Palestinian people, work with them and be speakers or spokesmen for what happens,” says Rachel, one of the volunteers.
Prado and some volunteers protested today near the checkpoint of Qalandia, the concrete wall separating Palestinian lands, covered only with red noses.
“It’s revolutionary, because you can see the ridiculousness of an oppressive system as Israel,” he says referring to the clown face without smiling.
Source: www.laht.com