Checkpoint303 // The Iqrit Files // CD

“The Iqrit Files”

The Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in Syria is a double hell: it is surrounded by Assad's hostile forces, and inside the camp it is terrorised by the forces of IS (the Islamic State). Through the CD project “The Iqrit Files” and the exhibition “The Faces of Iqrit”, KKV is focusing on the reason why such camps exist.

”The Iqrit Files” is a CD featuring the electronica collective Checkpoint303 and singers who grew up in the village of Iqrit in Galilee, but who were forced to flee and abandon their homes. The singers Jawaher Shofani, Wardeh Sbeit and Jihad Sbeit describe what occurred when Israeli soldiers arrived in 1948, making them all homeless and destroying their village. The recordings have been made in these ruins, and the Checkpoint303 collective has framed the voices in a soundscape of electronics, oud, piano and recorded utterances from the political stage.

Nakba is the Arabic term for the expulsion of the Palestinians when the state of Israel was formed in 1948. A total of 360 Palestinian villages were evacuated by force and taken over or razed to the ground, and 900 000 people were forced to flee to camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank. The Yarmouk camp in Damascus swelled with the concentration of Palestinians who had fled from evacuated villages in 1948.

The Israeli narrative has been that this flight was encouraged by Arab leaders while the Israeli leaders urged the Palestinians to stay. But historians have since uncovered evidence that Israeli forces practised ethnic cleansing in Palestinian towns and villages.

One of these was Iqrit, located close to the Lebanese border. In November 1948 Israeli soldiers informed the 500 inhabitants that they were to be evacuated on a temporary basis and that after two weeks they would be able to move back to their homes. This promise was never kept. The town was sequestered until it was levelled to the ground on Christmas Eve, 1951. The only building left standing was the church. Today, the old roads cleared by the descendants of those who were expelled can be seen, and the church still stands there, as does the burial ground at the base of the mountain where Iqrit was located. Here some of the descendants of the villagers still come to bury their dead. Some young descendants of the Iqrit inhabitants have recently attempted to re-build their village among the ruins, but the Israelis will not allow this. The Iqrit people often say, wryly, “They won't let us live in Iqrit, but we’re still allowed to die there”.

Track list:

1. Welcome to Iqrit                                                    1:44

2. In 1948                                                                   5:21

3. My Homeland                                                        4:35

4. Come Back Home, All Refugees                         4:04

5. Northern Wind                                                      4:32

6. We Intend to Depart                                             3:29

7. Morning Star                                                          4:06

8. A'ataba                                                                   2:40

9. Road to Jerusalem                                                2:24

10. I Climbed the Top of the Mountain                    4:04

11. They Rode Their Horses                                     3:55

12. Return Back Home                                              1:24

13. Return to Iqrit                                                      3:06