As death loomed Rim Al-Banna was looking at a time to resist battling with air to get a splash to make her feel resisting since her two enemies are wild and do not know mercy one is invading her body (cancer) and the other is invading her land (the Israeli occupation) before surrendering to the first refusing to bow down to the second bringing down the curtain of her life.
Those who follow her writings notice the bizarre dualism in her discourse about life and death when she says “I will run like a deer to my home. I will make dinner and arrange the house and light the candles. I will wait for your return on the balcony as usual. I will sit with a cup of sage watching the Ibn Amer hills and say: this life is beautiful and death is like history a false chapter.”
This is how ‘The Deer of Palestine’ tried to ease the burden of separation on her children before leaving life on Friday at the age of 52 leaving behind her voice that sang for the Palestinian resistance and her struggle as a symbol of human struggle against cancer.
On March 5 the Palestinian singer wrote on her Facebook page: “Yesterday I was trying to alleviate the suffering of my children. I had to invent a scenario. I said: do not be afraid. This body is like a shabby shirt it does not last. Once I take it off I will stealthily sneak among the roses laid in my coffin. I will leave the funeral and the chats of consolation which speak of cooking and joints pain and cold checking people getting in and out of my funeral and their congested smells.”
In 2016 the Palestinian singer announced that she stopped singing and wrote on her Facebook page: “My voice which you know stopped singing now my dear fans. Maybe it will stop forever” after her vocal cords were inflicted with cancer.
One of the most prominent musical styles of Rim is singing traditional Palestinian songs. In addition she used to sing traditional non-traditional poems in a modern style guided by old Palestinian and Arab folk music and inspired by the music of the peoples of the world.
The conscience of the people
She wrote on her Facebook page that her “songs and melodies are derived from the Palestinian people’s heritage history and culture. My music and melodies emanate from poems and from the sense of rhythm of the word. Then the matching between the word and the melody comes with new songs that carry us to the skies of Palestine and from there to the world.”
Al-Banna issued 13 albums most notably “Mirrors of the Spirit” in 2005 which was dedicated to Palestinian and Arab detainees in the Israeli occupation prisons. Her songs were characterized by having a mixture of an eastern singing style and Arabic words using western tunes.
In the last two decades she has received several awards most notably honoring her as a public figure and Ambassador of Peace in Italy in 1994 and the Public Figure of the Year by the Tunisian Ministry of Culture in 1997. She also won the Palestine Prize for Singing in 2000 and the Ibn Rushd Prize for Free Thought in 2013.
Rim Al-Banna passed away on 24 March 2018 at the age of 52 at a hospital in Nazareth after a sudden deterioration in her health after defeating breast cancer.
On the eternal melodies of Mawtani (My Homeland) and Yuma Weil Al Hawa (Mum love has a tough end waiting it) the daughter of Palestine was buried leaving behind a Palestinian heritage which will remain as a song for resistance fighters in the streets of Nazareth Hebron Gaza and all parts of the Palestinian homeland.
The Palestinian Ministry of Culture said: “Rim had left behind many songs that sing for Palestine and oppose the occupation becoming an inspiring symbol of the struggle against the occupation that is invading the body of Palestine as well as against cancer that she defeated more than once during her long years of treatment.”
Ihab Bsseso the Palestinian Minister of Culture said “I will not say Rim Al-Banna has left us but I will say that this dear Palestinian sister chose to fly this dawn with angels in heaven above our country. Rim Al-Banna went up to eternal life and defeated sickness. We will stick to her memory and her voice will continue to be sung all over Palestine despite the departure of her body.”
