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Features

Iranian Singer in Israel: “The World Is My Home”

March 12, 2017
Ashkan Safaei
6 min read
Shahin Najafi gave a concert in Tel Aviv on March 2
Shahin Najafi gave a concert in Tel Aviv on March 2
During one song the word “peace” was projected on the stage in three different languages
During one song the word “peace” was projected on the stage in three different languages
Iranian Singer in Israel: “The World Is My Home”
Iranian Singer Shahin Najafi (Left) and the Israeli Musician Aviv Geffen
Iranian Singer Shahin Najafi (Left) and the Israeli Musician Aviv Geffen

“To Trump, Netanyahu and all politicians of the world: Stop dividing people before it is too late!”

That’s the message Iranian singer Shahin Najafi had for his audience on Thursday March 2 following his Tel Aviv concert, which featured guest performances with the Israeli musician Aviv Geffen and the music group Blackfield.

It was met with loud, enthusiastic cheers from the audience. Soon, social networks were buzzing with comments about the gig — although there were negative comments too, including criticism for Najafi for traveling to Israel for the performance. 

Najafi and Geffen performed two songs together. The first was “Good Morning Iran.” During the second song, which included the lyrics “until things are right,” the word “peace” was projected onto the stage in Hebrew, English and Persian.

Shahin Najafi, who lives in Germany, is not the first Iranian musician to perform in Israel, but he is the first to stage a joint concert with one of Israel’s best-known musicians.

A day before the concert, under a cloudy morning sky in Tel Aviv, I had the opportunity to meet with Najafi. I knew he was opposed to the Islamic Republic. And I had heard that he was anti-Israeli. But before I even had the chance to finish asking about these controversial stances, Najafi interrupted me. The concept of “government” was irrelevant, he said, whether it was the government of Israel, the United States, Iran or Germany. He insisted that the relevant question was art and only art, which he said goes beyond politics. “Politics and politicians are not smart enough to understand it,” he said. “Since I've arrived in Israel I have not seen anybody from the government. I have not bothered the government and they have not bothered me.”

Breaking Taboos

Najafi described himself as a cosmopolitan and said that if he were allowed to, he would be ready to go back to Iran straight away and perform an anti-regime, pro-peace and pro-freedom concert in Tehran. In recent years, performing in Israel has become taboo, especially for young Iranian artists who have left Iran recently. But Shahin Najafi has always been a taboo-breaker, something he confirmed during our interview.

I asked him how he came to know Aviv Geffen. Günter Wallraff, one of Germany’s best-known writers and journalists, arranged it for them to meet. At one point Wallraff had helped the author Salman Rushdie after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his murder. In 2012, Najafi was also the subject of a fatwa, this one issued by Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, who called for  Najafi’s death following the release of a song called “Naqi,” a satirical track that made reference to the 10th Shia Imam and which was clearly offensive to the cleric. Geffen was deeply affected by Najafi’s story. After they met in Milan, the pair decided to perform together in Tel Aviv. According to Najafi, their collaboration will continue, with further performances planned around the globe.

While we drank coffee, Najafi told me that when he arrived in Israel the people and their manners made him feel like he was back home in Iran. It brought tears to his eyes, he said. I asked him how he viewed Israel after spending a few days in the country. I wanted to know if it was different for him from the image the media had portrayed.

“You cannot talk about the sea until you have walked on the shore and have felt the sand under your feet,” he said, quoting the French writer André Gide. Pointing out the historical significance of the land of Israel for the three Abrahamic religions, he lamented the “horrible” anti-Israeli rhetoric from Iranian officials and others, who portray Israel as a sinkhole likely to drown anybody who dares to step into it. He said he was fascinated by the lives of Jews, Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem and had asked to visit the Al Aqsa Mosque, although he had not been given permission to do so. According to a treaty between Israel and Jordan, only Muslims are allowed into the mosque — and who constitutes a “Muslim” is decided by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, which has control over Islamic buildings and sites on and around Temple Mount.

Najafi said that coming to Israel and observing how ordinary people live was much more beneficial than sitting in Germany and complaining. He encouraged others to go to Israel, and talk to people there. Artists like him should seize the opportunity to sing for democracy, peace and freedom in the heart of Israel.

But other musicians, including British musician Roger Waters, are opposed to this approach — Waters has called on fellow artists to boycott Israel.

“Of course, now Roger Waters is not coming,” said Najafi. “This is very important. He did come here once and he made millions of dollars — but he doesn’t talk about it. What does he do with his millions except sit in America and play with his...? If he loves downtrodden people then why he doesn’t do something with his millions?”

After this, I asked Najafi about criticisms against him. He accused people who had spoken out about him as being “people who do not venture out of the safety zone of people who think like them.” And he warned against subscribing to intolerant and extreme ways of thinking— those people who have effectively become the “Basijis” of ideology, he said — referring to the Islamic Republic’s pro-regime vigilante organization Basij, which is controlled by the Revolutionary Guards.

Najafi said propaganda of any sort was to be avoided, and assured me that he knew what he was getting into. “It is fascinating for me when [the hardliner Iranian newspaper] Kayhan and a left-winger vigilante sleep in the same ideological bed,” he joked. But then he added in a very serious tone that anybody who works against friendship among people is a “fascist” and that such people could not “hide behind Marx.”

What About the Palestinians?

If the opportunity arose, Najafi said, he would return to Israel, both to perform and as a visitor. But what about the Palestinians? I asked. Would he perform on the West Bank for Palestinians if the Palestinian authority guaranteed his safety? His answer was a categorical “Yes!”

“Good that you ask,” he said when I wondered whether he had ever worked with a Palestinian artist. “Two or three years ago, during the attack on Gaza, a friend of mine asked me: why not do something with the Palestinians? I agreed and told him to find a Palestinian singer so we could work together. But they were afraid. Can you believe that? They were afraid. Needless to say I can’t rely on them. But right now if they offered an opportunity and they guaranteed my safety, I would give a concert there. I would give concerts anywhere, even in Iran. But I must be able to say what I’ve got to say. I would give concerts everywhere because the whole world is my home.”

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