Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Palestinian Rappers Sing ‘Mama, I Fell In Love With A Jew’

“Mama, I Fell In Love With A Jew” — the words your mother always wanted to hear, right?

Not if you’re a Palestinian, most likely.

Tamer Nafar and Mahmood Jrere of the Palestinian rap group DAM recently released a music video of their song, “Mama, I Fell In Love With A Jew.”

Though humorous, the song contains quite the political bite. In an interview with Haaretz, Nafar explained, “It’s just making fun of people who say, ‘come on, can’t you just be together and just solve the problems? We refuse to talk about co-existence when we don’t exist.’”

In the first verse, Nafar sets the scene:

In the elevator, no electricity/ Between us, there was electricity/ Was it meant to be? Could she be the one?/ Her name is not Janie but she’s got a gun/

“Yes we are in the same elevator in the same situation and in the same country,” commented Nafar, “but it doesn’t mean that we are equal.”

Another biting verse follows:

[Do I speak Hebrew? A bit hard for me/ “Yes Avodah?” Means you gotta job for me?/ Does she speak Arabic? She said a word or two/ “Wafek Ya Batukhak” means freeze or I shoot/

The macabre love story unfolds with lines like “I said 69, she heard 67” and “All I wanna make is sweet love/ But if you want tough love too/ For a change can I be the one to handcuff you?”

The music video depicts a Palestinian and a female soldier at an elevator, who blindfolds him. When she’s outside the uniform, however, the man and woman fall in love. “It’s not ‘I’m in love with an Israeli,’” explained Nafar, “it’s ‘I’m in love with a Jew.’ It’s actually to make that separation.”

Already, the rap duo have performed the song at an interfaith wedding in Israel — even with the political connotations. “You [Israelis] won’t go and study our literature, you won’t look at us as a culture, you look at us as a case to spy on,” said Nafar. “So you cannot talk to me about co-existence when you’re holding the gun.”

Wow. And at first, I assumed this was some humorous reverse tale of the “Palestinian Chicken” episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which Larry says a Palestinian woman who “doesn’t even acknowledge your right to exist — that’s a turn-on.”

Larry was just in it for the gags. DAM, however, have a message not just for their mother, but for the world.

Steven Davidson is an editorial fellow at The Forward.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.