This Week with David Rovics

New song: ”They Were Raising A White Flag”

When the rules of engagement are "shoot anything that moves."

New song: ”They’re Killing Off the Journalists of Gaza”

Part of Israel's strategy of destroying Gaza is to destroy the ability of the people of Gaza to tell their story, by explicitly targeting and assassinating journalists.

”In One World” FINAL MIX

Here's Chet Gardiner's brilliant remix of a song I recorded in 2002 based on a story I read in the Palestine Chronicle back then, called "In One World."

”Baby Jesus Lying in the Rubble” FINAL MIX

From the vantage point of artistic output, as 2023 progresses I’ve been facing the only problem I ever like to have — writing more decent songs in the course of the year than I could possibly pack into one album project.

I already had plans to spend much of February in southern France making a recording with a fine international cast of musicians. I was starting to think about completely changing the plan for the recording project and making it all about the genocide in Gaza. But I was feeling bad about abandoning the idea of recording a lot of other material if we went that route.

Then it occurred to me that instead of radically altering the project we already had planned, the Gaza song cycle could be its own separate recording project. When the brilliant Hawai’i-based musician, Chet Gardiner, had me and other musicians there to record the Killing the Messenger album at the beginning of 2023, he mentioned the notion of working remotely with material I send him, that I record in my apartment.

I realized that this was the time to do that sort of project together, and Chet’s response was “I’m glad you asked.”

He got to work quickly, improving vocal and guitar sounds and adding tastefully minimalist layers of bass and synth to his favorite song in the cycle thus far. What I’m sharing with you here is the first song he finished. He’ll be serving us more morsels as December progresses. I hope you like it as much as I do (and the rest of them as much as I expect to!).

When we’ve got the whole batch, I’ll put them out as an album on all the music streaming platforms.

New song: ”Just Like the Nazis Did”

The danger of ignoring obvious historical parallels to unfolding events is the prospect of repeating them.

New song: ”Baby Jesus Lying in the Rubble”

The Lutheran church in Bethlehem recently put out their variation of this year's nativity scene -- baby Jesus swaddled in a kaffiyeh, lying amid the rubble of a building in Gaza.

Winning Arguments in the Matrix

Winning arguments in the Matrix -- or extracting ourselves from it.

New song: ”The Apocalypse Will Be Televised”

Despite the high death toll in this genocidal bombing campaign of children, medical workers, journalists, this apocalypse is being televised for all who want to tune in to Al-Jazeera or any number of other networks outside of the west and watch it unfold.

Message From Jenin

I got an email from a friend in Jenin, who runs a cultural center there. One of the young men active at the center has just been murdered by the IOF.

New song: ”Pogroms of Judea and Samaria”

Meanwhile in the Occupied West Bank, many hundreds have been killed in the past two months in ongoing, extremely violent and destructive pogroms carried out by armed settlers, aided by soldiers.