Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Conscious Collaboration

When Israel and Palestine are used in the same sentence, the pairing most often concerns conflict and negativity. An ensemble of young adults ages 17 to 21 aims to change that. Heartbeat, an Israeli-Palestinian youth music collective, brings Jews and Arabs together through a shared love of creative expression and a commitment to nonviolence. The group’s original song “Bukra Fi Mishmish” — Arabic for “when pigs fly” — features the instrumental, vocal and song-writing skills of its members. Multilingual lyrics include the following, translated from Hebrew: “We’ll break down the walls / and take down the flags / and then we’ll discover / a world where everything is possible.”