Ramallah – PNN – Palestinian hip-hop group DAM took the stage at the Ramallah Cultural Palace Saturday night in front of hundreds of fans.

DAM, which means blood in both Hebrew and Arabic and is short for “Da Arabian MCs,” collaborated with other Palestinian performers for the show meant to bring together artists from the West Bank in the spirit of a growing youth movement, said DAM member Suhell Nafar.

Nafar started the group a decade ago with his brother Tamer and their friend Mahmoud Jreri. The three grew up in Lod, near Tel-Aviv. Their music talks about the complexities of living as Palestinians in Israel, the Israeli occupation, violence and women’s rights, among other things.

Fans rushed to the front of the theatre when the group took the stage, waving their arms and singing along till DAM left the stage to make way for the next performer.

After the show, Sahell talked to PNN about the group’s upcoming plans, the challenges they face and their hopes for the future.

Right now DAM is working on mastering its new album, which will feature live instruments and not just standard hip-hop beats, said Sahell, “We’re mixing the two cultures.”

The conflict takes its toll on the band as well.

“We have a big fan base in Lebanon, Algeria, in Syria,” said Sahell, “We can’t go there because we have Israeli passports.”

The Israeli occupation makes things hard too, he said. “It’s part of a strategy: separate and conquer … dividing us between Gaza, the West Bank and the Palestinians who live inside Israel.”

But DAM has found a way to get their music past all these barriers.

“God bless the internet!” said Sahell.

The group’s song “Who’s the Terrorist?” was downloaded one million times in just one month, said Sahell. The internet also caught them a big following outside of the Arab world. The group has toured the United States and Europe.

Sahell said they got a lot of support from fans in the US while they were there, and were glad to be able to show an image of Palestinians beyond what people usually see on the news. That lines up with one of the band’s core messages.

“They see us as a few seconds in the news, so I’m hoping to, through the music, bring the culture out, to show that [Palestinians] are not just a few seconds in the news,” said Sahell, “We’re humans too.”