Rasta and reggae over the Green Line

NEVE EREZ, West Bank — Noam Cohen’s one-story home in Neve Erez overlooks Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. The front door is open and the neighbor’s dog is asleep on the kitchen floor. Figs, lemons, apples and pomegranates grow just outside. Opposite the fruit trees is a barren hilltop with an abandoned army base, a parking lot and an empty stage.

“I wanted to make a farm in the desert. It didn’t matter where it was going to be,” Cohen said.

Cohen lives in a hilltop settlement northeast of Jerusalem in the West Bank, a place many find politically controversial. But that mattered not at all, it seems, to reggae musicians and fans.

Last week the community hosted the Camel Reggae and Dub Festival. Artists from Israel, Russia and the United Kingdom performed for about 350 people from late Thursday afternoon until Friday, just before the start of the Sabbath.

It was the perfect place for the festival, said organizer Israel Up, who didn’t offer his real name.

“It’s an amazing place. It’s nature, naked, and they have a brilliant view,” he said. “We looked for a location in Israel for a month, until we heard about this one. When we got there we were in shock. It’s amazing.”

The stage overlooks the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea. There is almost no vegetation or signs of people anywhere. It is desolate, and beautiful.

According to the organizers, the politics of the place didn’t matter. Not to the performers, nor to the audience.

“The political borders and things like that, we don’t have the solution for it,” Up said. “We’re going for the music and the culture. It’s a beautiful place.”

Head to the hills

Cohen, who manages Khan Inbalim, a desert-style inn near his home, came to Neve Erez in 1999. The hilltop was empty before he arrived, he said, and there are no Palestinian communities in the area. An old army outpost nearby once housed a missile base until the peace agreement with Jordan.

Cohen ended up moving to the hilltop, which is near Ma’ale Michmash, a settlement established in 1981 by residents of Ma’ale Adumim. He arrived at the site with his wife Tehila and several others. There are now 18 families in the village, and they hope for about 10 more.

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According to Peace Now, Neve Erez does not have official government approval and is located on state and private Palestinian land.

“I didn’t come here for any political reason,” Cohen said. “I didn’t intend to go to this side of the Green Line or the other.”

Neve Erez is not religious or political, Cohen said, and describes himself as traditional. Residents are an eclectic mix. They train dogs, teach an Ethiopian culture class, grow wheat, and practice sustainable building with mud, straw and recycled water. There are volunteers from countries including the United States, Germany and Iran, Cohen said.

“Everyone comes for different reasons, from a different path of life,” he said. “If you make it or not it’s up to you.”

Music on the mountain

Besides running the inn, Cohen is a musician with a collection of instruments from different parts of the world, which he keeps in the homemade studio next to his house. Outside is a drum set made from recycled sewage pipes. There is a weekly music performance at the inn, an arrangement of couches and a small bar underneath a canopy at the edge of the village.

Neve Erez is still a young community, Cohen said, and events like the reggae festival will help develop it further.

Both Cohen and the organizers said the festival was a success, aside from some logistical problems. Wind knocked some of the equipment over and there were problems bringing water to the site due to a miscommunication with the local council.

“There were a lot of the righteous people from all over Israel, from Eilat, from the north, from all over and that was the main goal from me, to bring a variety of people from all over the country, not just local people and because of that, this was a huge success for me,” Cohen said. “A lot of the audience told me that it was one of the best festivals they’ve ever been to.”

Cohen said the performance by General Levy, a musician from the United Kingdom, was a high point. He was the most well-known artist present, known for his 1994 hit song “Incredible.”

The organizers said the artists also enjoyed the show, including Russian singer Steppa Style. The Moscow-based reggae artist has performed internationally and was recognized as Russia’s best reggae artist of 2010.

While the festival passed off peacefully, music-goers sadly learned of the nearby murder of Danny Gonen who was killed in a terrorist attack after visiting a spring near the West Bank settlement of Dolev.

“On the same day there was a murder in a place like 20 kilometers from there,” said organizer Israel Up. “We were all a bit in shock.”