Palestinian rapper MC Gaza doesn’t want people to mourn the death of Gazan journalist Yasser Murtaja. “Don’t mourn the martyr, it is time for the flowers to be picked,” he raps in the video above, encouraging people to fight back.

Ibrahim Ghunaim, who is better known as MC Gaza, dedicated his new rap video to Murtaja, who was also his friend. Murtaja was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper of the Israeli Defence Force while covering protests, in spite of wearing a jacket that boldly stated “PRESS”.

Advertisement

The rapper filmed the protest rap video at the Gaza border on the frontline of the “Great March of Return” amid ongoing protests, burning tires and thick plumes of smoke. The March of Return, which has seen mass protests along the Gaza border since March 30, is calling for Palestinian refugees to be able to return to their former homes which are now inside Israel.

“Our land called, and we answered the call. We didn’t fear the snipers’ shots hurting our young men...I’m returning to my land; I’m removing the spikes,” raps MC Gaza.

He also warns with the protest song, “Israel thought if they kill us, they would end our existence...We will return, even if it takes us decades, we will return.”

Advertisement

MC Gaza wasn’t the only one to protest using an art form. Palestinian parkour enthusiasts also performed a show on the Gaza border on Tuesday evening, which saw four members of a parkour team flip and twist their way around the site of the Great March of Return. According to AFP, they wanted to send a message that they will return to their country and practise their sport there. “We don’t have anything to resist with except parkour,” said one of the performers.

Thirty-one Palestinians have been killed in the mass peaceful protests by Israeli forces. According to AFP, the protests are expect to continue until mid-May, when US President Donald Trump plans to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem, a move that has deeply angered the Palestinians.