Bay Area musicians organize benefit for Palestinian relief

While I do not practice the religion, I grew up in a Jewish family. I attended temple with my great grandmother, mostly for high holidays like Purim, Passover and Hanukkah but sometimes on a random weekend as well. She told me stories of her family coming to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century and how so many of our European family members were never heard from again after 1945.

I was raised to believe in “Never Again” meaning for all people, Jewish or otherwise. I was also raised to believe in the existence of Israel. However, as I grew older and watched the state that was supposed to represent my ancestors commit atrocity after atrocity, I questioned some of my core values. How can we say “Never Again” while millions of Palestinians live in their homeland and are treated as second-class citizens? Under constant surveillance, behind barbed wires, dealing with numerous checkpoints every day just to get to work, and constantly under attack from IDF soldiers and vigilante settlers with threats of shootings, bombings or worse?

Many Americans like myself—and Israelis, too—are waking up to the genocide that is happening in Gaza. Yet it’s a struggle and reality Palestinian and Arab people have been carrying for 78 years.

On Saturday, May 31, Bay Area musicians will come together for the Mixtape for Palestine Concert at the Ivy Room in Albany. It’s a benefit show for United For Dignity Alliance (UFDA), a neutral nonprofit that delivers locally led humanitarian and medical aid in order to give conflict-afflicted communities the agency and power to lead their recovery. UFDA is operating in Gaza to help ensure Palestinians have access to essentials such as clean water and food along with child protective services, healthcare for cancer and chronic diseases, while also documenting daily life in occupied Palestine. 

“I realized much of which I was taught my whole life about the issues was either a misframing, wasn’t the whole story or I had just been told lies,” says Ezra Lipp. He’s a co-organizer of the Mixtape For Palestine benefit show, a musician who plays with Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO) and Magic in the Other, and a Jewish, anti-Zionist activist. He recently started a pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist podcast called The Thin Veil, which can be found on streaming platforms. 

 “I definitely wasn’t told the whole truth,” he continues. “Which I now understand on a much deeper level.”

The name of the benefit concert comes from an online mixtape released on Jan. 1, 2024. It’s the brainchild of Bay Area artist Jessie Woletz, a.k.a. SeaweedSway, which she uses as the name for her music and promotion projects. She started the project as a way to raise money for the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance (MECA), a nonprofit supporting Palestinian children and Syrian refugees. Within 10 days of its release the mixtape had a massive, 87-song track—representing bands from not only all over the Bay but also California and the greater country—and had raised an impressive $5,000.

Today the mixtape stands at 94 different tracks, has raised over $15,000 and is still available at Bandcamp.com for a $25 donation.

“There are a lot of anti-Zionist Jews that are doing this work, but it’s important that we obviously listen to Palestinian voices that have been speaking about this for decades,” Lipp says. “If we did listen to them, heard their stories and read their poetry, the history is very clear. It’s very clear about the asymmetric power that has occurred. And it’s a very clear way to understand Zionism as a settler-colonial project, which isn’t hard to see compared to other settler-colonial projects like America.” 

The benefit show will feature four main acts: Handmade Moments, Aviva La Fey, Madeline Tasquin—who also appears on the compilation—and Lipp’s band, Magic in the Other. They will be followed by the Mixtape for Palestine Allstars, featuring Vicki Randle, of Skip the Needle and the Tonight Show Band from 1992-2010; Palestinian activists; and hip-hop artists Tarik “Excentrik” Kazala, Anna Moss, Rafa Sarria Bustamante (of La Gente), Dellow, Joel Ludford, Andre Fylling and more.

“We’re doing a full collaborative set for the finale of the night,” Lipp says. “Which should be interesting because it’s never happened before.” 

In between the sets DJ Little Sunny of Grass Valley-based KVMR 89.5FM will spin gospel music tying the similarities and solidarity between Black America’s struggle for freedom with Palestine’s.

“We realize the scope of need currently in Gaza is beyond what we could raise in a single night,” Lipp says. “But I felt it was really important as a musician and Jewish person who firmly believes in Palestinian liberation to make a safe space for people to publicly gather and say ‘We support Palestine and are against genocide.’”

The Mixtape for Palestine Concert takes place on Sunday, May 31, at 7pm at Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany. ivyroom.com. Sliding scale donation $25-$100.