{"id":3416,"date":"2026-07-09T08:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T06:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/?p=3416"},"modified":"2026-07-09T08:07:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T06:07:25","slug":"mar-nem-kellemesen-elzsibbadva-roger-waters-mona-miari-es-a-gazaiak-el-nem-feledese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/mar-nem-kellemesen-elzsibbadva-roger-waters-mona-miari-es-a-gazaiak-el-nem-feledese\/","title":{"rendered":"No longer \u201epleasantly numb\u201d: Roger Waters, Mona Miari, and the unforgetting of Gazans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"3\"><b data-path-to-node=\"3\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newarab.com\/features\/roger-waters-and-mona-miari-reimagine-comfortably-numb-gaza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The New Arab Encounter<\/a>: Roger Waters and Mona Miari on the Gaza reimagining of \u201eComfortably Numb,\u201d art as resistance, and the role of music in times of war.<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"WBmrT3uqmeM\"><iframe title=\"Roger Waters &amp; Mona Miari \u2013 Comfortably Numb Re-Imagined (Official Music Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WBmrT3uqmeM?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"about:blank\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">When Roger Waters sings to Mona Miari, \u201eI feel your pain from New York,\u201d he does more than revive a Pink Floyd classic; he sends a letter to the ruins of Gaza. It\u2019s a transcontinental dialogue between a renowned rock musician, an \u201eold guy from New York,\u201d and a Palestinian artist who grew up under occupation, whose family carries the memory of the Nakba, and who, as he puts it, \u201ewill not let the world become comfortably numb\u201d to the genocide.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">Forty-seven years after its original release, <i data-path-to-node=\"6\" data-index-in-node=\"46\">Comfortably Numb: Reimagined<\/i> more than a nostalgic cover. It transforms one of Pink Floyd&#039;s most iconic songs into a meditation on Gaza, bearing witness to those being bombed, starved and displaced by Israel in real time, while asking: what responsibility do artists have when faced with such suffering?<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\">When we talk, Mona makes it clear that this project wasn&#039;t born out of fandom or abstract admiration for rock music. &quot;I personally don&#039;t like covers. For me, writing new stuff is the whole point,&quot; Mona tells the <i data-path-to-node=\"7\" data-index-in-node=\"239\">The New Arab<\/i>He turned to the song when he was walking through the \u201eruins\u201d of Gaza in his imagination, heard Roger Waters\u2019 original questions in his head, and decided to answer them.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">\u201eI took the questions that Roger asked in the original and connected them to what was happening in Gaza\u2026 Why not outline the bleak, devastating truth and deny the world the opportunity to \u2019comfortably numb\u2019 and ignore it?\u201d he continues. By the time they sat down to work on the song, they were on common political and artistic ground, which, as Mona says, imbued the project with \u201eurgency, responsibility and truth.\u201d.<\/p>\n<h4 data-path-to-node=\"9\">Dialogue between continents<\/h4>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">Through the common ground, the collaboration wasn\u2019t about explaining Palestine to a Western audience or to Roger Waters himself. \u201eWe found common ground, and it wasn\u2019t about explaining intent, but about conveying it accurately and carefully, as a reflection of a devastating truth, and the world\u2019s total refusal to ignore it,\u201d Mona shares.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\">Roger, who has been an outspoken supporter of Palestinian liberation for more than two decades, says the lyrics \u201eorganically and naturally turned into correspondence.\u201d After reading Mona\u2019s Arabic translation of the lyrics, he asked himself, \u201eWhat should I write? What should I do?\u201d The answer came in the form of a direct address. \u201eThe first words I wrote were, \u2019I feel your pain from New York,\u2019 and I went from there,\u201d Roger says. \u201eIt\u2019s a dialogue. That\u2019s what makes this piece so powerful, because that\u2019s exactly what it is: a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3419\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3419\" style=\"width: 696px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3419 size-large lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" title=\"\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-300x169.jpg.webp 300w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-18x10.jpg 18w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-746x420.jpg 746w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-150x84.jpg.webp 150w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-696x392.jpg 696w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58-1068x601.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-01-at-09.25.58.jpg.webp 1155w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 696px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 696\/392;\" data-original-sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3419\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roger Waters and Palestinian musician Mona Miari reimagine Pink Floyd&#039;s &#039;Comfortably Numb&#039; with Arabic verses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4 data-path-to-node=\"12\">Pictures of Gaza, Eyes of Gaza<\/h4>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"13\">If the song is a correspondence, the film is its visual response: a black-and-white split screen between Roger and Mona in the studio, and Gaza as Palestinians see it during the bombing. This is not archival or stock footage; it was shot by Gazan photographers and filmmakers as Israeli bombs fell all around them. Palestinian photographer Suhail Nassar and his Emmy-winning crew ensured that the visual language of the project was that of those who were living and documenting the genocide.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"14\">As we listen to Roger\u2019s haunting guitar playing and Mona\u2019s emotional performance, we see Suhail\u2019s personal relics: his grandmother\u2019s key to the home she stole during the Nakba, or video portraits of families in Gaza. For Mona, this is not \u201ethe aestheticization of suffering.\u201d \u201eThis is my home. I can\u2019t be in \u2019solidarity\u2019 with my people. I am my people. I am telling my own story,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<h4 data-path-to-node=\"15\">Hind Rajab and the rejection of numbness<\/h4>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"16\">One of the most powerful parts of the song is Mona&#039;s imaginary conversation <a href=\"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-hind-rajab-hangja\/\">Hind Rajab<\/a> with her mother. The six-year-old girl from Gaza was killed by Israeli forces as she pleaded for help from the family car, where her relatives had already been shot dead. In the song, Hind is not an abstract symbol; she is remembered woven into a lullaby, preventing her name from being lost among the statistics of mass murder.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"16\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2744 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-1024x576.jpg.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" title=\"\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-1024x576.jpg.webp 1024w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-600x338.jpg.webp 600w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-300x169.jpg.webp 300w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-768x432.jpg.webp 768w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-1536x864.jpg.webp 1536w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-18x10.jpg.webp 18w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-747x420.jpg.webp 747w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-150x84.jpg.webp 150w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-696x392.jpg.webp 696w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga-1068x601.jpg.webp 1068w, https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/06\/f_tov_lon_hindmother_240210-1yglga.jpg.webp 1920w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 696px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 696\/392;\" data-original-sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"17\">\u201eThis is a call to action,\u201d Mona emphasizes. \u201eWe\u2019re not looking for praise. We\u2019re forcing people to face this truth and endure the discomfort it causes.\u201d The song is also linked to a fundraiser (for the Palestine Children\u2019s Aid Fund), and the ending is not one of mourning but of an emotional and ethical climax: \u201ePalestine must be free. We will remain free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"18\">Roger sees the song as part of his broader political work. \u201eIt\u2019s not a side project. It\u2019s part of \u2019Sumud\u2019 (the Arabic word for steadfastness). This steadfastness in resisting the occupation of all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.\u201d The phrase has already provoked the expected Zionist backlash, to which Mona comments: \u201eA lot of Pink Floyd fans are shocked, but they never really understood what Pink Floyd was about in the past years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"19\">Roger is even more blunt: \u201eMona and I are engaged in an existential battle for the soul of humanity. We are calling on people to join the resistance against oppression and the theft of the Palestinian homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 data-path-to-node=\"20\">\u201eFrom the river to the sea\u201d \u2013 a vision of a future<\/h4>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"21\">At the end of the conversation, I asked them what this political reality describes. Roger replies without hesitation: \u201eA single democratic state with equal human rights for all, regardless of religion, ethnicity or nationality.\u201d Mona agrees with the principle, but insists on priorities: \u201eNot just a single democratic state. First of all, freedom and justice for my people and all the oppressed of the world \u2013 then we can think about the framework. The fight is for freedom and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"22\">Finally, the <i data-path-to-node=\"22\" data-index-in-node=\"11\">Comfortably Numb: Reimagined<\/i> lives in this struggle. In the name of Hind Rajab. In the eyes of Gaza&#039;s filmmakers-photographers who create under bombardment. In Mona Miari&#039;s determination not to separate her art from centuries of annihilation. And in Roger Waters&#039; belief that the &quot;voice of common sense&quot; still exists, insisting that Palestine must and will be free.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A The New Arab tal\u00e1lkoz\u00e1sa: Roger Waters \u00e9s Mona Miari a \u201eComfortably Numb\u201d g\u00e1zai \u00fajragondol\u00e1s\u00e1r\u00f3l, a m\u0171v\u00e9szetr\u0151l mint ellen\u00e1ll\u00e1sr\u00f3l, \u00e9s a zene szerep\u00e9r\u0151l a h\u00e1bor\u00fa idej\u00e9n. Amikor Roger Waters azt \u00e9nekli Mona Miarinak, hogy \u201e\u00e9rzem a f\u00e1jdalmadat New Yorkb\u00f3l\u201d, t\u00f6bbet tesz egy Pink Floyd-klasszikus feleleven\u00edt\u00e9s\u00e9n\u00e9l; levelet k\u00fcld G\u00e1za romjai k\u00f6z\u00e9. Ez egy kontinenseket \u00e1t\u00edvel\u0151 p\u00e1rbesz\u00e9d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kulturalis-ellenallas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}