Tamer Nafar (Arabic: تامر النفار, Hebrew: תאמר נפאר; born June 6, 1979) is a Palestinian rapper, actor, screenwriter and social activist of Israeli citizenship.
He grew up in poverty in Lod, a mixed Arab-Israeli city in Israel, which was a major hub for drug smuggling and crime.
[4] Tamer discovered hip-hop at age 17, when he began learning English by listening to Tupac and translating his lyrics to Arabic using an English-Arabic dictionary.
[6] In an interview for Democracy Now (2008),[7] Tamer said that the group's name suggested “eternal blood, like we will stay here forever,” evoking a politics of resilience and survival (or دام - sumood, in Arabic).
[8] DAM understood that their potential for meaningful social impact depends on their ability to express their message in Arabic, Hebrew and English, drawing upon vernacular phrases, slang, obscenities and indigenous references to each cultural frame.
In the outbreak of the Second Intifada in October 2000, Tamer and Mahmood decided to write their first direct political song "Posheem Hapim me Peshaa" (Innocent Criminals).
It was recorded over an instrumental of "Hail Mary" by Tupac and featured lines such as "when Jews protest, the cops use clubs / when Arabs protest, the cops take their souls" and "if it is a democracy how come I'm not mentioned in your anthem" followed by the chorus "before you judge me, before you understand me, walk in my shoes, and you will hurt your feet, because we are criminals, innocent criminals."
[9] The film follows Tamer Nafar and DAM on one side and the right-wing Zionist rapper Kobi Shimoni (Subliminal and the Shadow) on the other.
Meeting in a dark alley in Tel Aviv, the groups nearly come to blows over recent comments made by Tamer and Shimoni.
Once collaborative and cherishing, the relationship quickly dissolved as each began to embody a political ideology following the collapse of the 2000 Camp David Summit and the beginning of the Second Intifada.
Coming to terms with the violence on the streets of Tel Aviv and Jenin, both artists retreated from their once close relationship, based on a mutual love of hip-hop, into nationalism.
Due to the campaign's success, the Israeli government built a bridge above the train tracks for safer crossing and allowed DAM to tour Israel discussing their cause.
"#Who_U_R" was written in response to the rape of a 16-year-old Texan teenager Jada, whose assault was recorded, shared, and mocked on social media in 2014.
[4] Tamer starred in the feature film Junction 48 directed by Udi Aloni and written by Nafar and Oren Moverman.
He has performed alongside veteran Palestinian directors Norman Issa and Nizar Zoabi in Anton Chekhov’s plays.