From Haifa to Ramallah, New York to San Francisco, the three Palestinian rappers from DAM have been busy promoting their new album Dabke on the Moon. But this time, more than a decade after first mesmerizing young Palestinians with political rhymes against Israeli oppression, the musicians have sparked criticism from an unlikely group — liberal Palestinian academics.

Their fans have been waiting six years for the release of their new album, which is full of danceable messages from the three wise men of Arabic hip hop. But the emcees have directed some of their new lyrical criticism to oppression in Palestinian society. The song “If I Could Go Back in Time” condemns forced marriages and killing of girls, causing some to say DAM (which means blood in Arabic and doubles as an acronym for Da Arabian MCs) has been seduced by “honor crime.”

“Women in this song are decontextualized victims of their culture, to be championed by young men with enlightened views, and by foreign intervention and international aid,” wrote two anthropologists at Columbia University, Professor of Gender Studies Lila Abu Lughod, and PhD-candidate Maya Mikdashi, on Jadaliyya.com on Nov. 13, 2012.

The writers called themselves disappointed fans and said DAM was not providing political and historical context to the problem and the term honor killing, which they said, in Palestine can be attributed to a score of historical reasons, and is impacted by the Israeli occupation. They were also greatly skeptical of UN Women’s financial support for the song’s video. “The music video faithfully follows the script of an international campaign against the so-called honor crime. The ‘honor crime’ has a history in the UN.”