BOB (Translation):   All this shit, makes trouble for me.  I see... what they used to fire at from here. The places they fired at.

REPORTER:  Jabal Mohsen?

BOB (Translation):   Jabal Mohsen, yes.

Abrahim Abdul-Aal or Bob lives in the Bab El Tabbaneh district. He's shown me around the roof of his home which has been attacked by the historic rival Jabal Mohsen.

BOB (Translation):   When they fired the shell, I was sleeping in my bed here, it penetrated the wall and little rocks and dust fell on my face.

Bob has only known violence. He was born into it.

BOB (Translation):   People who die have nothing to do with weapons or wars or killings. Are we worried? Yes, we are, that at any minute shootings might start and Jabal and Tabbaneh will ignite for no reason.

Just a few hundred metres away in the rival neighbourhood of Jabal Mohsen lives Youssef Ibrahim or Asso.

ASSO (Translation):  I was standing here, doing something and the glass fell in. I ran inside straight away.

Asso's Alawite neighbourhood is surrounded by Sunni districts.

ASSO (Translation):  the clashes make life difficult, it's hard for both sides.

It is hard for these boys to really escape the conflict. But they're part of a new generation fighting against the sectarian violence and negative perceptions of their home city and they are fighting by coming together to cut up the dance floor. Bob and Asso are part of Cross Arts, involving music, hip-hop, break dancers and graffiti. It is an anti-sectarian youth performing arts crew that has members of all religions and ethnicities, including these two boys from warring neighbourhoods.

ASSO (Translation):  How is your work? How are things?

BOB (Translation):   Praise be to God, studies, hard work. Studying is the best but in Tripoli there is no studying.

The two met mere at Cross Arts and know the simple act of coming together to work on music and hip-hop is not liked by everyone.

ASSO (Translation):  Many don't accept these ideas, it depends on their views - they were not raised with it, they don't like it.

BOB (Translation):   I feel that, no...I can't do what I'm doing there, in Tabbaneh or in any other place outside here. Because here they have secured a space, perhaps people here don't want you to do it, but people outside here, as they say, they might criticise you in a destructive way.

Bob has been trying to master this move called "playing dead". He tells me it's been a way to stay alive.

BOB (Translation):   If you want to know what break dance means to me, it means a lot. First....it allows me to express my anger in a nice way. We present to people wherever they are the art of Tripoli, an art that's never been about a gun, bullets, killing, blood or war.  Art, it is art.

Asso has focused on rap music. He wrote this song about a year ago, after seeing a small running child shot right in front of him.

ASSO, SONG (Translation):  It's so sad her son died. He wasn't even 11. They made us live with oppression, with war. It's like that film ‘Stray Bullet'. Man, the boy died.

ASSO (Translation):  His death hit me hard so I tried to make sense of it with a song. My feelings came out in the song. I sang what I felt.

KAMAL ABBAS (Translation):   Our centre has become like a beehive.

Kamal Abbas is a cofounder of Cross Arts. About three years ago, the 42-year-old Tripolite started the group which is funded by US Aid.

KAMAL ABBAS (Translation):   We changed their songs from being violent to non-violent. We introduced causes into their songs. At the beginning they were singing love songs, now they sing for women's rights, the environment, children, Tripoli, against sectarianism and violence.

Bob and Asso are brave enough to take me on a tour of Syria Street, the so-called green line separating their neighbourhoods.

BOB (Translation):   By the way, I am from this side, closer to the highway.

ASSO (Translation):  I'm from up there, from the mountain and we are going to Syria Street to show people that this is a street of Tripoli. We don't want war, we are here to show them this.

We are barely here five minutes before the Mukhabarat or secret police come to stop our filming. Fortunately the tension on the street doesn't exist at home. Asso's mother is supportive of his involvement.

ASSO'S MOTHER (Translation):  I'm really proud of Asso. I'm really proud. He united all the sects. He doesn't have hatred. He's against sectarianism, against killing and war. Everyone loves him because he loves everyone. He doesn't harm anyone. He brings a co-operation between the two sides.

ASSO (Translation):  There's nothing in Tripoli to show you what is right.  Children carrying weapons now, a child can have a knife strapped around his waist.  Another might have a pistol.  His dad might give him a rifle and tell him to shoot.  We are showing them that it is wrong.  That is the only reason we are doing this. We are delivering a message through Tripoli Hip Hop Revolution.  This is our message.

Bob and Asso may never get a record deal. But these two have managed to find a fragment of peace in a war that appears to have no end in sight.

BOB (Translation):   That is the idea of "he's a Alawite, he's a sunni, he's Druze"  we have to forget this. We have to live a good life. We have to live our lives, in Tabbaneh and in Jabal.

Reporter/Camera
Yaara Bou Melhem

Producer
Bernadine Lim

Fixer
Gabi Jammal

Editor
Simon Phegan

Translations/Subtitling
Dalia Matar

8th July 2014