HAIDAR EIDA song for BDS

Haidar Eid, Mondoweiss, 14/6/2022

Activists in Gaza rework a classic Palestinian resistance song from the first intifada to fit the BDS movement today.

Dedicated to the memory of the late BDS activist and engaged, revolutionary intellectual Samah Idriss (1961-2021)

It’s been a year since Israel’s brutal aerial bombardment of Gaza, in which hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, were brutally killed by Israel’s war machine. At the time, Gaza-based civil society issued a statement calling on international supporters to escalate BDS campaigns to isolate apartheid Israel’s murderous regime of oppression. This song was supposed to be released as part of the Israeli Apartheid Week activities last year, but due to the spread of Covid-19 and the Israeli attack, it didn’t see the light of day.

 

A poster being used to promote 2022 Israel Apartheid Week in Gaza

It is a song calling for the boycott of apartheid Israel, and states the demands of the Palestinian people, which happen to be those of the BDS movement: “we want freedom and return.” It goes on to celebrate the culture of boycott from “Haifa (1948) to the West Bank (1967.)” That is the desired “firebrand” that needs to be “ignited” and the “fruit of the tree that needs to be watered by the coming rain to tell the tale of revolutionary heroes with grand ideas.”

The lyrics are based on a song performed by the great Palestinian singer Walid Abdussalam and written by Palestinian poet Yacoub Ismail during the first intifada, which we have humbly modified in order to adapt it to BDS demands. The original song was a folkloric song for kids, but with a revolutionary dimension which included a call for general strikes and civil disobedience. The aim of our new version is to capture the essence of BDS activism and eloquently articulate them. We dedicate this to our late comrade Samah Idriss who would have celebrated it and whose spirit is flying with us in the skies of Gaza, Palestine.

 

BDS…BDS

Today and tomorrow…BDS

Haifa and the West Bank…BDS

We have legitimate rights

Return and Freedom

Freedom comes through revolution

But the revolution needs a spark

That spark is provided by the baker

But the baker is sleeping hungry

And the hungry baker needs a fruit

That fruit is on the tree

The tree has to be watered

By either spring water or rain

The rain is coming

With a tale to tell

About revolutionary heroes

Who have the spark

To ignite the revolution

With grand ideas

Ideas…ideas

That will bring a new day