(Dedicated to the memory of the late BDS activist and engaged, revolutionary intellectual Samah Idriss)
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.
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
“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.”
Today Human Rights Watch posted a detailed report on Gaza: “Gaza: Israel’s ‘Open-Air Prison’ at 15” (yes, Egypt contributes to travel restrictions but Israel is legally the occupying power):
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/14/gaza-israels-open-air-prison-15
Israel’s sweeping restrictions on leaving Gaza deprive its more than two million residents of opportunities to better their lives, Human Rights Watch said today on the fifteenth anniversary of the 2007 closure. The closure has devastated the economy in Gaza, contributed to fragmentation of the Palestinian people, and forms part of Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians….Since 2007, Israeli authorities have, with narrow exceptions, banned Palestinians from leaving through Erez, the passenger crossing from Gaza into Israel, through which they can reach the West Bank and travel abroad via Jordan. Israel also prevents Palestinian authorities from operating an airport or seaport in Gaza. Israeli authorities also sharply restrict the entry and exit of goods...Israel remains an occupying power under international humanitarian law, despite withdrawing its military forces and settlements from the territory in 2005. Both the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the guardians of international humanitarian law, have reached this determination. As the occupying power, Israel remains bound to provide residents of Gaza the rights and protections afforded to them by the law of occupation.
Thank you, Haidar, for the BDS poem!
Watch this brief video from the June 6th meeting of the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council meeting.
It shows Mayor Christopher Taylor being called a “racist dog” for throwing his weight against BDS resolutions. Given his fierce cold shoulder to the occupied Palestinian people, you might be surprised to know of his loud public support for the occupied Ukrainian people.
Here is the video where he gets slammed at City Council:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROQB3mjQUso
A reminder
1 of 2:
Human Rights Watch: “Israel will continue to be an Occupying Power of the Gaza Strip under international law & bound by the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention because it will retain effective control over the territory & over crucial aspects of civilian life. Israel will not be withdrawing & handing power over to a sovereign authority – indeed, the word ‘withdrawal’ does not appear in the [2005 disengagement] document at all…The IDF will retain control over Gaza’s borders, coastline, & airspace, & will reserve the right to enter Gaza at will. According to the Hague Regulations, ‘A territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established & can be exercised’. International jurisprudence has clarified that the mere repositioning of troops is not sufficient to relieve an occupier of its responsibilities if it retains its overall authority & the ability to reassert direct control at will.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): “The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law.” The ICRC thus unequivocally stated that Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law embodied in the Geneva Conventions. The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, ratified by Israel, bans collective punishment of a civilian population.
Dov Weisglass, then PM Ariel Sharon’s senior adviser:
“‘The significance of the [then proposed] disengagement plan [implemented in 2005] is the freezing of the peace process,’ Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s senior adviser Dov Weisglass has told Ha’aretz. ‘And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, & you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders & Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda….’ (cont’d)
2 of 2
Weisglass, who was one of the initiators of the disengagement plan, was speaking in an interview with Ha’aretz for the Friday Magazine. ‘The disengagement is actually formaldehyde,’ he said. ‘It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.’” (Top PM Aide: Gaza Plan Aims to Freeze the Peace Process, Ha’aretz, October 6, 2004)
“… revolutionary heroes
Who have the spark
To ignite the revolution
With grand ideas
Ideas…ideas
That will bring a new day.”
_________________________
Great lines. No question the solution will come through ideas, political agendas and not through coercion…. which undermines political solutions.