Sunday, November 19, 2023

From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

People have been living there as long as anybody knows Inventing math and science and how to sail where the wind blows Poetry, philosophy, religions had their start Lots of different people made up the beating heart Of the land of Falasteen, from Safad to Beersheba From Jerusalem to Jaffa, from Acre to Rafah

Where they dream of the day when Palestine is free
From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

In the wake of the disasters that had shaken all the world
A new state was declared, a new flag unfurled
And the Nakba engineered, with the map redrawn
Three-quarters of a million refugees, their homes taken, gone
Occupied, invaded, by those who called it theirs
Where the people are forever in the crosshairs

Where they dream of the day when Palestine is free
From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

Since 1948 the diaspora has grown
Within and without the occupation zone
Towns reduced to rubble while the settlements expand
Taking up more and more of what's left of the land
And wherever people rise up and see fit to resist
Though the colonizers say they're just terrorists

They dream of the day when Palestine is free
From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

The logic of the west twists the world on its head
While this genocidal slaughter leaves untold children dead
They ban protests in Berlin, say we don't want to hear
About the babies in the rubble or those paralyzed with fear
As the German and American missiles kill and maim
While children wonder why we can't all just be treated the same

As they dream of the day when Palestine is free
From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

As far away as anything that could possibly be right
That to want a normal life makes you an antisemite
To live in a home that bulldozers won't destroy
Where you can travel to the place where you're employed
Without waiting at a checkpoint where you're likely to be shot
Shortening the shortened life that is the one you've got

As they dream of the day when Palestine is free
From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

You can hear the outrage rising from Algiers to Jakarta
At the genocidal bombing laying waste to Gaza
While in DC and Berlin the politicians shout
Celebrate the slaughter as they claim beyond a doubt
These marchers in the streets are filled with hate
They must be since they're marching against a genocidal state

And they dream of the day when Palestine is free
From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea