• PA: “Wave the rifle… we will not cast our weapons from our hands”

The Tune of the Homeland is a PA TV quiz about Palestinian nationalistic songs. Each quiz question is introduced by a narrator telling viewers that the songs “express our national identity… and fascinate us with values.” Some of the songs glorified by the PA in this quiz – and which are broadcast repeatedly – specifically promote violence and terror.

I’m Coming Towards You, My Enemy explicitly calls for murder and promises Israel – “my enemy” – to attack with rifles, cleavers and knives.

Official PA TV narrator: “Because songs are a basic part of our culture and they express our national identity… and because these songs are present in our consciousness and still fascinate us with values and meanings… It’s here: The Tune of the Homeland…

Lyrics: “I’m coming towards you, my enemy, from every house, neighborhood and street
I’m coming with my rifle and my faith I’m coming towards you, my enemy
Our war is a war of the streets…
I’m coming towards you, my enemy, from every house, neighborhood and street
We’re going down from every house with cleavers and knives”

[Official PA TV, Nov. 27, 30, Dec. 1. 3, 2020]

The narrator further stressed that this song is the quintessence of the time when the Palestinians created their “identity” and implemented “the spirit of sacrifice in the souls of the masses”:

Official PA TV narrator: “If you are among those who lived in the period of this song, it doubtlessly brings you back to periods considered foundational in the campaign to realize the Palestinian identity and instill the spirit of sacrifice in the souls of the masses…

What makes this song special is that it was written during the battles of the Palestinian revolution, such that it became an anthem of the masses that the demonstrators repeated again and again facing the occupation in occupied Palestine. More than this, in the first Intifada (i.e., Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel, approximately 200 Israelis murdered, 1987-1993) it even became its special anthem.”

Palestinian Media Watch first reported on this song in 2014 when Fatah broadcast it  just days after knives and axes were used to murder four rabbis in a Jerusalem synagogue. As recent as this year, Fatah chose this song as fitting for an event commemorating Fatah’s first terror attack against Israel on January 1, 1965, which has subsequently become the day Fatah marks its anniversary. At the same event, Fatah burned a model of a Jewish town.

In another song featured in The Tune of the Homeland quiz, Palestinians vow never to lay down their weapons, calling “O Our People, Wave the Rifle.” While the song plays, scenes of Palestinians in combat training are shown.

Lyrics: “O our people, wave the rifle,
Let the world hear,
This is the sound of our bullets
We vow that we will not cast our weapons from our hands
Except after we liberate you, our land
O our people, wave the rifle, wave the rifle…
No one will force the solution on us
We will reject any solution that that isn’t our path”

Narrator: “Who authored the lyrics of the song “O Our People, Wave the Rifle”?”

[Official PA TV, Nov. 23, 2020]

PMW already reported on a third song from the quiz program glorifying the ongoing battle against Israel with the words “No force in the world can remove the weapon from my hand.”

Reprinted with author’s permission from Palestinian Media Watch