Al-Jazeera Arabic played a mocking parody of the once Palestinian national anthem “My Homeland,” titled “It was my homeland” during an interview with Fatah and Hamas leaders from a Beirut studio Saturday, angering Palestinians.
The lyrics of the song, originally a poem written by Palestinian poet Ibrahim Touqan put to music by Lebanese artist Mohammad Flaifel, served as the national anthem until the late 80s. The poem was an ode to the land, the people, the holy sites and the trees of Palestine. The opening lyrics of the song Al-Jazeera played were as follows:
My homeland, My homeland
Curse and perversity, Plague and hypocrisy
Are in your hills, Are in your hills
Tyrants and oppressors, Cunning not fidelity
Are in your sanctuary, Are in your sanctuary
Will I see you? Nothing else
The verse is a parody of the original:
My homeland, My homeland
Glory and beauty, Sublimity and splendor
Are in your hills, Are in your hills
Life and deliverance, Pleasure and hope
Are in your air, Are in your Air
Will I see you? Will I see you?
Viewers of the program, Open Dialogue (Hiwar Maftouh) presented by Ghassan Ben Jeddo, were shocked and angered by the move, apparently meant to stir conversation between the guests. The song was published on the internet over a month ago, and has been re-posted on several sites since.
The live show, hosting Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan, and member of the Fatah Central Committee Nasser Al-Qudwa from Ramallah, aired the song part-way through, allowing comments from both faction members.
The two were discussing several of the outstanding issues between Hamas and Fatah on the show before the song was aired.
Collecting himself from an obvious state of shock, the Fatah member said, he was unimpressed that the "video found its way to Al-Jazeera.” He described the song as a distortion of “one of the most important national anthems we are so proud of…this has reached an unacceptable degree and an unprecedented regression.”
The poem, beyond being Palestine’s national anthem for years, was adopted by Iraq in 2004 as its national song. Written in 1934 at the peak of Jewish immigration to British Mandate Palestine, many consider it the poem that expresses Arab concern for what would later be the founding of a Jewish state and the subsequent displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Ben Jeddo refuted Al-Qudwa’s shock said the song was not new, and that it had been listened to by tens of thousands on youtube already. Al-Qudwa would only comment that he had seen the “worst degree of degradation in the Palestinian arena” on that day.
The following is an English translation of the original anthem, with the new version on the right:
My homeland, My homeland / My homeland, My homeland
Glory and beauty, Sublimity and splendor / Curse and perversity, Plague and hypocrisy
Are in your hills, Are in your hills / Are in your hills, Are in your hills
Life and deliverance, Pleasure and hope / Tyrants and oppressors, Cunning not fidelity
Are in your air, Are in your Air / Are in your sanctuary, Are in your sanctuary
Will I see you? Will I see you? / Will I see you? Nothing else
Safe and comforted, Sound and honored / Servile and muzzled, poisoned by your leaders
Will I see you in your eminence? / Will I see you? Will I see you?
Reaching to the stars, Reaching to the stars / With your hand cuffed, and being burned
My homeland, My homeland / My homeland, My homeland
My homeland, My homeland / My homeland, My homeland
The youth will not tire, 'till your independence / Agreement will never emerge
Or they die / No, its star will not appear
We will drink from death / Again
And will not be to our enemies / All kinds of parties have appeared
Like slaves, Like slaves / With one worry in mind
We do not want, We do not want / Which is to enslaved to our enemies
An eternal humiliation / And that you perish, you perish
Nor a miserable life / They don’t want, they don’t want
We do not want / Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock
But we will bring back / Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock
Our storied glory, Our storied glory / Instead, they want, instead, they want
My homeland, My homeland / To live like slaves
The sword and the pen / Which is certain shame for us
Not the talk nor the quarrel / My homeland, My homeland
Are our symbols, Are our symbols
Our glory and our covenant
And a duty to be faithful
Moves us, moves us
Our glory, Our glory
Is an honorable cause
And a waving standard
O, behold you
In your eminence
Victorious over your enemies
Victorious over your enemies
My homeland, My homeland
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