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48. Biladi
Written by Said Al Muzayin aka Fata Al Thawra
Music by Ali Ismael
Listen via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_National_Anthem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHEKiFSRPU0

 

 

We found two songs called Biladi. This is the second and seems to be the most recent. There are two English translations of this version, with two corresponding titles, the second being Fida’i. Both titles are credited to the poet Said Al Muzayin aka Fata Al Thawra.

We found some information about Biladi at www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_National_Anthem:

‘The Palestinian national anthem, ‘Biladi’ (‘My Country’), is the national anthem of the Palestinian people, adopted by the Palestinian National Council in 1996, in accordance with Article 31 of the Palestinian declaration of Independence from 1988. It was written by Said Al Muzayin (aka Fata Al Thawra), and its music was composed by Egyptian maestro Ali Ismael, and it was known as the ‘Anthem of the Palestinian revolution’.’

We have transcribed the translation of Biladi as it appeared on the Wiki page:

My country, my land, land of my ancestors My country, my country, my country
My people, people of perpetuity
With my determination, my fire and the volcano of my revenge
With the longing in my blood for my land and my home
I have climbed the mountains and fought the wars
I have conquered the impossible, and crossed the frontiers
My country, my country, my country
My people, people of perpetuity
the fire of the guns
And the determination of my nation in the land of struggle
Palestine is my home, Palestine is my fire, Palestine is my revenge and the land of endurance
My country, my country, my country
My people, people of perpetuity
By the oath under the shade of the flag
By my land and nation, and the fire of pain
I will live as a fida’i*, I will remain a fida’i, I will end as a fida’i – until my country returns
My country, people of perpetuity.

* fida’i = one who risks his life voluntarily; one who sacrifices himself; hence the word fedayeen.

We have also transcribed the lyrics to the second translation of Said Al Muzayin’s composition, here titled Fida’i, which you find at the updated page www.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_National_Anthem:

My country, my country
My country, my land, land of my ancestors
Revolutionist, Revolutionist
Revolutionist, my people, people, people of perpetuity

With determination, my fire and the volcano of my revenge
With the longing in my blood for my land and my home
I have climbed the mountains and fought the wars
I have conquered the impossible, and crossed the frontiers

With the resolve of the winds and the fire of the guns
And the determination of my nation in the land of struggle
Palestine is my home, Palestine is my fire
Palestine is my revenge and the land of endurance
By the oath under the shade of the flag
By my land and nation, and the fire of pain
I will live as a Revolutionist, I will remain a Revolutionist
I will live end as a Revolutionist – until my country returns

‘And it was the Palestinian people, already wounded in its body, that was submitted to yet another type of occupation over which floated the falsehood that ‘Palestine was a land without people.’ ’

- The Palestinian Declaration of Independence, by Mahmoud Darwish, 1988

When Palestine declared its independence on November 15 1988, the Palestine authorities didn’t have legal ownership of the land they called Palestine. Some Israeli institutions, like the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, were not slow in pointing out the seemingly impossible nature of the declaration – that it did not fulfil this and other basic criteria of a state. Which figures, since the Israeli occupation provided the means of force and law, by which both the lack of Palestinian sovereignty and its necessity had been created – a necessity which compels the poetic, political, symbolic act of writing a poem for a state that in law does not exist, has never existed, but in song has yet to return.

On the question of this return, here is an extract from The Palestine Declaration to the International Criminal Court: the Statehood Issue (2009), by John Quiqley, President’s Club Professor in Law, at Ohio State University - you can read the complete text at www.emro.who.int/palestine/reports:

‘The statehood declared by the Palestine National Council in 1988 was not a new statehood. Rather, it was a declaration of an existing statehood. That fact strengthens the Palestine claim to statehood, as requirements for an existing state are less rigorous than those for an entity purporting to be a new state. Palestine became an international entity upon the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of World War I. As the Ottoman Empire lost sovereignty, a Palestine emerged. Great Britain administered Palestine under an arrangement devised by the League of Nations called ‘mandates.’ This arrangement, as provided in Article 22 of the League Covenant, was based on the concept that certain peoples were ‘not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world.’

France and Britain were to administer various sectors of the Ottoman Empire, and to do so for the benefit of the people. The people, in their collectivity, were recognised as the ultimate holder of sovereignty. As the International Court of Justice explained, the ‘ultimate objective’ of the mandate system was the ‘self determination and independence of the peoples concerned.’ It would only be a matter of time until those peoples would control their territories.’



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