Fawwadnak: Song of Resistance and Representation (VIDEO)

The Palestinian people observe a nationwide general strike to protest Israel’s relentless bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip. (Photo: via Al-Haq)

By Haidar Eid  

2021 was a tough year for Palestine; more criminal wars on besieged Gaza, more settlements in the West Bank, and more racist attacks on Palestinian citizens of Israel. This, however, raised the question of moving resistance and political representation forward.

The Unity Intifada erupted, six prisoners managed to escape from one of Israel’s highest maximum-security prisons, Gaza stood tall in the face of one of the most horrific Israeli massacres, Sheikh Jarrah residents were up in arms against the Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse them, and all of Palestine was united in protest.

This came at a very heavy price, namely, more martyrs, prisoners, and more injuries. This coincided with a Palestinian decision to hold elections for the Legislative Council, but for internal, tactical reasons, they were canceled.

Hence the question of the relationship between resistance and political representation, not only in the 1967 occupied territories, but in historic Palestine. In a nutshell, 2021 for Palestine was the embodiment of Antonio Gramsci’s “pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will!”

This song, written by Rifka Alamya and performed by Haidar Eid, tries to capture this mood of collective defiance and pays tribute to all those who have fallen, were imprisoned and were injured.

(The song is also a track in the album Tyrants’ Fear of Songs)

Fawwadnak

We’ve delegated you, Oh Martyr

You take the lead, and we follow

Our free land is the objective

Your comrades envy you

While the deep roots are holding you

Fawwadnak

We’ve delegated you, oh Prisoner

In the darkness of your cell

There a light in your sky

AlMajdal, Jaffa and Haifa are waiting for you

In free Ramleh we will meet

Fawwadnak

We’ve delegated you, oh Wounded

The amputated part is never lost

It is a head of us, there

The impotent has abandoned the idea

And left you on your own

But the revolution can never leave the torch behind

On our way of awda (return,) we’ve delegated you

Oh, Martyr

Oh, Prisoner

Oh Wounded!

Fawwadnak, Fawwadnak, Fawwadnak

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Haidar Eid is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Literature at the Al-Aqsa University, in the Gaza Strip. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.

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