“We replaced bracelets with weapons… Pull the trigger” – PA TV terror song
Love of the rifle – a repeating PA theme
During a broadcast of a cultural dance performance on official PA TV, Palestinian viewers could hear a well-known song calling for terror:
Lyrics: “The orchard called us to the struggle
We replaced bracelets with weapons
We attacked the despicable [Zionists]
Pull the trigger
We shall redeem Jerusalem, Nablus, and the country”[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Nov. 15, 2021]
Palestinian Media Watch has reported on this song before, whose full lyrics also include a call for Jihad:
“The Zionists coveted [our] homeland,
compounding damage and enmity
But the popular revolution awaits [them]
The orchard called us to the struggle
We replaced bracelets with weapons
We attacked the despicable [Zionists]
We do not want [internal] strife or disputes
While this invading enemy is on the battlefield
This is the day that Jihad is needed
Pull the trigger.
We shall redeem Jerusalem, Nablus and the country”
The dance was performed by the Asayel group who also danced to another song broadcast by PA TV glorifying “Jihad fighters” as “lions” and honoring “those holding the rifle”:
Lyrics: “Jafra, here is the group, the group of Jihad fighters
One hundred and twenty lions became 500
She said: ‘What is the number?’
Jafra, do not count
The generation of revolutionaries is born, our revolution, continue!
Flying bird, rest on the mountain peak to the sound of the trills of those holding the rifle”[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Nov. 15, 2021]
The rifle was glorified in yet another song on PA TV - a version of the song “Now I have a rifle” originally performed by the Egyptian icon Umm Kul Thum in support of “Palestine.” Part of the lyrics announce that “My rifle has become the cause”:
Lyrics: “Now I have a rifle
Tell whoever asks me about my cause:
My rifle has become the cause”[Official PA TV, Nov. 11, 2021]
The song’s lyrics further include:
“Take me with you to Palestine, oh men
I want to live or die like men
Now I have a rifle
Say to those who ask about my cause
That now the rifle is the cause
Now I have a rifle, now I'm on the list of rebels
I'll trample the thorns and the dust, I'll wear death"
Palestinian Media Watch has documented the PA’s veneration for the rifle, and recently exposed that PA TV played a love song to the rifle – “my beloved”:
Lyrics: “My rifle, my beloved
I like to disassemble its trigger
It is confident when I carry it…
My rifle is my right arm
I like to disassemble its trigger”[Official PA TV, Artistic Stories, Nov. 1, 2021]