Israel is infamous for bus bombings, a trend which has mercifully slowed over the past two decades. I set out to write a song about someone whose brother dies in a bus bombing, without giving away whether he was the bomber, or an innocent passenger. Above, a blown out bus in Jerusalem, 2016.

Only fourteen months older than me 
But you held it over my head
I grew up in the bottom bunk
When we were young you told me stories in bed

Skinning knees in the almond trees
Toy soldiers melting in the summer sun
Who needs other friends
The boys are at it again 
And we’ll be home when the day is done

College wasn’t your cup of tea 
So you started building homes
Your wife’s the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen 
And your nephews like to follow me home
 Barbecues by the sea in June
We’re not leaving while we’ve still got sun
We’ve got cigarettes to smoke
And your kids love my jokes
And we’ll be home when the day is done

It’s hard to always be happy in winter
But we started fighting a lot
Doesn’t mean I miss you any less
But we both had our rough spots

Walking home through the park alone
My shadow’s long in the setting sun 
But I’ve got this story to tell 
And I might as well 
Get home before the day is done

I got home, Mama was sitting in the kitchen she was crying  
She said, “He boarded a bus today
And that bus went flying”

Day Is Done

During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence - what the Palestinians have termed the “Nakba” (“catastrophe” in Arabic) some 700,000 Arabs left the land that had just become the State of Israel. Some left at the bequest of Arab leaders from neighboring countries - a land free of Arabs would make an easier job for the invading Arab forces. Others fled after hearing rumors of massacres carried out by Israeli forces in Palestinian villages like Deir Yassin. Some in villages like Lydda and Ramle were expelled by the nascent Israel Defense Forces. 

Supporters of Israel would say that the expulsions were necessary - that there was no way to contend with the neighboring Arab armies pouring across the newly formed borders without having dealt with the internal Arab threat first. Palestinian supporters would term it ethnic cleansing. This song and the next  reflect on the Palestinian expulsion from the village of Lydda, now Lod, which today lies just outside Ben-Gurion Airport and that in the 1940’s was a stop on the Jaffa-Jerusalem Palestine Railway. These songs draw on Ari Shavit’s chapter ‘Lydda’ from his masterpiece, "My Promised Land", as well as S. Yizhar’s novel, "Khirbet Khizeh."

Oh, from the river to the sea 
Does the land remember me?
Does my old stone house still open to this key?
Does it still yearn to hold my family?

We were the straw that broke the country’s back 
They said we blocked the precious railroad tracks
Dumped all our flour into cotton sacks

It’s not a right it’s that I will return
If not my body then my memory will burn 
In Friday night candles 
In all of their homes
No sleep no solace I won’t leave them alone

There were tents until the children came
Six sticks and canvas couldn’t stop the rain
So they built houses, concrete simple and plain
Sixty years on and the houses remain 

It’s not a right it’s that I will return
If not my body then my memory will burn 
In Friday night candles 
In all of their homes
No sleep no solace I won’t leave them alone

I can cross that wall most summer nights
Glide right over as my dreams take flight 
I see my father and he holds me tight 
We touch the front door as it fades from sight

Does the Land Remember Me?

√•° ربـِّــــي ســأَلْتـــكَ أنْ تكـُــــونَ خــَـــوَاتـِـمي √•°

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