And we will free our land
From imperialism
And we will rebuild our land
For socialism
And the whole world will witness
On 1 May 2019, pro-Palestine protesters in the Swedish city of Malmö were condemned by both the right-wing press and the ruling Social Democratic Party (SAP) for singing the lyrics to a socialist, anti-Zionist song by Palestinian-Swedish band Kofia. Following a trend in Britain and across Europe, those taking a stand against Israeli colonisation were labelled as anti-Semitic and leftists attached to the SAP retreated and accepted censorship. The Kofia group, however, refuse to allow their progressive, anti-imperialist message to be silenced. Their anthems of Palestinian liberation show that the only alternative to submission is revolutionary resistance.
As footage was shared online of the International Worker’s Day protests, SAP prime minister Stefan Löfven rounded on the Malmö marchers, claiming that lyrics calling to ‘free Palestine – crush Zionism’ amounted to anti-Semitism. Joining opposition parties in a reactionary chorus, Löfven extended condemnation to members of his own party’s youth wing (SSU) for singing an ‘unacceptable expression’. While conservative and liberal media rounded on the protesters and left-wing members of the SSU, the mayor of Malmö, Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, joined in the attack on her own party members but was criticised by the press for not going far enough. Initially offering a half-defence by pointing to the progressive intentions of Leve Palestina, SSU leader Electra Ververidis apologised and said her party members would no longer sing the song. Löfven later visited Israeli politicians in January 2020 and claimed that antisemitism stemmed largely from Muslim congregations.
Barely mentioned in Swedish and other reporting of the events of May Day 2019 and its aftermath is that Leve Palestina had been traditionally sung on progressive protests for decades, particularly on International Workers’ Day. Written by Nazareth-born George Totari, one of over 800,000 Palestinians who left their lands in the wake of 1967’s al-naksa (lit. ‘the setback’) or Israel’s war of colonisation, it was released on the 1978 album Earth of My Homeland. Kofia began as a musical and political alliance of Palestinian and Swedish leftists, performing at grassroots events, anti-apartheid demonstrations and in underground clubs where attendees were handed instruments and encouraged to sing. Their music combined Arabic and Scandinavian folk and carried an uncompromising message of solidarity with the Palestinian armed struggle and other liberation movements.
According to Totari, raising the issue of Palestine was no easy task in 1970s Sweden: ‘The Swedes were more pro-Israel than the Israelis themselves. I could read critical articles there but here, no… I found that music was the best way to reach people.’ Entitled Demonstrationssången (‘song of demonstration’) on the album, but recognised by its refrain ‘Leve Palestina,’ the track became Kofia’s most well-known, serving as a manifesto for an anti-colonialist, socialist alternative to life under Zionist occupation. Though other numbers had Arabic lyrics, Totari wrote the song ‘to educate the Swedish people about our struggle’ and ‘tell the stories of historical events.’ Influenced by PFLP leader and writer Ghassan Kanafani, the music’s durability among principled leftists in Sweden is a testimony to the clarity and militancy of the message presented by the Kofia band.
That Leve Palestina has become the subject of ruling class controversy over four decades after its composition, when most of its performers have retired, points to broader political developments. While it attacks anti-Zionism, the Swedish social democratic regime has also rejected, en masse, the asylum applications of Palestinian refugees, forcing many into destitution and sparking political resistance. Members of the Palestinian Refugees Rights in Sweden campaign have gone on hunger strike in makeshift city camps to demand the right to remain. At the time of writing a young Palestinian named Ahmed has been on hunger strike outside the state migration offices in Vänersborg since 8 January. Others have been thrown out of immigration prisons and onto the streets as part of the government’s botched response to Covid-19.
Beyond Sweden, European ruling classes have intensified the assault on pro-Palestine sentiment, with opportunist ‘left’ forces complicit with the pro-Israel policies of their governments:
- In December 2019, France essentially criminalised anti-Zionism by labelling it ‘a form of anti-Semitism’, when it codified into law the recommendations of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Despite opposition to Emmanuel Macron’s bill on the basis of ‘free speech’, Communist and Socialist parties earlier joined a protest against the yellow vest movement who they accused of antisemitism, for an attack on Zionist misogynist ‘intellectual’ Alain Finkielkraut in March 2019.
- German social democrats have continued their tradition of betraying the working class. In April 2019, 72-year-old Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh was deported following the Social Democrat (SPD)-run Berlin city government’s ban on her speaking at a Palestine solidarity meeting, where she was confronted and prevented from entering by heavily armoured police. Samidoun campaign leader Khaled Barakat has also been banned from re-entering Germany for four years, with no opposition from SPD or pro-Zionist Die Linke ‘leftists.’
- Under Britain’s pro-Israel Tory government, Labour Party-controlled councils have led the censorship of pro-Palestine groups, acting to ban meetings in London and Newcastle, ranging from nakba remembrance to charity events. Before its defeat, Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘socialist’ leadership retreated in the face of every Zionist attack, expelling opponents of Israel from the party, stating admiration for Israel on Labour Friends of Israel platforms and adopting the IHRA’s bogus definition of anti-Semitism. For a party which supported the Balfour Declaration out of office and collaborated with Israel when in government, we should expect no less. Its new leader Keir Starmer admits freely: ‘I support Zionism without qualification.’ In these circumstances, it comes as welcome news that on 29 April the Palestine Solidarity Campaign won a Supreme Court case challenging government guidance issued in 2016 which prohibited Local Government Pension Schemes from divesting from companies on the basis that they trade in products produced in the occupied Palestinian territories. Pro-Palestine groups must seize the initiative on such issues, as they can expect no leadership from the Labour Party.
Reflecting on the attacks on Palestine solidarity in Sweden, George Totari remarks, ‘They want to turn off your fire, turn off your progressive ideas.’ But, like the Palestinian refugees who refuse to submit to the racism they face in Sweden, we must re-light the fires of resistance.
On International Workers Day, we reprint the censored lyrics to Leve Palestina in full.
Long live Palestine!
Crush Zionism!
And we have tilled the earth
And we have reaped the wheat
And we have picked the lemons
And pressed the olives
And the whole world knows our land
Long live Palestine!
Crush Zionism!
And we have thrown rocks
At soldiers and policemen
And we have fired rockets
Against our enemies
And the whole world knows our struggle
Long live Palestine!
Crush Zionism!
And we will free our land
From imperialism
And we will rebuild our land
For socialism
And the whole world will witness
Long live Palestine!
Crush Zionism!
A trailer to the short film Kofia: a revolution through music can be found at www.facebook.com/kofiafilm
