A new Palestinian Authority TV music video honoring Arafat glorifies Fatah use of violence and venerates the rifle. Last month it was broadcast 7 times on official PA TV.The lyrics are, frankly, hilarious.
The song speaks of Arafat's life and idolizes him as a model of violence, revolution, and war. It celebrates through words and visuals the violence of the rifle: "Boom out loud, oh voice of the machine gun... Oh AK-47, make sounds of joy."
It starts off with a faily predictable paean to Arafat, with a shout-out to his wonderfully moderate successor Abbas, or as they say, "Abu Mazen," his nom de guerre.
Engrave on the rifle butt the symbol of Fatah's Al-Asifa [unit]It would have been wonderful if they had pulled old footage of airplane hijackings, the Munich Olympics and other highlights of Arafat's life while they sing "He taught the whole world how to revolt."
My trigger makes sounds of joy to the Elder (Arafat)
while the rifle sounds aloud
Boom out loud, oh voice of the machine gun,
Yasser [Arafat] lives inside us
[Despite] the day (of his death) on Nov. 11,
the [Palestinian] cause has not died
He is present inside us as an idea and as light,
a fire burning in [our] chest
He [Arafat] taught the whole world how to revolt.
Yasser - symbol of freedom
Oh Elder, I swear by [your] uniform and your keffiya
Oh bullets of the defiant, [your] shot fights 100 [men]
He lived and died in an atmosphere of war,
he crossed the world from east to west
Mahmoud Abbas is on the same path
when it comes to [our] state and identity
We fired the rifle, we faced the storm
We responded to the cannon with a pistol
Using stones, we ignited a revolution and wrote [history], oh Fatah men
But then the song turns a bit fetishist.
The song lovingly goes over ever single part of the AK-47 body, ending with, well, a climax:
On the rifle butt, we have engraved [Fatah's] symbol
On the grip, we have engraved "Arafat"
On the top cover we have inscribed the history of the free
On the barrel - the name of the homeland
The flash-suppressor ignited and burst
Here it is, oh rifle sight
The state is only a few meters away
Oh action-spring, receive and shoot [bullets] continuously
Change the magazine - there are hundreds [of them]
Load it into the chamber
Oh AK-47, make sounds of joy and salute the Elder (Arafat)"
I didn't know Arafat was an "Elder," but I guess it makes sense - he would have fit right in with some of the other so-called "Elders."
Here's the video: