Written in 2002, during the Second Intifada, this song by American indie singer/songwriter and anarchist, David Rovics, tells the story of a 16 year old Palestinian boy who survived the “Jenin Massacre” and went on to become a suicide bomber. In an effort to root out terrorists during the Second Intifada, the IDF entered the Jenin refugee camp, where they were met by Palestinian militants who had booby trapped the camp. While Palestinian and foreign media sources initially referred to the incident as a massacre, genocide and human rights atrocity, reporting more than 500 dead, the final UN investigation confirmed between 52 and 54 Palestinian deaths, over half of whom were militants, along with 23 IDF soldiers.
Jenin
Oh, child, what will you remember
When you recall your sixteenth year
The horrid sound of helicopter gunships
The rumble of the tanks as they drew near
As the world went about it’s business
And I burned another tank of gasoline
The Dow Jones lost a couple points that day
While you were crying in the City of Jenin
Did they even give your parents warning
Before they blew the windows out with shells
While you hid inside the high school basement
Amidst the ringing of church bells
As you watched your teacher crumble by the doorway
And in England they were toasting to the Queen
You were so far from the thoughts of so many
Huddled in the City of Jenin
Were you thinking of the taunting of the soldiers
Or of the shit they smeared upon the walls
Were you thinking of your cousin after torture
Or Tel Aviv and it’s glittering shopping malls
When the fat men in their mansions say that you don’t want peace
Did you wonder what they mean
As you sat amidst the stench inside the darkness
In the shattered City of Jenin
At the sight of your mother’s vacant eyes
As she lay still among the rubble
Beneath the blue Middle Eastern skies
As you stood upon this bulldozed building
Beside the settlements and their hills so green
As your tears gave way to grim determination
Among the ruins of the City of Jenin
And why should anybody wonder
As you stepped on board
The crowded bus across the Green Line
And you reached inside your jacket for the cord
Were you thinking of your neighbors buried bodies
As you made the stage for this scene
As you set off the explosives that were strapped around your waist
Were you thinking of the City of Jenin