Call to musicians: Lyrics dedicated to the BDS movement

Shifting Sands
Nadia Ezzelarab-Gill writes:

Dear Readers,

Owing to my appreciation for Redress Information & Analysis, I chose this venue to request assistance in producing a song dedicated to the BDS1 movement.

Stuart Littlewood and Miko Peled bear much responsibility for impressing upon me the need for BDS activists to shift gears from solidarity to full-on resistance to injustice. I am in total agreement with them that we ought to treat Zionism and those who support it with far less tolerance.

Wishing to contribute a song to the BDS-movement, I decided to dedicate the lyrics of Shifting Sands (below) that I wrote in 2013. Not being a musician myself, I require the help of others to put music to the lyrics, and to help with the rest of the production process. 

As you can see, the lyrics are not specific to Palestine. They address injustices that flow from the war and “security” efforts of the USA. The USA is in the lap of Israel. We are all paying the price. Some more than others. BDS is an important tool for us all, and we should use it more. Boycott worked in South Africa. It will work in Israel.

I wish for the main part of any proceeds that might result to go to BDS and to Black Lives Matter.

Sincerely
Nadia Ezzelarab-Gill

SHIFTING SANDS

The sands are shifting with the speed of time now
Seven billion people have had enough
They’ll end the roar of tragedy
take no excuse for tyranny
they know that greed cannot be satisfied

– Hello…? NSA,2 are you listening?
Every little secret’s on the line
Soon everyone will see
your extraordinary rendition of The Free
No privacy from here to Palestine

– Hello…? Press and media, can you hear me?
Or am I talking to a corporate wall?
No more human sacrifice
Most of what we heard today is lies
What government fears most is you and me

– Hello Mr President, do you see us?
Are you hoping that we all will stay asleep
in an everlasting mist
with no spirit to resist
as you finalise the rule of perfect greed?

– Hello, Good Morning, smell the roses
Have a cup of coffee, it’s on me
Can your mind shake off its leash
enough to sense how freedom feels?
Dream the dream of beauty will come true?

Prison walls across the globe will crack wide open
greeted by the spirit of the sun
The souls who were never heard
cry their lonely secrets to the world
from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib

80,000 black men in the prisons
back in the good old USA
How many on Death Row?
Soon the entire world will know
what’s concealed in the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond

The sands are shifting with the speed of time now
Seven billion people have had enough
They’ll end the roar of tragedy
take no excuse for tyranny
they know that greed cannot be satisfied.


If you are a musician and would like to follow this up with Nadia Ezzelarab-Gill, please contact her by email here.


Copyright © 2013 Nadia Ezzelarab-Gill

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