David Rovics - Occupation lyrics

You ask me how it is That I dare to take a side You say I loathe myself For pointing out that you have lied You say it's tribal warfare But I disagree For the dynamics of the situation Are not difficult to see On one side is the fighter jet On the other side the stone On one side is the slave On the other is the throne For the many there are checkpoints While foreign soldiers rule the street For one side there is victory But the people don't accept defeat (Chorus) The word you need to know is occupation The very definition of a land without a nation And if peace is what you're after then let us not deceive It will come on the day the tanks return to Tel Aviv On one side there is hunger And bulldozed olive trees On the other is the Army Ruling by decrees Caterpillars maul the streets And destroy entire city blocks While children swallow shrapnel For the crime of throwing rocks Fences are erected Around the towns they flatten And Herzl's own fanatics Sleep on sheets of satin And they water their plantations Drilling ever-deeper wells While the displaced children of the hopeless Are filled with bullet shells (Chorus) ...It will come on the day the settlers return to Tel Aviv On one side there is the Mossad Rounding up the men Thrown in jail with no trial Being tortured once again On the other there is rage Helplessness and fear And a growing realization That another holocaust is near On the outside there are prisons Inside detainees Being stripped of their humanity Beaten naked to their knees Outside ghetto prison walls There are stormtroopers all around While inside the hungry people Yearn for liberated ground (Chorus) ...It will come on the day the jailguards return to Tel Aviv All across the world You can hear the people say The children of Jerusalem Will be free one day In overcrowded camps Amidst the stench of d**h and flies To the suburbs of Detroit You can hear the anguished cries While in the land of Israel With God ever on their side Walls and fences are constructed And papers are denied People fight for their existence While the world turns a blinded eye And those who should know better Insist on asking why (Chorus) ...It will come on the day the refugees return to Tel Aviv