Here We Will Stay
هنا باقون
The anthem of Palestinian steadfastness: Ziyad vows that those who remained in Lidda, Ramla, and the Galilee will stay 'like a wall upon your chest' — rooted, working, and unerasable.
In Lidda, in Ramla, in the Galilee, we shall remain like a wall upon your chest, and in your throat like a shard of glass, a cactus thorn…
(excerpt)
About this poem
“Here We Will Stay” (Huna Baqun) comes from Tawfiq Ziyad’s 1966 collection Ashiddu ’ala Ayadikum (I Clasp Your Hands). Written for the Palestinians who remained inside Israel after 1948, it became the defining anthem of sumud — steadfastness on the land — and is still recited at Land Day commemorations and protests.
Ziyad (1929–1994) was himself a fixture of that steadfastness: a poet of protest, he served as mayor of Nazareth and as a member of the Knesset, and died in a car crash in the Jordan Valley on his way back from welcoming Yasser Arafat’s return from exile.