I was four years old
Just after my birthday I had to leave Haifa
Mother, with her 8 children,
got onto a small car
One child missing... that was me.
"Oh why do we have to leave?"
Mother found me and pulled me from behind basket
Where I was hiding
She said "They will kill you"
Father kissed us all goodbye
With tears in his eyes
We fled the frightening war
We lost our house
Our town
And our homeland
We lost everything
Even now, half a century from then,
I cannot return home
This is my story, and also the story of everyone
This is the story of every Palestinian
Leila, Leila
I was five years old
summer came
we were reunified with our father at last
We were robbed off everything
Our house, our shop, our homeland were all taken
Father changed after the defeat
"Oh when will we return to Palestine?"
After becoming a refugee,
father always talked about the lost days
Until he died 18 years later
I laid an olive branch as he lay in the soil
Still dreaming of returning to Haifa
We fled the frightening war
we lost our house, our town,
And our homeland
We lost everything
Even now, half a century from then,
I cannot return home
This is my father's story,
and also the story of everyone
This is the story of every Palestinian father
Leila, Leila
I was 25 years old
A hot day in August
I wanted to revisit my homeland
From an altitude of 10,000 feet
In my big lace hat, I announced to the passengers:
"Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seat belts.
It's you the new pilot speaking.
PFLP's Guevara team has taken control of this plane"
I looked down on my beloved Palestine's coastline
And saw Haifa from far above
We fled the frightening war
we lost gur house, our town,
And our homeland
We lost everything
Even now, half a century from then,
The world is pretending not to see
This is my story, and also the story of everyone
This is the story of every Palestinian freedom fighter
Leila, Leila
So, I'm still waiting
To wait and continue waiting is our struggle
In my second hijack, I lost a comrade and I was captured
But I was freed
I met Basim after that,
and the Lodd operation followed
With Palestinian anger and hope in mind
Freedom fighters continue fighting
If we don't continue in the struggle;
Palestinian's existence will fade away into just memories
I became a mother, and I am now fighting for my children
Like my mother before me
We fled the frightening war
we lost our house, our town,
And our homeland
We lost everything
Even now, half a century from then,
The flames of the struggle will not disappear
This is my story, and also the story of everyone
This is the story of every Palestinian mother
Leila, Leila
I am 60 now
I came to Japan to testify
That the freedom fighter Marian is innocent
In that era, everyone was a freedom fighter
"Why is she to be punished?
Your honor, I demand an explanation!
I am here representing the Palestinian people
To say that people under occupation
Have the right to resist
Marian is one of us"
We fled the frightening war
we lost our house, our town,
And our homeland
We lost everything
Even now, half a century from then,
We will not give up our right to struggle
This is my story, and also the story of everyone
This is the story of the Palestine's friends all over the world
Leila, Leila