trad <1780 Leon Rosselson 2019? A popular German song since the early 1800s protesting political repression and censorship, it was important to anti-Nazi resistance movements in Germany. A translation by Arthur Kevess was published in Sing Out! Magazine in 1950 and Pete Seeger recorded it in 1966 on Dangerous Songs!? Rosselson rewrote it to focus on the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Leon Rosselson: Truth Cannot Be Silenced
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym0Ef_a3O4w
Die gedanken sind frei, my thoughts freely flower It’s everyone’s right to speak truth to power Truth cannot be silenced by threats or by violence No-one can deny, die gedanken sind frei. It’s my right to agitate for Palestine’s liberation And the Zionist state is a cruel aberration And if Zionist critics cry antisemitic I say that they lie. Die gedanken sind frei. The Zionist lobby they smear and they libel Care nothing for justice, their values are tribal Concocting excuses for Israel’s abuses Free speech they decry but die gedanken sind frei. I say Israel’s crimes are not in my name It steals land, it steals water, no conscience, no shame. It murders, it tortures, yet Israel’s supporters Just turn a blind eye. Die gedanken sind frei. Die gedanken sind frei, my thoughts freely flower It’s everyone’s right to speak truth to power Truth must not be silenced by threats or by violence No-one can deny, die gedanken sind frei.