Video Caption: “Sarah, Je suis Juif Palestinien” (French) — “Sarah, I Am a Palestinian Jew.” Lyrics & music: Willy Lipschutz / William Lip. Performed by the author.

Some stories don’t argue — they remember. They remind us that long before bureaucracies, propaganda machines, and UN agencies attempted to rebrand “Palestine,” Jews themselves used the word with pride and without hesitation. Not as a political gambit, not as a provocation, but as a self-evident truth.

Willy Lipschutz — also known by his artistic name William Lip — is one of those reminders.

A retired pediatrician, author, poet, singer, and songwriter, Willy was born on November 28, 1950, in Antwerp, Belgium, into a family that survived the Shoah. He was educated in a Jewish school, active in a Zionist youth movement, and deeply formed by the melodies, fears, and hopes of a Europe where Jewish identity was both fragile and indestructible.

When he read The Palestinian Identity Manifesto, Willy did not need an academic debate to understand it. He remembered something older and purer: a Yiddish lullaby his mother used to sing to him when he was a little boy:

Yiddish:

Mir vellen essen pomeranzen
und dabei a hora tanzen,
frei frei Palestina
frei frei.

English translation:

We will eat oranges
and dance the hora,
free free Palestine
free free.

There is nothing ambiguous about this. In Jewish homes in Europe — well before the modern political abuse of the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)