HIJARNA حجارنا
A Song of Mourning, Resistance & Collective Hope
“Hijarna (our stones) حجارنا” is a song born out of more than two years of ongoing genocide, honouring those who have been killed while holding space for the resilience of survivors and global allies. The “stones” are a central metaphor growing heavier with grief, yet also stronger with rootedness, endurance, and collective power.
As the song says, “it‘s been so hard so each one of us grew bigger shoulders, too many souls had no choice but wings to grow”, holding both the weight carried by the living and the transformation of those who have passed, building a Palestinian futurism in the universe.
Blending mourning with movement, the song connects the spiritual realm - where souls continue beyond - with the grounded determination of those who remain rebuilding, returning, and taking to the streets.
Through its chorus of unity, protest, and unwavering hope for safety, freedom and justice for everyone in the region, “Hijarna” invites a global community into a shared rhythm of solidarity, demonstrating with dance and joy as a form of resistance, refusing to give up.
A powerful music video will launch on May 15 (Nakba Day) alongside “A Map of Solidarity” as part of the mutual aid structure by Turba تُرْبَة connecting cultural organizers, spaces, and communities in the affected regions.
A music video from within the Arab & Palestinian Diaspora in Berlin
The music video for “Hijarna حجارنا (Our Stones)” was created in Berlin by a powerful film crew around Lebanese and German directors Elisa Ward and Laura Schramm, Palestinian cinematographer Abdallah Milhem, Egyptian editor Nabil Farag and scenography by Lebanese Studio Maren.
It was brought to life by a collective of more than 70 participants in front of the camera, forming a wider community of Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and Tunesians from different generations - both having grown up in the motherlands as well as in the diaspora, together with Berlin allies from allover the globe, coming together as an act of artistic resistance, shared presence, and collective strength.
This work emerges from within a Berlin context that, since the beginning of the ongoing genocide, has been marked by international attention for the oppression of Palestinian narratives, silencing and cancellation of cultural expression, and repeated police violence against protestors calling for equal rights and an end to the genocide and the illegal military occupation. We came together as a community of more than 100 people to artistically fight back with the means of arts.
SYNOPSIS
The story follows Jamila sitting in her sleeping room, scrolling through devastating news in an atmosphere of deep heaviness. Her father enters and hands her a kuffiyah bag filled with heavy stones. These stones resemble the heaviness carried collectively by Palestinians, the weight of trauma, loss, and ongoing struggle, but also a mission and responsibility passed forward through generations.
So Jamila embarks on a journey though a portal, entering a liminal space between the living and the dead, where different realities overlap and coexist. In that dimension people move through their routines, absorbed by their phones and disconnected from their surroundings. In this space, suspended objects move through the air that only Jamila notices. When Jamila touches them, Palestinian narratives from Gaza come into presence, including a musician, a mother with her child, a medical worker, a journalist, and a young woman practicing modern tatreez. These figures embody lives that are often unseen, reduced, or erased, now made visible and present. Jamila tries to wake the business people up so they can see what she sees but first no one cares. When finally someone begins to open their perception and sees what she sees, she hands them a stone from her kuffiyah bag. This moment marks a shift, and others slowly begin to awaken as well. With each new recognition, more stones are shared. What she carried alone begins to transform into something collective, a shared burden and a shared responsibility.
The journey continues through shifting spaces of movement and gathering, where the collective comes together at a metro platform, assembling and moving as a growing body of resistance, finding each other across difference, direction, and origin, and building momentum toward shared action.
The film culminates in a large music protest and dance, where bodies move together in rhythm, resistance, and unity. It closes with a ritual of remembrance around an olive tree, where the stones are placed in honour of those who have been killed and the ancestors felt throughout the process. In this final gesture, grief, solidarity, and collective resistance remain intertwined, holding both loss and the insistence on life, dignity, and liberation.
LYRICS:
مرّوا سنتين والحجارة كانت تكبر أكتر
الوجع كبير والصمود عمره ما بيموت
It’s been 2 years and the stones were growing bigger,
so is the pain but the resilience will never die
كان صعب كتير ولهيك صارت أكتافنا أقوى
وكثير أرواح منّا طلع إلهم أجنحة
it was very heavy and that is why we had to grow bigger shoulders,
and many souls grew wings
طايرين بالكون رايحين يبنوا فلسطين جديدة
وهون عالأرض الدار رح نرجع ونعمّرها
They are flying through the universe where they build a new Palestine
And here on earth we will return to our houses and rebuild them
بدون الخوف بيسبحوا في مجرّات حرّية
وكل الدنيا في الشوارع بتشعر معنا
Without fear they are swimming through galaxies of freedom
And the whole world feels with us on the streets
قلوبنا مغروسة
رح نبقى موجودين
عايشين بالحرّية
وعدالة
Our hearts are rooted
We will stay here
Living in freedom
And justice
يلا منرقص
بالمظاهرة
بالكوفيات
نلوّح مع بعض
Let’s dance
In the demonstrations
Oh kuffiyas
Whirl them in the air all together
It’s been 2 years and the stones are growing bigger’n’bigger
Stones of the pain BUT stones of the resilience, too
It’s been so hard so each one of us grew bigger shoulders
too many souls had no choiice but wings to grow
And we are all connected
Each and every stone
Building our movement
Together we grow
قلوبنا موحّدة
رح نبقى موجودين
عايشين بالحرّية
وعدالة
Our hearts are one
We will stay here
Living in freedom
And justice
يلا منرقص
بالمظاهرة
بالكوفيات
نلوّح مع بعض
Let‘s dance
In the demonstrations
Oh kuffiyas
Whirl them in the air all together
We’ll never give up!
Keep moving and keep singing!
We’ll never give up!
Yalla yalla yalla
كل حياتي جاي عبالي أتنفّس حرّية
صوتنا عالي ومعها منحرّر كل مظلوم
all my life was I longing to breathe freedom
raising our voice loudly and with it we fight for all the oppressed
We’ll never give up!
keep moving and keep singing
We’ll never give up!
Yalla yalla
*************************************************************
Lyrics: Jamila Al-Yousef
Composition: Felix Barth
Recording & mixing: Varoujan Cheterian
Vocal recordings & editing: Naima Husseini
Percussion Recordings: Young Vishnu & Pier Ciaccio
Mastering: Ladislav Agabekov
Musicians:
Felix Barth (bass, synths)
Lovro Jurisic (guitar)
Salam Alhassan (percussion)
Eric Owusu (percussion)
Kuba Gudz (drums)
Jamila Al-Yousef (vocals, percussion)