The long story of the protest movement’s favourite song

The song 'I have no other country' is the anthem of Israel’s protest movement, but it has a much deeper history. ORI GOLAN speaks to OFRA FUCHS-MANOR, widow of the song’s writer, EHUD MANOR.

In June of 1982, Israel Prize laureate and much-loved songwriter Ehud Manor was sitting with his wife, Ofra, in their living room, watching a television news item about the war in Lebanon.

Ofra Fuchs-Manor recalls the moment vividly. “We saw footage of Israeli soldiers entering Beirut. Ehud broke down. I tell you, he was weeping. He said: ‘I cannot take it’, and then he began jotting down words on a piece of paper.”

Those words went on to become the song Ayn li eretz aheret (I have no other country) frequently voted Israel’s favourite song. The title morphed into a popular catchphrase in the country, quoted by everyone from settlers to democracy protestors.

“Fuchs-Manor says the song was, really, about Manor’s younger brother, Yehuda, who died in the War of Attrition in 1968.

“I remember Yehuda well. A tall, hugely handsome young man. He came to visit me in hospital shortly after the birth of Gali, our first born. He arrived in military fatigues, carrying his rifle, eager to meet his niece. From there he was drafted into the war and we never saw him again. He was killed in his tank, in the Suez Canal, during the War of Attrition in 1968, aged 19.

“After his death, Ehud became a very introverted, mournful person. Many of his songs came from this place of deep longing and sadness. Even his happy songs, such as Bashana Haba’a, have sadness infused into them,” she said.

Manor, who died of a heart attack in 2005, was a prolific songwriter whose songs have become the mainstay of Israeli discography. Some of his most memorable songs are played during Israel’s Remembrance Day.