‘Dounana’ (Without Us): A Song of Defiance from the Heart of Genocide

How a young Palestinian artist and a German producer created an anthem that exposes the machinery of apartheid – and asks a question that cannot be ignored.

By Ed Torsney | April 19, 2026

YouTube Link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EdFlJFXPNZU

In the crowded landscape of protest music, few songs carry the weight of existence quite like “Dounana.” Released in late 2024, the track is a collaboration between Palestinian singer-songwriter SIBA and Berlin-based producer MONKYMAN. Its title, which translates from Arabic as “without us,” is both a lament and an unflinching accusation. The song arrives from a place where, as human rights organizations have now formally declared, the very survival of Palestinian society is under systematic assault. That such a work exists at all is a testament to the stubborn, unbreakable human spirit – a spirit that continues to create beauty, to bear witness, and to demand accountability even as the bombs fall.

SIBA, born Siba Alkhiami, is a Palestinian vocalist and writer whose work has become a vessel for collective memory and resistance. MONKYMAN, a Stuttgart-born, Berlin-based electronic producer with roots in Namibia, provides a stark, brooding soundscape that amplifies the gravity of SIBA’s words. Together, they have crafted a piece that is at once intimate and monumental: a sparse, almost liturgical recitation of the crimes committed against the Palestinian people, followed by a single, devastating question that hangs in the air like smoke over Gaza.

All proceeds from “Dounana” are donated to humanitarian aid initiatives. The song is available on Bandcamp (https://monkyman.bandcamp.com/track/dounana-by-siba), and its video – a minimalist visual of a burning olive tree and a solitary figure – has been viewed tens of thousands of times across platforms. What follows is the full text of the song, presented as a document of witness.

The Lyrics of ‘Dounana’ (English)

The following lyrics were performed in English by SIBA and are presented here as published on official platforms (Lyrics source: https://www.shazam.com/zh-tw/song/1773919647/dounana).

Eradicate our roots

Demolish our homes

Criminalise our existence

Falsify our origins

Separate our loved ones

And slaughter our children

Take our blood for granted

And demonise our revolutionaries

Steal our knowledge

Keep our people oblivious

And torture our spirits

And denounce us our rights

Colonise our countries

And appoint our rulers

Appropriate our goods

And burn down our trees

Bomb our roofs

Make us out as liars

And watch our pains

And belittle our agony

Ignore our tears

And close our eyes

Mutilate our faces

And deny our feelings

Destroy our dreams

Objectify our bodies

And darken our skies

And kill our peace

We will keep standing still

And our love stands in us

But who would you be without us?

You would not be without us

You will not be without us

Anatomy of a Question: “But Who Would You Be Without Us?”

The song’s structure is deliberately simple. A litany of abuses – each one a documented component of Israel’s decades-long occupation and, more recently, its genocidal campaign in Gaza – is delivered in a flat, almost affectless cadence. There is no melodrama, no orchestral swell. Instead, SIBA’s voice is accompanied only by MONKYMAN’s pulsing, minimalist electronics and the occasional crackle of fire. The effect is that of a legal indictment being read aloud in a courtroom, or perhaps a prayer recited in the ruins of a mosque. The cumulative weight of the accusations – “eradicate our roots,” “slaughter our children,” “burn down our trees” – is overwhelming, and deliberately so.

Then, after nearly three minutes of this unrelenting catalog, comes the refrain: “But who would you be without us?” It is not a plea. It is a challenge. It is the question that Palestinian artists, writers, and thinkers have been posing for decades, but rarely with such piercing clarity. In the context of a society that has been systematically dehumanized, the question forces a reckoning. Who is the oppressor without the oppressed? What would Israeli identity, Israeli culture, Israeli security doctrine be if it were not defined in opposition to a Palestinian “other”? The song does not provide an answer; it simply leaves the question echoing in the listener’s mind, where it becomes impossible to ignore.

The final lines – “You would not be without us / You will not be without us” – shift from question to declaration. They are a refusal of erasure. They assert a truth that no amount of bombing, starvation, or forced displacement can alter: the Palestinian people exist, they will continue to exist, and their presence is inextricable from the land and from the conscience of those who seek to remove them.

The Context: Apartheid, Occupation, and Genocide

“Dounana” cannot be understood apart from the political and humanitarian catastrophe in which it was created. In April 2021, Human Rights Watch released a landmark 213-page report concluding that Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians (Full report: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/27/abusive-israeli-policies-constitute-crimes-apartheid-persecution). The report documented how Israeli policies are designed to “maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians” through systematic discrimination, land confiscation, and denial of fundamental rights.

Four years later, in July 2025, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem – founded and staffed by Israeli citizens – published an 88-page report titled “Our Genocide” (Full report: https://www.btselem.org/publications/202507_our_genocide). It was the first time that a major Israeli organization had explicitly used the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza. The report concluded that “Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, acting in a systematic, deliberate way to destroy Palestinian society there through mass killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm and creating catastrophic conditions that prevent its continued existence.” B’Tselem’s findings were echoed by Physicians for Human Rights Israel, which documented the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system as part of a policy “calculated to destroy Palestinian lives in Gaza in what amounts to genocide” (Amnesty International coverage: https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/israel-opt-israeli-organizations-conclude-israel-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza-in-another-milestone-for-accountability-efforts/).

These are not the accusations of distant activists. They are the conclusions of Israeli human rights organizations that have spent decades meticulously documenting violations of international law. And they form the backdrop against which SIBA wrote and performed “Dounana.” The song’s litany of abuses is not hyperbolic; it is a faithful summary of what B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch, and countless other monitors have verified.

The question “But who would you be without us?” takes on a chilling new dimension when read alongside B’Tselem’s report, which notes that Israeli policy is aimed at “entrenching Jewish sovereignty over all occupied territories through discrimination, displacement, and the destruction of Palestinian national identity.” The erasure of Palestinian identity – the very thing SIBA sings about – is not an unintended consequence of war; it is the stated objective of the Israeli government’s policy.

Creating Art When Any Day Could Be Your Last

To write and record a song like “Dounana” while living under these conditions is an act of profound courage. It is also a form of resistance that carries an existential risk. Since October 2023, Israel’s military campaign has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, including a staggering number of artists, writers, journalists, and cultural workers. The list of the dead is a grim roll call of creative lives cut short.

In 2025, 14-year-old singer Hassan Ayyad, known across Gaza for his haunting songs about life under siege, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp (Source: https://www.commondreams.org/news/hassan-ayyad). “The child who sang of death has now joined those he mourned,” a fellow journalist wrote. That same year, photojournalist and artist Fatma Hassona, the subject of a Cannes-selected documentary, was killed by a direct Israeli missile strike on her home, along with nine members of her family (Source: https://www.newsbreak.com/thewrap-1608687/3967089021792-fatma-hassona-palestinian-subject-of-forthcoming-cannes-documentary-killed-by-israeli-missile-strike). In March 2026, 22-year-old painter Dina Zaurub, who had won international awards for her portraits of children killed in the war, was killed in an airstrike on a tent camp in Khan Younis (Source: https://test.jinhaagency.com/en/actual/palestinian-artist-dina-zaurub-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-36860).

These are not isolated incidents. They are the predictable outcome of a military campaign that has systematically targeted cultural institutions, universities, and the very fabric of Palestinian civil society. In a context where any gathering of people can become a target, where homes and schools are bombed with impunity, and where starvation is used as a weapon of war, the act of creating art is nothing short of miraculous. Every note that SIBA sings, every beat that MONKYMAN programs, is a defiance of the logic that seeks to erase an entire people.

Yet the music continues. As Adnan Joubran of the celebrated oud trio Le Trio Joubran has said, “Silence is too dangerous” (Source: https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/arts-culture/music/2025/09/17/silence-is-too-dangerous-adnan-joubran-on-gaza-grief-and-londons-together-for-palestine-concert/). Palestinian artists, whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or the diaspora, understand that their work is not merely aesthetic; it is a form of testimony. It ensures that the world cannot claim it did not know. It ensures that the names, the stories, and the humanity of Palestinians will not be buried under the rubble of airstrikes and forgotten by a complicit international community.

Why ‘Dounana’ Matters

“Dounana” is not a comfortable song. It is not designed to be. It is a work of art born from the deepest pain, and it demands that we sit with that pain. In an era where images of devastation from Gaza scroll past our eyes with numbing regularity, the song performs an essential function: it slows time. It forces us to hear each accusation, one after the other, until we can no longer look away.

And then it asks the question that no amount of propaganda or hasbara can answer: “But who would you be without us?” It is a question that every Israeli, every supporter of the occupation, and every government that arms and funds it must eventually face. Because the Palestinian people are not going anywhere. They will not be erased. They will continue to stand, to love, to create, and to sing. As SIBA’s final words affirm: “You will not be without us.”

The song is a testament to the indomitable human spirit – a spirit that refuses to be crushed, even under the weight of a genocide that the world’s leading human rights organizations have now named. It is a reminder that art is not a luxury; it is a weapon of survival. And it is an invitation to all who hear it to take a side: the side of those who, against all odds, continue to sing.

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Sources & References:

· Official Music Video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EdFlJFXPNZU

· Shazam Lyrics: https://www.shazam.com/zh-tw/song/1773919647/dounana

· Bandcamp (Proceeds to Aid): https://monkyman.bandcamp.com/track/dounana-by-siba

· Human Rights Watch Report (2021): https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/27/abusive-israeli-policies-constitute-crimes-apartheid-persecution

· B’Tselem “Our Genocide” Report (2025): https://www.btselem.org/publications/202507_our_genocide

· Amnesty International on B’Tselem/PHRI Reports: https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/israel-opt-israeli-organizations-conclude-israel-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza-in-another-milestone-for-accountability-efforts/

· Fatma Hassona Killed: https://www.newsbreak.com/thewrap-1608687/3967089021792-fatma-hassona-palestinian-subject-of-forthcoming-cannes-documentary-killed-by-israeli-missile-strike

· Dina Zaurub Killed: https://test.jinhaagency.com/en/actual/palestinian-artist-dina-zaurub-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-36860

· Hassan Ayyad Killed: https://www.commondreams.org/news/hassan-ayyad

· Adnan Joubran Quote: https://thenational-the-national-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/arts-culture/music/2025/09/17/silence-is-too-dangerous-adnan-joubran-on-gaza-grief-and-londons-together-for-palestine-concert/

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This article was written in a spirit of respect and appreciation for the artists who continue to create under unimaginable conditions. All factual claims are supported by the linked sources.