Bob Dylan and UNESCO
Reading the lyrics to Nobel Bob Dylan’s “Neighbor Bully,”
I started thinking of UNESCO’s long running, pro-Palestinian,
cultural criticism of the State of Israel
He’s the neighborhood bully,
he’s just one man,
his enemies say,
he’s on their land,
they’ve got him outnumbered,
’bout a million to one,
he’s got no place to ‘scape to,
no place to run,
he’s the neighborhood bully
(and then)
The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive.
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin,
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He’s the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He’s always on trial for just being born.
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad.
He’s the neighborhood bully.
(And then)
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health.
He’s the neighborhood bully.