Shir LaShalom

Shir LaShalom (Hebrew: שיר לשלום‎‎ A Song for Peace) is a popular Israeli song that has become an anthem for the Israeli peace movement.

Shir LaShalom was written by Yaakov Rotblit and set to music by Yair Rosenblum. It was first performed in 1969 by the Infantry Ensemble (להקת הנחל) of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as part of its Sinai Infantry Outpost program, during the War of Attrition between Israel and Egypt. It featured the soloist Miri Aloni, who later became a celebrated folk singer and actor. Many of the other members of the ensemble who took part in the recording of the song went on to become well-known figures in the Israeli entertainment scene. Among them was Danny Sanderson, whose electric guitar solo opened the recording.

Rosenblum originally intended the song for the Israeli Navy Ensemble. He sent it to them from his home in London, with the stipulation that he arrange it himself. When the musical director of the Navy Ensemble, Benny Nagari, rejected that condition, Rosenblum passed the song on to the Nahal Infantry Ensemble, with which he had worked some time previously.

Both in its lyrics and its music, Shir LaShalom was influenced by the Anglo-American anti-war folk-rock songs of the 1960s.

The song expresses a yearning for peace. It mourns comrades who have fallen in battle, and claims to speak for the fallen. The lyrics take issue with the 'culture of bereavement', and with the glorification of war that allegedly exists in Israel. It calls on those who live on to strive for peace. In the line 'The purest of prayers will not bring us back' (הזכה שבתפילות אותנו לא תחזיר hazakah shebatfilot otanu lo takhzir), the lyrics seem to question the value of reciting the Kaddish prayer at the graveside. In a similar vein, they seem to confront an ethos that memorializes fallen soldiers: 'Let the sun penetrate through the flowers [on the graves]' (תנו לשמש לחדור מבעד לפרחים tnu lashemesh lakhador miba'ad la prakhim). In the lines 'Lift your eyes in hope, not through (gun) sights' (שאו עיניים בתקווה, לא דרך כוונות s'u 'enayim betikvah, lo derekh kavanot), the song uses martial concepts in order to subvert those same concepts. The lyrics are critical of songs that appear to glorify the culture of war; for example, Natan Alterman's War of Independence era Magash HaKesef ('Silver Platter'), and the songs Giv'at haTaḥmoshet ('Ammunition Hill', for which Yair Rosenblum also wrote the music) and Balada laḤovesh ('Ballad for a Corpsman') from 1968. Instead, the lyrics ask us to sing of love: 'Sing a song to love, and not to wars' (שירו שיר לאהבה, ולא למלחמות shiru shir la'ahavah velo lamilkhamot).

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