Israel composer stole 1967 anthem

The song serves to underline Israeli claims to the holy city

An Israeli composer admitted on her deathbed to plagiarising a tune that has become a national victory anthem.

Naomi Shemer, one Israel's best loved songwriters, made her confession about the song, Jerusalem of Gold, to another composer before she died last year.

The song was adopted by Israeli forces celebrating East Jerusalem's capture from the Arabs during the 1967 War.

After years of angry denials, Shemer wrote that she had in fact used the melody of a Basque lullaby.

"I consider the entire affair a regrettable work accident - so regrettable that it may be the reason for me taking ill," she wrote to composer Gil Aldema days before her death last June.

Mr Aldema told Israeli Army Radio that Shemer had agreed for her secret to be revealed after her death, but he had allowed a little time to pass to lessen the impact.

'Joyous crowds'

JERUSALEM OF GOLD The wells ran dry of all their water, Forlorn the market square, The Temple Mount dark and deserted, In the Old City there. And in the caverns in the mountain, The winds howl to and fro, And no-one takes the Dead Sea highway, That leads through Jericho. Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of bronze, I am the lute for all your songs.

The song was written in 1967 and first performed at an Israeli song festival shortly before the Arab-Israeli war.

Israeli paratroopers sang the song, including the lines "So solitary lies the city and at its heart a wall" at Jerusalem's Western Wall after its capture during the subsequent fighting.

Shemer later wrote an extra verse about the "joyous crowds" entering Jerusalem and the rams' horns being sounded on the Temple Mount.

In her letter she says she heard a "well-known Basque lullaby" which "went in one ear and out the other" during the 1967.

"The song must have crept into me unwittingly," she wrote.

The song continues to serve as an unofficial Israeli anthem and is often played on the radio and at national ceremonies.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1981, but its claim to the area is not recognised internationally. Under international law it is considered occupied territory.