Ofir Gendelman, official spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, came under fierce criticism by Egyptian online commentators Monday after posting the Egyptian nationalist song – "Ya Beladi Ya Beladi Ana Bahebek ya Beladi" – on Twitter.

Gendelman made the controversial post on Monday morning to express his satisfaction with the results of a recent opinion poll conducted by New York City's Columbia University that rated the Israeli population the 14th happiest national population out of 150 countries worldwide.

"Some Israelis, including me, listen to Egyptian songs, which they enjoy, while Egyptians can also listen to Israeli music in response," Gendelman declared on the popular online social-media platform. "Music has no limits and there is no problem about that."

In light of the song's political relevance, however, Egyptian online commentators reacted to the Israeli official's post with outrage.

"Ya Beladi Ya Beladi Ana Bahebek ya Beladi" (not to be confused with Egypt's national anthem, "Beladi") was written in 1970 in the immediate wake of an Israeli military raid on Bahr El-Baqar School in Egypt's Sharqiya governorate, in which 30 schoolchildren were killed and dozens of others injured. ##

The song was also widely heard during Egypt's Tahrir Square uprising in early 2011, which culminated in the ouster of longstanding president Hosni Mubarak after a 30-year stint in power. ##

"You [Israelis] have no national identity; you're trying to celebrate with songs that don't belong to you," one Egyptian commentator declared via Twitter in response to Gendelman's post.

The Bahr El-Baqar massacre, another Egyptian Twitter user asserted, "was committed by your [Gendelman's] ancestors."

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/61948.aspx