STARS ARE BURNING
Fatma Hassouna Your Name Will Never Die!

Akashic Records new song release bring awareness to ongoing murder of Journalists in Gaza.

Download ‘Fatma Hassouna, Your Name Will Never Die’ Songs

‘If I die, I want a loud death’

Gaza photojournalist killed by Israeli airstrike

Fatma Hassouna, who had been documenting war in Gaza for 18 months and was subject of new documentary, killed alongside six family members

As a young photojournalist living in Gaza, Fatma Hassouna knew that death was always at her doorstep. Over the past 18 months of war, she documented airstrikes, the demolition of her family home, endless displacement, and the killing of 11 relatives. All she asked was that she not be allowed to go quietly.

“If I die, I want a loud death,” Hassouna wrote on social media. “I don’t want to be just breaking news or a number in a group. I want a death that the world will hear, an impact that will remain through time, and a timeless image that cannot be buried by time or place.”

On Wednesday, just months before her wedding, 25-year-old Hassouna was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit her home in northern Gaza. Six members of her family, including her pregnant sister, were also killed.

This is a tragic and atrocious act of targeted violence that continues the genocide of the Palestinian people. Hassouna’s work resonated deeply with my own soul, reflecting poignant and historical photojournalism forged by the risk and bravery she took with each photograph. When I heard the news, it devastated me. Because her photos spoke to me with such heart, all I could do was transform my anger into something useful and begin writing this song. May this song cut through the noise and live on. In a remarkable way, there is an undeniable voice and resistance that manifests in the song when we recorded the vocals. I kept directing Lucia (the vocalist): ‘Just let it out, pour this pain into the resonance—scream if you have to!’—‘Fatma Hassouna, Your Name Will Never Die!’ The song is in English because it was important to me that the West hears Fatma’s wish for a loud death. I encourage everyone to listen, download, and share it everywhere.”
— Mark Lacey

He is currently working on an Arabic translation, and the mixes can be freely downloaded at the author’s site, aimanifesto.site/fatma, under Creative Commons. In his AI MANIFESTO, Lacey warns against the growing militarization and weaponization of AI technologies. He advocates for a total ban on AI-powered neural weapons, autonomous weapons, and the many brain-affecting capacities hidden from the public. He emphasizes that hallucinating words is one thing, but hallucinating to murder is another—creating a grave danger when we enable our AI to decide to target, kill, and slay. His entire 26-hour AI Manifesto audiobook is freely available online at aimanifesto.site and aims to raise awareness about these pressing concerns.

This song will also be included in Lacey’s larger musical project, The Black Box Basilisk Opera. Through this opera, he seeks to illuminate the dangers of training AI for autonomous weapons and surveillance—issues that are already impacting and altering human consciousness, as well as contributing to atrocities in the Middle East. These problems are exacerbated by the use of United States-funded AI and the deployment of autonomous weapons drones. His harsh criticism is reflected in his lyrics:

Twenty-four hours before Hassouna was killed, it was announced that a documentary focusing on her life in Gaza since the Israeli offensive began would debut at a French independent film festival running parallel to Cannes. Made by the Iranian director Sepideh Farsi, the film, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, tells the story of Gaza’s ordeal and the daily life of Palestinians through filmed video conversations between Hassouna and Farsi. As Farsi described it, Hassouna became “my eyes in Gaza … fiery and full of life. I filmed her laughs, her tears, her hopes and her depression.”

“She was such a light, so talented. When you see the film you’ll understand,” Farsi told Deadline. “I had talked to her a few hours before to tell her that the film was in Cannes and to invite her.” She said she had lived in fear for Hassouna’s life but added: “I told myself I had no right to fear for her, if she herself was not afraid. I clung to her strength, to her unwavering faith.”

Farsi, who lives in exile in France, said she feared that Hassouna had been targeted for her widely-followed work as a photojournalist and for her recently publicized participation in the documentary. Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history, with more than 170 killed since 2023, though some estimates put the number as high as 206.

Since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza after the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, more than 61,000 people have been killed, more than half of them women and children. Over 250 journalists have also been killed—a number that tragically continues to grow. The most recent attack involved a double-tap strike on a hospital on Monday, August 26th, killing four American journalists as they rushed to cover the bombing. The IDF struck again with a second bomb, killing the journalists as they arrived.

LYRICS -: THE STARS ARE BURNING Music and lyrics (C) 2025 Mark Lacey / Akashic Records Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk with me These lives conditioned by walls and wars, [chant chorus] Now whole of earth under these spells of binary horrors, Divided under little black mirrors Swiping away your soul and spirit [sound of children choir chants] Because the stars are burning The stars are burning [Sound middle eastern drums] [chorus] Oh Fatma Hassouna your name will never die! Oh, there it is again, do you hear it again? Because the stars are burning Oh, Fatma Hassouna your name will never die! [Bridge] Attention stolen and digital coded By black box of horrors! Who now takes its orders by chat, slaughter and autonomous kill! [silence] Shhh , shhh There it is again, Do you hear it again? [big crescendo] The stars are burning Oh, Fatma Hassouna your name will never die! Because The stars are burning [middle eastern drums] Ahhhh, ahhh, The stars are burning Oh, Fatma Hassouna your name will never die! Because The stars are burning [ big operatic ] For You! [big bomb explosion sound] Fission and fusion Was not enough To be drunk on this 3-dimensional sum Your stars are burning Because , souls are burning In this realm of heaven and hell Of its last self-reflection’ In these old black mirrors. Because the stars are burning, Because you look the other way, And that good ol’ Yankee dollar, Now gives its machine Its orders, to chat, slaughter And autonomously kill. [bridge] You war men are dead inside, That rule your realm, While these black mirrors Flicker the death of Babies burning, nursing mothers flesh is flaming, At this crossroads of this singularity And swallows its own binary code While children are starved in death While you wink away from its speck in eye. On that black pixel. That’s why this Good will might, and night away, It’s this cosmic order that your devilish black box, You sorted to bring what you ordered. (Outro chorus) Oh, the stars are burning, Oh Fatma Hassouna your name will never die! The stars are burning Oh, Fatma Hassouna your name will never die! Because the stars are burning Burned in our hearts, whom know it tells the truth. Your hands and soul now unbound Because now the stars are burning, The stars are burning For you! Babies burning, nursing mothers flesh is flaming, At this crossroads of this singularity And swallows its own binary code While children are starved in death While you wink away from its speck in eye. On that black pixel. That’s why this Good will might, and night away, It’s this cosmic order that your devilish black box, You sorted to bring what you ordered. (Outro chorus) Oh, the stars are burning, Oh Fatma Hassouna your name will never die! The stars are burning Oh, Fatma Hassouna your name will never die! Because the stars are burning Burned in our hearts, whom know it tells the truth. Your hands and soul now unbound Because now the stars are burning, The stars are burning For you!