Our existence as Palestinians is a statement in itself. When you say you don’t want “overt” politics, you question our olive oil. You question our songs. You question our poems. You question our very being. Last time I checked, all people have the right to exist. Yes. All of us, Palestinians included!
My father, Yousef Kelani (1925-2016), joined UNRWA in 1953 upon his graduation from Alexandria University in Egypt. He was the physician in charge of UNRWA’s mobile clinics for Palestinian refugees in Irbid and the River Jordan Valley. This culminated in him becoming the assistant medical director of St Luke’s Hospital in Hebron (al-Khalil). My father’s …
From the release of my EP “The Singer Said: Bird of Dawn” in 2022 and my research-based concert “A People by the Sea” for the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit in the first half of 2023 http://tinyurl.com/mu9c9y9c, the latter half of 2023 saw me move forward with the next phase in my This Land is Your …
At a time when we are watching the mass transfer of the indigenous Palestinian people from their ancestral homelands in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, I’ve decided to post a few clips from this outstanding series. I will start with the opening credits. The lyrics were taken from a poem called Al-Fidaa’i [The …
Many so-called voices for women’s rights in the western world confine their support of Iranian women to assert the right to remove their headscarves, in defiance of the tyranny of the fascistic Ayatollahs. So far so good, but this obviously suits western lifestyles…because women without headscarves ‘look like us’. Women also have the right to …
Playing around mischievously in a recording studio, July 2005
Rest in Peace, Love and Power, my dear friend, fellow musician and Middle Easterner. The great Armenian Greek Turkish composer and guitarist, Gilbert Biberian, left us a few days ago to be with the One. The photo below was taken during my interview with Gilbert for my BBC Radio 4 documentary “Distant Chords”. This particular episode was called “My Book, My Mountain, My Self” [The Bible, Mount Ararat, cultural identity], about …
The demonstration in Tahrir Square on Tuesday 25th January which provided the spark for the current nationwide uprising saw a few thousand demonstrators confronting a police force well-armed for riot control. Many demonstrators were intent on peaceful protest, but there were also some willing to engage the police in a fight. The police, in turn, …
From 2011…….A WEEK IN CAIRO & THE BATTLE OF QASR EL-NIL BRIDGE قراءة المزيد »
I was very much saddened to learn from my DJ friend Jamie Renton that Nick Skelton (DJ Skunk as he was known) died earlier this month. He was both a friend and a supporter of independent music over the past two decades, through his work, first at 209 Radio and later at Cambridge 105 Radio. …
Dear Friends & Fans You may have noticed that I have taken a brief break from promoting my new EP. This is because I have been totally distracted, indeed devastated, by recent developments in Palestine and Syria. Palestinians, Muslim & Christian alike, are being denied access to their respective places of worship, especially to al-Aqsa …