The Elder of Palestinian Singers in Ramallah

For all things Palestine, there is only one official voice that has been carrying the story of the Palestinian struggle and took it with him to thousands of concert goers. He is the voice of Palestine, Abu Arab or Ibrahim Al Saleh, the godfather of the Palestinian traditional and nationalistic songs

The man who sang for Palestine for half a century took his show to the Palestinian city of Ramallah and performed to a full house. He is 80 years old, but he still can sing and dazzle. He is the son of a man who was killed in the struggle of 1948 and the father of a man who lost his life in 1982.

Of course he had to get clearance from the Israelis at the borders who interrogated him and asked him questions, make him wait and then allowed him to get in back to his home--this is ironic. He started singing in 1959 in the radio, but his official career began in 1965 with the Palestinian revolutionary movement took shape.

Abu Arab brought with him a number of bands from Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian refugee camps, some of those artists were let in others were denied entry by Israel.

حفلة أبو عرب في قصر رام الله الثقافي Abu 3arab in Ramallah 2011

حفلة أبو عرب في قصر رام الله الثقافي Abu 3arab in Ramallah 2011