A Palestinian singer born in a West Bank refugee camp never dreamt he would find himself singing to an Australian audience.
Oday al-Khatib, like many Palestinians, is denied access to Jerusalem by Israeli authorities. He feels blessed to be able to tour the world with his music, but says he wishes to move about freely in his homeland.
Al-Khatib features as a guest artist with The Song Company in an Easter concert called Sticks & Stones that traces themes of occupation and exile in the Holy Land from antiquity to the present day. It’s a timely concert in today’s political climate, amid the controversy over Israeli settlements encroaching on land in the West Bank, deemed illegal under international law.
Al-Khatib will appear in a program featuring Passiontide polyphony including Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere, Henry Purcell’s Remember Not, Lord, Our Offences and Thomas Tallis’s The Lamentations of Jeremiah alongside texts dating from 2500 years ago in Jerusalem.
The singer is one of millions of stateless Palestinian refugees in the world, many of whom are descendants of those who were exiled or fled in 1948 when militant forces sought to remove Palestinians from the land to create the state of Israel.
Oday al-Khatib appears with The Song Company at the Yellow House, Sydney, tomorrow, ahead of performances in Blackheath, NSW; St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney; Berry, NSW; Canberra; Melbourne; and Newcastle.
Read the article by Jennine Khalik in The Australian.