Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Palestinian author and human rights activist who co-founded Al Haq and chronicles displacement, struggle, and the search for justice.
On the island
Eight records
We used to, as a family, go with other families to the Dead Sea. Especially during times when it was full moon, it was a very poetic time and a very happy time.
It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington came on a world tour and he performed at our school, and that I think must have been the first time I ever heard jazz.
Scheherazade, Op. 35Favourite
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Monteux
Egypt was the cultural center of the Arab world... and they had a reading of the Arabian Nights, and they would end every programme with Shahrazad.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Lang Lang & Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
I sat waiting for him to come back to hear his news and thought what is an appropriate music to listen to and I thought of Rachmeninoff.
Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
I was waiting for my bar exam results and I wanted a distraction... during the interval I ran down to check the lists of the people who have succeeded and I did succeed.
Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81
Goldner String Quartet & Piers Lane
In two thousand and two there was another invasion of Ramallah by the Israeli army and we were stuck at home for months and we knew it was very important to have exercise, so we would put music and go around and around...
Mild und leise wie er lächelt (Isolde's Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde)
Birgit Nilsson & Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Ludwig
Daniel Berenbohm brought a soprano from the Berlin Stett Opera, and she sang from Tristan and Isolde. And it was so beautiful. It was so beautiful. I never felt transformed by the music as I did then.
Fantasia in F minor for piano four-hands, D. 940
Edward Said was a pianist and had considered early on a career as a pianist... And I want to dedicate this to his memory.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:28Through your writing, have you managed to find a degree of clarity about what you think should be happening?
It's a constant challenge, but it's an important challenge to meet because if you're going to live a happy life and a fruitful life, you have to find what gives you comfort and how to manage understanding what is happening and saving yourself from getting too angry. And the lighting I think has helped a lot, but also my garden.
Presenter asks
2:16What does [the landscape of Ramallah] look like now?
The way it looks is is is rather sad because many of the lovely hills have been destroyed by settlements and also expansion of Ramallah into the hills, but mainly the settlements which are literally on every hilltop. And it has caused me a lot of pain to see this change. But I don't want to sound heroic for living in Ramallah and under occupation, because I think it's sometimes more difficult to live outside an area of conflict and worry about those who you care about, who are still there.
Presenter asks
14:51How did this act of world importance [the Six-Day War] affect your family?
The war itself, although it's called Six Days' War, took less than three days, and we felt very little of the war in Ramallah... and we found ourselves under occupation. Ev everybody was in shock. My father was in shock at the beginning and then immediately got himself out of the shock and decided it's time to end this conflict by making peace with Israel on the basis of a two-state solution.
The keepsakes
The luxury
pack of seeds to plant things and make a little garden, even though it's a desert, but things can grow in the desert.
Presenter asks
24:59What was your father's response [to you founding Al Haq]? Did he worry about your safety?
He did, and that worry was made more acute by the fact that he was being called by the military governor and warned about my activities as they became better known. In nineteen eighty we published a small volume called The West Bank and the Rule of Law... And so they became concerned and called my father and said, you know, you better restrain your son.
Presenter asks
27:10Was your response to your father's death very complex?
Absolutely. Very, very, very complex. It just made life so difficult, so complicated. I didn't know what to think, didn't know what to do, didn't know what was incumbent upon me as as a son and somebody in human rights. It it just shook all aspects of my world, my world as a lawyer, my world as a human rights activist, because I saw that even with all the power that I thought we had as people who were s pursuing justice, I couldn't pursue justice for my father and find out who murdered him and get justice done.
Presenter asks
33:23Where do you get your optimism from?
I can't help being optimistic. I think if I were not optimistic, I would not be able to keep on going... Ultimately, I think I have a belief in human beings. The natural thing is for all of this to come to an end and for people to realize that they can all live a better life by cooperating, sharing resources, and a belief that they will come to see that peace will serve best all their interests.
“I think the mistake that most people make is that they feel that the sum total of the high points which are reported, and only the high points of a conflict are reported, make up the life. And that's not true, because even under great conflict, even during wars, ordinary life goes on, people get married, people have children.”
“I think we should not fight on who loves the land more. It's just that that competition over the land is harmful to both our interests.”
“I think that the worst thing for a conflict like that is to think of the Palestinians as one thing, to think of the Israelis as one thing. And perhaps, perhaps, my work has helped break through some of these stereotypes and humanize the people and the conflict.”