The lost culture of Jewish Arabs

Thanks to my friend Mohammad for introducing me to the Yemeni-Iraqi Jewish band Tzion Golan.

Click on this link to see a video clip of them performing.

The music and dress of the dancers are very similar to what we would associate with Arabic culture. You may also notice the similarity in the sound between the Hebrew singing and Arabic singing.

The video is a small reminder of what was lost when the state of Israel was created and the divisive ideology of Zionism became dominant - a historic and rich Arabic culture which was shared by both Jews and Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Egypt and across the middle east.