AWhile Covid-19 swept the world in the spring of 2020, Mo’min Swaitat, a Palestinian actor and filmmaker living in London, found himself stranded in his hometown, the West Bank city of Jenin. During his walks through the quiet streets, he was drawn to the shuttered Tariq Cassettes, a music store and record company he remembered from his childhood and which had closed its doors years ago.

Intrigued, Swaitat contacted the former owner, who let him spend the days of the pandemic rummaging through the dusty cassette tape archives on the second floor. In doing so, he discovered a treasure: long-forgotten music that animated Palestinian life in the 1980s, when the first Intifada (uprising) erupted.

After buying many tapes and bringing five full suitcases back to London, his mission became to digitize and republish this window in the past.

“I’ve listened to 10,000 tapes in eight months – a lot of synth, funk and disco stuff, wedding music, groundbreaking songs. I even found recordings made by my uncle, who was part of a Bedouin alliance, ”said the 32-year-old.

“One of the most special finds was this bright yellow stripe without any information except for a sticker with the word ‘intifada’ handwritten on it.”

Swaitat listened to the album several times, captivated by the poetic lyrics describing a lost homeland and the struggle for freedom. On one occasion, he left the tape rolled up and realized that after a few minutes of silence, the composer had named Riad Awwad. Awwad then thanked his sisters Alia, Hanan and Nariman for their help in creating the album, as well as Mahmoud Darwish – the Palestinian national poet – for writing the lyrics to one of the songs.

Swaitat couldn’t find any information about Riad online, but he did manage to get in touch with his sister Hanan, a famous writer and activist who is now 70. She explained to him in more detail how the band, titled The Intifada Album, came into being.

“My brother was a very talented musician. He was very moved by the Intifada and the week it started [in 1987] he gathered us as a family in the living room in Jerusalem and asked us to help him “sing the song of the intifada”, ”she said.

“He had a unique style and he made identity music that resonated a lot with our people. If you walked down Salah al-Din Street in the old town, everyone was playing there.

As the Intifada grew bloodier and bloodier, Awwad ended up paying a heavy price for his art. Israeli forces confiscated most of the 3,000 tapes he had made in music stores, as well as cafes and businesses that broadcast them, fearing that the lyrics – some of which mentioned Molotov cocktails and jet streams. stones – do not incite people to violence.

The 30-year-old was detained for several months, during which time he was tortured.

“He was never charged with anything, which was very common during the Intifada,” Hanan said. “They asked him a lot why he made the music, what he wanted to do with it.”

An electrical engineer by training, after his release Awwad opened a children’s music school in the West Bank and formed a group called the Palestine Union.

Awwad died in a car accident in 2005. While Hanan wishes her brother was still alive to see his music rediscovered, she said he would be delighted to know his work reaches new audiences.

“I was so happy when Mo’min contacted me to request a reissue of the album. It has historical significance and with the Internet anyone can find it, ”she said.

Upon returning to London, Swaitat received funding from Jerwood Arts to launch the Majazz Project, an online platform dedicated to the restoration of Palestinian musical heritage.

The digital release of Awwad’s Intifada album was launched via the Majazz Project label at the end of 2021. The vinyl version, due to launch in April, has already sold half of its production.

“The response has been incredible. I have received messages from young Palestinians and members of the diaspora telling me that they adore it, or that they bought it as a gift for their parents who were young when it was born. initial release, ”Swaitat said.

“We intend to re-release more music – rock, traditional Bedouin recordings and newer electronic music.

“So much Palestinian culture has been lost or locked away in Israeli military records, so it was magical to find that. It is a journey through the past and the future of an entire people.