“It was strange for me that I have to clarify my position that I denounce murder and the horrible acts that happened on October 7,” says Valerie Hamaty. “To be in a place where you have to prove your innocence when you have done nothing wrong makes you wonder if you belong.”
Valerie Hamaty is a Tel Aviv Yafo born musician and actress of Middle Eastern descent who is devoted to blending traditional Middle Eastern music with contemporary styles. She has earned international recognition for her mastery of the oud, a classic Middle Eastern string instrument.
In this episode of Song of Hope, Hamaty speaks about identity, belonging and the questions the war forces into the open. She shares the hope she finds in singing in Arabic, and performs Pe’er Tasi’s “Until After Eternity,” a song that has accompanied her throughout the war and reflects her own personal loss.
Written by songwriter Eytan Darmon, the piece is a woman’s monologue addressed to someone who has passed away, and the narrator draws hope from imagining their reunion in the world to come.
Up Next in Season 1
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Song Of Hope - Episode 4 - Jimbo J
Even when he fled with his wife and young daughters on October 7 from Or HaNer, the kibbutz he calls home in southern Israel, Jimbo J could not yet imagine the magnitude of the disaster unfolding around him. Only months later, when he drove through the quiet forests on his way back to the kibbutz...
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Song Of Hope - Episode 5 - Maya Belsi...
With a little girl on her lap and a baby in her womb, musician Maya Belsitzman knew she had to do everything she could to avoid falling apart because of the war. She found herself returning again and again to “Shir Mishmar” (“Guarding Song”). Poet Nathan Alterman wrote this poem out of concern fo...
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Song Of Hope - Episode 6 - Dudi Bar D...
On October 7, “Your Song” by Dudi Bar David became “His Song,” the song of Staff Sergeant Omri Peretz, commander of a paratrooper squad who fell in the battle for Kibbutz Kissufim and who deeply loved the piece.
“When you play for parents who buried their son, and your song accompanied him on his...
