Person · Folk poet and singer, “the voice of the Intifada”

Rajeh al-Salfiti

راجح السلفيتي

1921–1990

Born in Salfit in 1921 to a poor family, he left school when his father died in 1933 and worked as a muezzin, a road builder and a farm labourer. As a teenager he sang at weddings in Salfit and its villages, where it was said no wedding was a proper party without him. He joined a rebel group in the Nablus region after the revolt of 1936 broke out, and later composed verses for the First Intifada; Yasser Arafat called him “the voice of the Intifada”. He died in Salfit on 27 May 1990.

An introductory profile. The source material below provides the fuller record.

Also recorded as

Rajeh Ghuneim al-Salfiti

Connected events · 1

Land & rights9 December 1987 – 13 September 1993

The First Intifada

الانتفاضة الأولى

Ongoing activity · not a separate dated incident

A popular uprising across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, from 9 December 1987 to the signing of the Oslo agreement on 13 September 1993: mass demonstrations, strikes and civil disobedience, led on the ground by a clandestine unified leadership.

Documented roles and relationship context

Sources for this profile

article · PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies

Rajeh al-Salfiti

Published: date not recordedConsulted: 2026-10-01

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