Ziv Yehezkel

Ziv Yehezkel was born in 1985 in Kiryat Ono

Ziv Yehezkel was born in 1985 in Kiryat Ono to Tami and Ezra. His parents became religiously observant during his childhood. From age 13 he led liturgical singing in synagogue and read the Torah in the traditional Iraqi pronunciation.

He studied at the Zichron David yeshiva in Bnei Brak and later at Mesilot HaTorah in Jerusalem. In those years he took up Arabic music and the oud, and taught himself to read and write Arabic. In 2001 he began oud lessons with the Jerusalem musician Nissim Bassa.

He performs works by Umm Kulthum, Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim, and is lead singer of the Nazareth Orchestra. He has sung with the Andalusian Orchestra Ashkelon and the Almugrabiya Orchestra, and works with the Andalusian Orchestra in Jerusalem. He released live albums from Nazareth in 2013 and London in 2014, lectures on the maqam system, and runs the HaMaqam school for Arabic music.

In 2016 he was interviewed by Palestine 48 in Ramallah, and stones were thrown at his car on the way. He later received an apology from Abu Mazen and an invitation to meet him. He describes himself as a Jewish Arab and married in December 2016, with a Palestinian Authority delegation attending.