A couple months back, the English musician Alabaster dePlume released a new album, Come With Fierce Grace. Today, he’s back with a one-off track, “Gifts Of Olive,” which references the Palestinian writer Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza earlier this month at age 44, alongside his brother, sister, and four of her children. Alareer’s poem “If I must die” has been widely shared following his death. DePlume shared the following statement alongside the track:
At this specific time, may I reach you with appreciation, for I admire you for living, and I come to tell you I believe in you. I have faith in you. You are humanity and this time is in your hands. You survive moment by moment, while crimes are committed against you. And there is no state that can defeat you, no nation state, authority, project nor organisation on this earth can ultimately deny you, humanity. I am reaching to you with my love, and this little Christmas song, where at this time I feel grief. In case it voices a grief for you too, I love you.
Listen below.
