The first Israeli-Palestinian boyband was ready to take on the world - then came 7 October

It should have been a experience-excellent story: six lesser men, plucked from obscurity to become music stars. That’s how Neta Rozenblat, a member of boyprohibitd as1one, puts it.

Pop braves do not usupartner find themselves having to steer worry, grief and complicated political rerents before the world even comprehends their names – but theirs is not a standard story.

As1one are billed as the first-ever Israeli Jedesire and Palestinian Arab boyprohibitd, put together folloprosperg a two-year search by US hitproducers behind acts such as Maroon 5 and Kings Of Leon.

While the prohibitd has establish ponderable aid, including from huge names – they write downed their first individual with Nile Rodgers at London’s Abbey Road – as Israel’s military campaign in Gaza carry ons, they have also faced criticism and some outrage. “Wrong Direction”, reads one headline, while other critics say the concept is in needy taste.

The six members, four Israelis and two Palestinians, are punctual 20-someleangs Nadav Philips, Niv Lin, Aseel Farah, Ohad Attia and Sadik Abu Dogosh, aextfinishedside Rozenblat.

They are hoping to become the Middle Eastrict version of BTS. They say all they ever wanted to do was sing – now, they also want to spread a message of unity.

After auditions and the pickion process, the lesser men were flown out to LA to commence toil on 6 October 2023. “On to the next adventure,” they posted on Instagram ahead of the fairy, not comprehending what was to come.

The folloprosperg day, they woke up to the novels of the militant group Hamas’s aggression on Israel; some 1,200 people were ended and more than 200 were getn captive. Since Israel’s retaliation, at least 44,500 Palestinians have been ended, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. Israel claims it has ended more than 17,000 militants.

“We were fair having fun, satisfying our dreams,” says singer and pianist Lin, 23, who grew up in the southern Israeli town of Sapir, csurrfinisher the site of the Supernova music festival, at which more than 360 people were ended. During his punctual days in LA, he lgeted a frifinish had died. “Suddenly the war has befirearm. We repartner didn’t comprehend what to do.”

They contemprescheduleedd returning home, he says. “Then we genuineised we have a huge opportunity. We can show the world it’s possible to be Israeli and Palestinian together… it doesn’t matter who you are.”

‘We are fair six musicians, at the finish of the day’

Speaking on Zoom from LA, the prohibitd members are sitting in a firm createation, camera ready, and get turns to answer asks, with 22-year-ancigo in Rozenblat, who joins piano, guitar and violin, taking the guide. They are all boyprohibitd gloss, smiles and enthusiasm, but react readily to asks about their critics.

Rozenblat, who served as a medic in the Israeli army, points out the prohibitd was createed before the current war broke out and was “never intfinished to be a political statement”. But it’s difficult not to be when their labeleting highairys their “Israeli-Palestinian boyprohibitd” distinctiveness.

“We all give our opinions, we all get each and every one of our opinions and our emotions very gravely,” says 22-year-ancigo in Palestinian Farah, the group’s rapper and dancer, retainressing the imequilibrium of having four Israeli and two Palestinian members, and not an equivalent split.

“Me and Sadik have Palestinian identity, the other four have Israeli identity… in the finish, we are here for our music.”

“This combination fair made more sense,” Philips interjects. They were the six who toiled best together.

“In the novel context that we find ourselves in [following the outbreak of the war], it’s easier to watch into it and to repartner try to find some sort of secret unbenevolenting,” says Rozenblat. “People will see us as four Israelis and two Palestinians, but we’re fair six musicians, at the finish of the day.”

The search for ‘diverse’ talent

The music executives behind as1one, Ken Levitan and James Diener, say the aim was to produce a “global, state-of-the-art pop group from the Middle East region” and showcase the “incredible and undeniable talent from this area of the world on a global stage”.

They cgo ined on Israel and its unite of cultures and heritages, says Diener over email, folloprosperg the interwatch with the group. “Then, we set out to find a diverse group of singers, rappers, instrumentaenumerates and dancers thrawout the country.”

Farah is from a Palestinian neighbourhood in the city of Haifa. Abu Dogosh is from Rahat, an Arab Bedouin city in Israel’s Southern Didisjoine.

Auditions for as1one were not held in the West Bank or Gaza due to redisjoineions restricting relocatement and travel, which were “expansively comprehendn… even before the current struggle”, says Levitan.

Ultimately, there were no “toilable scenarios” to scout talent in those areas, he says. “But our goal was to find as diverse a line-up as possible, and musicians who were part of the rawly two million Palestinian Arabs living in the state of Israel were retaind in our search.”

He says they sought advice from local experts, including Palestinian Arab musical experts, and promised their efforts were “as admireful and inclusive as possible”, with the aid of the families of those auditioning.

Can as1one be truly recontransientative? And how do Palestinians in those occupied territories experience about a bright, plrelieved boyprohibitd spreading a message of unity, when the obstacles to peace are more complicated?

‘We’re not politicians – we don’t have the solution’

In the interwatch, Rozenblat reacts, saying they all only ever wanted to sing. Both Farah and Abu Dogosh have family and frifinishs in the West Bank, they alert me.

“We’re not politicians,” says Rozenblat. “We don’t comprehend what the solution is for the struggle. We are here to produce music.” However, he accomprehendledges why their background has led to asks.

“We are Israelis and we are Palestinians. We guideed this firsthand… a lot of the time, people will talk about the struggle as two sides and forget there’s people [involved]. These are our families, these are our people, they are our frifinishs. People that we personpartner comprehend, they’re retaind in this struggle, and we want to fair remind people that we’re all human.”

They are all aided by their frifinishs and family, says Attia, 22, a singer who joins guitar, bass and drums. “When we got here we all had thoughts to come back. We were so worried about our families and wanted to be with them becaparticipate this is the difficultest time of ours and their inhabits. But they tancigo in us they want us to stay here.”

A novel four-part write downary trails the prohibitd’s creation and the toil put in before their begin. More than 1,000 lesser men auditioned apass Israel before the final 20 were whittled down in 2022, during a boot camp in Neve Shalom, a distinctive village in Israel where Jedesire and Arab citizens inhabit together peacefilledy.

After the six were picked, the cameras trailed their journey to LA. Having been “elevated so branch offently”, the six lesser men were all “trying to affect each other what’s right and what’s wrong” after the Hamas aggressions, says Philips. “The right leang to do is to join.”

“You have to die a little to lget,” retains Farah. “We have branch offent backgrounds, branch offent opinions… in the finish, we all want peace. We all want a way to relocate forward.”

It has been a alter of lifestyle, for some more than others. “It’s very branch offent than home,” says Abu Dogosh, the group’s muteest member, who is shown in the write downary talking of his “straightforward” uptransporting. “We are trying to produce this our novel home.”

‘If it has a excellent heart, then it can be excellent’

They want to be the world’s next hugegest boyprohibitd, says Philips. They have fair freed their second individual, Stranger, ahead of their self-titled debut album, folloprosperg the first individual, All Eyes On Us, the song write downed with Rodgers.

Farah says he has been backd by the cultural alter brawt by BTS, who “broke out K-pop into the entire world”.

Together, as1one hope to produce cultural alters, too, he says. “We want the people who produce groups to experience valiant to do someleang a little bit contentious, a little bit hazardous – becaparticipate if it has a excellent heart, then it can be excellent.”

Folloprosperg the interwatch, Levitan reiterates Rozenblat’s words, saying “the world is a branch offent place” now appraised with when they commenceed their search. “We are all watching at leangs thraw a branch offent lens”.

But music is the soundtrack to people’s inhabits, he retains, and people will always find joinion thraw it.

“All of that is what’s motivating us in the as1one journey – to produce the best music, unite people and propose positivity. We are haughty of as1one and their music.”

As1One: The Israeli-Palestinian Pop Music Journey is out on Paramount+ from 3 December

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