Shaaban Abdel Rahim

Before becoming a singer, Abdel Rahim worked as a laundryman.[1] His entry into a professional singing career was placed approximately a decade before 2009, and he became affectionately known as Shaabula.[1]

“Ana Bakrah Israel” (“I Hate Israel”) was released in 2000, during the second Palestinian intifada.[5] The song included the line “I Hate Israel and I love Amr Moussa,” linking its anti-Israel refrain to praise for the Egyptian politician.[3] His political songs, including “I Hate Israel” and “Hitting Iraq,” became hits in both open and bootleg markets.[1]

Abdel Rahim performed songs supporting President Hosni Mubarak during Mubarak’s rule.[4] His repertoire included “I Hate Israel, I Love Hosni Mubarak,” which became a hit across the Arab world during the Second Intifada.[4] He remained popular with Egyptian audiences after the revolution and subsequent changes of government, with songs whose popular style and topical content adapted to the political moment.[4]

In 2012, Abdel Rahim supported the Muslim Brotherhood and was preparing a song titled “O attacker of the Brotherhood, where will you run from God?” in response to anti-Brotherhood demonstrations in Tahrir Square.[6] He expressed sadness and surprise at the attacks on the Brotherhood and said it should be allowed to reform the country after winning the elections.[6] In 2014, he performed a campaign song for Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, opening with the repeated lines “We all love el-Sisi” and “We have no goal other than to love Egypt.”[4]

His topical repertoire also extended beyond political leaders and international affairs.[1] On May 3, 2009, he performed a song about swine flu on an Egyptian prime-time current-affairs program, amid controversy over the government-ordered slaughter of the country’s pigs.[1] Its lyrics urged listeners to avoid pigs and proposed barring their entry into Egypt through ports and airports.[1]

Abdel Rahim’s public persona included comic anecdotes about his clothing and his understanding of the international subjects in his songs.[1] He said that some of his clothes had been tailored from furniture upholstery, and a newspaper anecdote recounted his saying that he could not locate the United States, Israel, or Iraq on a map.[1] His lyricist, Islam Khalil, said he had explained the meaning of “American hegemony” to him for “Hitting Iraq.”[1]

Abdel Rahim died in 2019.[2] His best-known song continued to circulate after his death: in 2026, Palestinian artist Saint Levant incorporated elements of “I Hate Israel” into a performance at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.[5] The song’s title also supplied a later cultural reference, echoed in Egyptian journalist Sana al-Bissi’s article title “I Hate Benjamin.”[7]

McDonald’s hired Abdel Rahim to promote its local McFalafel product but dropped him following controversy surrounding his anti-Israel song.[1] He also faced state censorship over songs expressing hatred of Israel and the United States.[2]

In “Oh, Mr. Arab,” Abdel Rahim criticized George W. Bush and the United States, called America and Israel “two sides of the same coin,” and urged Arab listeners to act through the refrain “Oh Mr. Arab, when will you wake up?”[8] The lyrics also referred to Ariel Sharon, weapons smuggling, and tunnels.[8] An animated clip for “Ya Aam Arab” portrayed Sharon as manipulating the United States and blamed him for the September 11 attacks, using antisemitic imagery.[2] These accusations formed part of the songs’ political content rather than established accounts of the events they invoked.[2][8]