Hasan Karmi

Who was Hasan Karmi?

Hasan Sa'id Karmi was a Palestinian linguist and broadcaster.

Hasan Karmi was born in Tulkarem, Palestine. The son of a sharia court judge, Sheikh Sa'id al-Karmi, Karmi studied in a local Qur'anic school and later attended English College in Jerusalem. He joined the British mandate government's education department and won two scholarships, in 1939 and 1945, to study at the Institute of Education in London.

Karmi and his family were forced to flee in the 1948 Nakba. They eventually settled in the neighbourhood of Golders Green, in London, England. Karmi joined the BBC Arabic Service and served as a broadcaster for nearly 40 years. He was the creator, writer, and presenter of a weekly literary program called Qawlun ala Qawl devoted to Arabic poetry and proverbs. The program was the longest running in the history of the BBC Arabic Service. For many years he also wrote a column in Huna London, which the embassy in Saudi Arabia used to distribute on behalf of the BBC Arabic Service. In 1969 Karmi was awarded an MBE for services to the BBC.

Karmi was married to a Syrian woman, Amina, had one son, Ziyad, and two daughters, Siham and Ghada Karmi.