Palestinian intellectual and broadcaster One of exile, dispossession, oppression and separation Hasan Sa'id Karmi was a hallmark of Palestinian Arabs who endured sense of loss. Hasan Karmi lived in Britain for 41 years, working for BBC Arabic Service. As the creator and writer-presenter of a weekly literary programme called Qawlun ala Qawl (saying on a Saying) and devoted to Arabic poetry and proverbs, he became famed among a world-wide Arab audience. He was awarded an MBE, in 1969, for services to the BBC. Passionate about the suffering of his people, Hasan Karmi returned to the Middle East, to Jordan, in 1989 and devoted working at his dictionaries, of which there were 11, one Arabic-English, and the rest English-Arabic. Hasan Sa'id Karmi, son of an eminent judge, was born in the small town of Tulkarem, on the West Bank.