Kanaan is a descendant the ancient Canaanites, one of the indigenous Semitic people who inhabited Palestine and the Levant (present day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine) since time immemorial. His family hails from the coastal town of Jaffa, but Kanaan was raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan.

Growing up, he was a witness to the mass displacement of his people and the gruesome wars which led to his life-long commitment to peace and justice. His artistic endeavors focus on the plight of the Palestinians and the price they paid as victims of the colonization of the ‘Promised Land” by Eastern European settlers on a mission to fulfill their “Manifest Destiny.”