"Peio Joxepe" is a traditional Basque

Basque language

Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...

 song. It is very popular in Basqueland

Basque Country (historical territory)

The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....

, as its music is used by bertsolariak

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 to improvise their compositions. Therefore, it may be sung with different lyrics.

In 2005, "Pello Joxepe" became known worldwide, when it was published that the melody of the Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i song "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" ("Jerusalem of Gold") was partially inspired by its melody. The Spanish singer Paco Ibáñez

Paco Ibáñez

Francisco "Paco" Ibáñez is a Spanish singer and musician born in Valencia on November 20, 1934, before the Spanish Civil War.He went to France in 1952 during the Franco dictatorship in Spain and recorded his first album in 1964....

 offered a concert in Israel in 1962, where the famous Israeli song writer and singer Naomi Shemer

Naomi Shemer

Naomi Shemer was a leading Israeli songwriter hailed as the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry."-Biography:Naomi Sapir was born on Kvutzat Kinneret, a kibbutz her parents had helped found, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the 1950s she served in the Israeli Defense Force's Nahal...

 could hear the lullaby. After the recovery of Eastern Jerusalem by Israel in 1967, "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" became the symbol for the united city.

"Pello Joxepe" is seen by some as an example of Basque anticlericalism.