Israeli bombs silence Gaza music school
By Nadia Hijab
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
There was a music school in Gaza. It was just six months old. The 31 children aged 7 to 11 could choose one of five instruments, including the guitar, oud (lute), and piano. Most of the 19 girls gravitated to the guitar and piano, while many of the 12 boys showed a preference for the oud.
The school worked out of rented premises in the Palest
More..inian Red Crescent Society building just across the street from the Preventive Security Forces compound in Gaza City. The compound was targeted in the first wave of Israeli bombardments on December 27, and twice more the next day. The five-story building was vaporized; a flat gravel surface is all that remains.
Like other buildings in the neighborhood, the Gaza Music School was shattered; window frames and doors were blown out, and holes were punched in the walls. The force of the blast imploded the four ouds, just like it had the compound.
By some miracle, the children had not yet arrived for their lessons and so were spared the fate of those in other schools in the path of Israeli bombs.
In the midst of all the death and destruction in Gaza, the school's short life rouses particular emotion. That there was such a school at all is astonishing, not just because of the 18-month siege that followed the decades of "de-development" of Gaza under Israeli occupation but also because one might expect it to be contrary to an Islamist social program.
There is almost no musical education in Gaza. The school project was developed in response to community demand, particularly from among the 11,600 children who are members of the Qattan Center for the Child. The center provides extra-curricular activities and a library for the children. It is impressive: With its 103,000 books, it is one of the largest children's libraries in the Arab world.
The children who attended the center's music workshops and concerts started asking for more.
"They said, 'We want to play instruments too,'" explained Ziad Khalaf, the Ramallah-based director of the Qattan Foundation, which established the school with co-funding from the Swedish development organization SIDA.
The music school provided a window on another world for the besieged Gazans."Many parents sat in on the theory lessons so they could better support their kids' homework," said Khalaf.
The five music teachers include two Russian women married to Palestinian men. They refused to leave Gaza when the border was briefly opened to enable foreigners to flee. For them, Gaza with all its misery and deprivation is still home, just as it is for the 1.5 million other Palestinians living there.
And what about Hamas' supposed social rigidity? Some websites did take a strong line against musical education, complaining that Hamas was allowing music to be taught under its rule instead of the Sharia. But they were ignored. Khalaf emphasizes that the Qattan Foundation has experienced full support from all authorities and communities in its different places of operation.
The day after the music school was hit, its coordinator called each of the children and their parents to make sure they were safe, and also to assure them that the school would be repaired, restocked, and reopened as soon as possible.
In Ramallah, the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music is planning a fundraiser soon to help rebuild the school.
"Some friends from Amsterdam and London who saw the damage to Gaza music school on the Foundation's website said they will be fundraising to help," Khalaf said.
These plans, too, arouse emotion: Palestinians rebuild even as the rubble rises around them. They have had 60 years to learn how to do so, and show no signs of giving up their quest for their rights - not even the right to learn how to play a musical instrument.
Nadia Hijab is a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies. She wrote this article for Agence Global Less..
Added: Jan 14 2009 In: middle_east
By: ReadyRock2008
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Comments - sort by newest to oldest
Tell those kids to stop their daddies from making rocket fuel in the kithen out of fertilizer, diesel and sugar first.
Palestinians pay now the price for voting into power nan organization which values more a full clip in an AK7 than the life of their own citizens. They deserve what they got.
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "Islamofacism_is_Nazism_2" (R)
Well got to stop them playing them hamas songs hey?
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "smellvir" (R)
The hills are alive with the sound of gunfire bombs and rockets or what ever war type sounds you want to insert.
There nothing more wonderful then sound of a-10 warthog on a gun run!
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "Bittolate" (R)
One more military target?
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "xenopoulos" (R)
There nothing more wonderful then sound of a-10 warthog on a gun run!
You are an idiot. There are no a-10 warthogs attacking Gaza. Two your completely sick and i hope one day you will experience an a-10 warthog attacking you and your family. Let's see how wonderful that would be...
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "Mutamed" (R)
There nothing more wonderful then sound of a-10 warthog on a gun run!
You are an idiot. There are no a-10 warthogs attacking Gaza. Two your completely sick and i hope one day you will experience an a-10 warthog attacking you and your family. Let's see how wonderful that would be...
There's that pot calling the kettle black again..Damn pot!
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "wayvel" (R)
Nobody said A-10s are attacking Gaza.Duh.
And I too find the sound of an A-10 on a gun run wonderful. No, spectacular!
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "warhog" (R)
it suck that thier children have to suffer from the deeds of thier parents. why dont the people ever question the leadership of hamas WHO IS LIVING IN SYRIA. Come on people WAKE THE HELL UP.
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "rmacl" (R)
isreal has every right to do what they are doing.Islam has left te people of gaza in hell. islam is not going to rule the holyland. NEVER. These are the words of god. THe land belongs to the JEWS.
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "rmacl" (R)
F**kin stop storing weapons in the schools then!
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "rmacl" (R)
Mohammad come over here and play daddys skin flute.
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "rockabilly" (R)
Awww, now who the f*ck is going to train the terrible "musicians" who compose those terrible IED (FAIL) videos?
Posted Jan-14-2009 by "tamu1996" (B)
so this means the rockets coming from that school are silenced as well, these dumbf**ks voted for this regime, now deal with it
Posted Jan-15-2009 by "malcolm4536" (R)
There nothing more wonderful then sound of a-10 warthog on a gun run!
You are an idiot. There are no a-10 warthogs attacking Gaza. Two your completely sick and i hope one day you will experience an a-10 warthog attacking you and your family. Let's see how wonderful that would be...
Don't have to worry about it. I'm not a Muslim nor support anything that. Most people get taken out by the low tech ak-47. Just go out and point one at your local police I'm sure they would more then willing to show you how it's used.
Posted Jan-16-2009 by "Bittolate" (R)