Rebuilt Gaza Music School hopes to reach more children

[P F Tinmore]

Sarah, Abdelaziz and Anda have found a welcome distraction from Palestine’s troubles: music. They and 120 other girls and boys are enrolled in the Gaza Music School, a program of the A.M. Qattan Foundation launched in 2008.

Standing in front of a choir of dozens of children, 11-year-old Sarah sang an English-language song called “I have a dream.” Her guitar teacher, Ahmad Abu Amsha, and the school’s academic coordinator, veteran musician Ibrahim al-Najjar, watched with pride.

Tucked inside an area of just 320 squared meters, the school is located in the building of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. The school has since relaunched after it was destroyed during Israel’s three-week attack on the Gaza Strip in winter 2008-09, just days after its inaugural public performance.

Abdelaziz Abu Sharekh, an 11-year-old boy from the same neighborhood, played a traditional stringed instrument called a qanoun. One of the songs that he played was “The air breezed upon us,” made famous by the Lebanese living legend Fairouz.

Rebuilt Gaza Music School hopes to reach more children | The Electronic Intifada