From the outside, the occupied Gaza Strip appears a place of misery. Three all-out Israeli military assaults since December 2008 have caused untold destruction, left thousands dead, more than 15,000 wounded, more than 75,000 homeless and half a million displaced.
A decade-old Israeli siege, meanwhile, has left Palestinians in the coastal strip on the brink of disaster with an infrastructure in tatters.
But Gaza is also a place of unyielding spirit, of occasional joy and of music and performance. In spite of the odds, young people have formed bands to convey some of tHe reality of Gaza. Here is a look at a few of the better-known ones.aSol Bnd
Sol Band
It was the eight-day offensive on Gaza in November 2012 that motivated this group to form. The group’s aim was raise the spirits of Gaza’s people following that attack.
Majd Antar, 22, is the Sol band’s coordinator.
“When we first created the band, turnout was pretty low,” Antar said. “We were young and we were not that good. But we worked hard and played plenty of venues free to get to where we are.”
Sol Band, so-called after the fifth note of a sung musical scale, focuses on modern and traditional Arabic music and now plays functions, cafes and halls across the Gaza Strip, according to Antar, if they can get the necessary permits from Gaza’s authorities, not always a given.
Permits to perform in Gaza are issued depending on security and “social” considerations, where the latter seek to avoid offense to conservative society and could include a stipulation that a performance does not encourage “mixing of the sexes.”
The group has kept performing despite such obstacles.
“Gaza is full of war and destruction,” said Antar. “We want to sing for life and give some hope to people here.”
The band comprises six members and includes Reem Anbar, 26, the band’s oud player, oldest member and only woman.
A musician from childhood, she only came to the oud in later years. She sometimes faces criticism from conservative society where the idea of a woman performing in public, not least with a group of men, is sometimes frowned upon.
“I joined the band with my little brother Faris. He is a very good musician and we play the concerts together. Our family supports us,” she said. “They stand with me and they support me to face the criticism I sometimes get because I am the only girl in the band.”
Such criticism is less often heard now, she said.
“At first, I got a lot of criticism. But people got used to seeing me in the band. They liked my courage and the way I play amongst a group of boys.”
She now hopes eventually to form an all-female band from Gaza, she told The Electronic Intifada, in order to challenge stereotypes, inside and outside Palestine.
Ultimately, she hopes music, whoever it is played by, can reach out across borders.
“Our message is a message of peace to all Arabs and other countries,” she said. “We have the right to live, and music is our language.”
Typo Band
One night back in 2012, two friends, Mohammed Zohud and Alaa El Hamalawi, were sitting on the roof of El Hamalawi’s house, playing guitar and singing.
Suddenly a neighbor, Umm Mohammed, opened her window and yelled at them to stop: “We want to sleep! Turn it down.”
Disappointed, the two friends stopped.
“The houses are too close to each other in Gaza. Families cannot have privacy,” said Zohud, now 25, and lead singer and guitarist in the Typo Band, the fruit of his and El Hamalawi’s passion for music.
That night played a role though in their future.
“We decided to write our own song,” he told The Electronic Intifada, in honor of that night. “We called it ‘Umm Muhammad.’”
The two men had always dreamed of forming a rock band but it took the addition of a drummer, Islam Shanghan, 22, in 2012 for their dream to come true.
Typo Band/ Abed Mohamed
A new rock trio – the classic combo of drums, guitar and bass – was born. The name came quickly.
“We decided to call it Typo, because, just like our band, that’s how everything happens in Gaza,” El Hamalawi explained. “By accident.”
The Typo Band – now with four core members, after Samir al-Borno joined on keyboards – released their first video entitled Holm al-Fajer (“Dream of Dawn”) after the 2014 Israeli military offensive on Gaza.
“We decided to sing for hope and life despite the thousands of martyrs and destruction caused by Israel’s bombardment,” said El Hamalawi.
When they started, Shanghan said, it took time to find an audience.
“Rock music is a bit peculiar to the Palestinians in Gaza, so we were cautious in all the concerts we performed,” he said.
Shanghan started to mix rock with eastern rhythms to make the songs feel more familiar to a local audience. At the same time, the band tried to write songs that reflected the reality of life in Gaza.
“I pray and pray,” goes one song:
“Five children asleep in my lap/and the house is not enough/our food is not enough/I say enough/I am satisfied but not optimistic/and I am biting my hand.”
But merely to procure decent instruments was a struggle. The siege on Gaza has left many consumer goods nearly impossible to get. Finding new instruments locally proved impossible and the band were forced to order from the occupied West Bank, a process that not only took months but cost them more than double in freight.
Moreover, with frequent electricity outages, and only a few hours of power a day, rehearsal time remains severely limited.
Nevertheless, the band recorded their first album in the fall of 2015. The album, released in early 2016, was simply called Awal Khataa (“First Typo”). On it, the band remains determined to stay positive.
“We want to sing for life, peace, hope, we want to reflect our reality through music. Music is the food of the soul, it’s our message to the world,” Zohud added.
Mc Gaza
Ibrahim Ghunaim has adored rap since he was 13.
“When I was young I started to imitate the rappers I listened to,” the 25-year-old told The Electronic Intifada. “As the years went by, and I realized that sometimes words can be stronger than weapons, I began to write too.”
It has not been easy for Ghunaim.
“At first, I had nothing. I borrowed some money from my family to keep me going. I created a few tracks for some institutions in Gaza so I could do a video clip for one of my songs.”
Until recently, the reputation of rap in Gaza was such that anyone dabbling in such music was looked at with disapproval.
“Some groups in Gaza were looking at me as if I were an infidel and other people considered my art meaningless,” he said.
This perception has changed as rap has become more popular. Appreciation for music in general has become more common as Gazans have come to the conclusion that the art can convey a besieged society’s suffering and stories to the outside world.
“I write what I see, what I do not see, what I want to see,” Ghunaim said.
MC Gaza/ Abed Mohamed
“I sing about the Palestinian division, the right of return, the refugees, the national cause, the martyrs, the prisoners in the prisons of the occupation and the siege. I sing about everything.”
Ghunaim has written about 80 tracks, he said, but in spite of a number of well-produced videos, his means are still limited.
“I’m still using simple and modest methods. I do some tracks as video clips with a little support from some institutions in Gaza.”
The closure imposed on Gaza has prevented Palestinian artists there – including Ghunaim – from traveling and bringing their music to a wider audience, or indeed simply forming links with musicians outside.
Ghunaim said he had received six invitations in 2017 alone to travel to the West Bank or further afield to perform. In each instance, he was denied a travel permit by the Israeli authorities.
“The border gave me 10 percent and deprived me of 90 percent,” Ghunaim said. “It has given me the honor of living in Gaza, but took from me the honor of representing my home abroad.”
(Osama Najjar is a freelance writer and translator from Gaza) (Electronic Intifada)