Musician, teacher, and founder of Gaza Birds Singing, Ahmed Abuamsha is collectively our colleague in the international music world as much as he is a voice for his family and community: Ahmed Muin needs support now just to manage drinking water. “What can I do?” Here are some answers.
The horrors of the spiraling destruction in Gaza could make people lose sight of these individual stories. But it’s the worst time to do that, as millions of lives across Palestine and beyond hang in the balance. Ahmed is someone who has given hope to his family and community even from the rubble. It’s time for those of us in more comfortable positions to do more of the lifting.
Across cultural communities in Berlin and Palestine, we’ve followed Ahmed’s work in Gaza and with Gaza Birds Singing – see below for some of that music, getting bands of kids singing in the camps even through airstrikes. But ongoing Israeli targeting of humanitarian infrastructure and aid workers continues to take a toll. He posted this horrifying video of the state of water, spotted via Delia Arts Foundation. You can read the NGOs and Palestinian civil society with the same reports, but seeing someone you’ve followed in serious pain and seeing the water conditions is something else. “This is madness,” he says:
This comes on the heels of a song that sums up the feeling there pretty well: “I’m fed up.”
Update – here is the latest, Sunday night (after I wrote this article):
Where to support (verified connections)
What you can do is pretty simple: spread the word. Add a little bit of support. (Note how far his fundraiser is from the goal.) Here’s a shared appeal
Artist Amy Grail is also amplifying this and helping to direct PayPal donations.
Any Bandcamp links below help, and you can easily spread those links and encourage other people to support the music, as well.
In addition, there’s this direct fundraising appeal:
It’s worth reading his whole story on that site. His house and his studio and all of the equipment were bombed; his previous life as a composer and guitar instructor for Gaza’s Edward Said Institute of Music were over, and then the real nightmare began – and only gets worse. The guitar you see in the videos is the one musical ite he was able to grab on the run.
This isn’t enough; we need to stop the violence, which means continuing to pressure wherever you can. Understanding Ahmed’s story is a way to help understand the Palestinian story, our involvement, and the necessity for action.
Music
For just a sampling of the music to share, here are some selections; Bandcamp links directly support the artist. (The videos give you some context to what this means.)
I wrote about this project and the collaboration with Amwaj Choir of Bethlehem/Hebron back in December. That had international involvement, too. The whole idea is to see the West Bank and Gaza collectively, not as they’re separated by the occupation, but also to see the rest of the planet the way, too.
Delia Arts Foundation, speaking of collective action, has worked with this emergency shelter in Gaza and its musical activities and also works internationally – including in the Democratic Republic of Congo. See also Delia’s links.
Image at top via the GoFundMe.