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December 28th, 2021 
Awake Goy Despite the long lasting calamities of the Gaza Strip and the unbearable conditions of life caused by the Israeli occupation’s siege, the unquenched thirst of the Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip for making life and resisting distress through love, music, and mirth, led a group of them to win several first places in the 2021 Palestine National Music Competition.
In December every year, Edward Said National Conservatory Institute organizes the Palestine National Music Competition for playing, singing and composing. It is an open competition for Palestinian musicians, singers and composers that aims at motivating talented musicians, singers and composers and appreciating their creativity, performance and artistic achievements. The competition is organized centrally in Jerusalem, and competitors can share via video conference from Ramallah, Gaza and the countries of the diaspora, and the competition continues for a week from the start date.
Top Left: Siraj El-Sersawy, Top Right: Mohammed Shoman, Lower Right: Mohamed Saad, Bottom: Bashir Al-Ayoubi
(All photos: Ismail Dawoud)
The Palestine National Music Competition is considered one of the most specialized and comprehensive music competitions in Palestine and the Arab world. Palestinian children and youth participants are divided into groups according to their age groups, and according to the competition sections, which include most musical instruments of Arab music, Western instruments, singing, bands, and musical composition.
The organizers have always been keen to organize the competition with the highest musical standards used in international competitions, and therefore recruited international musicians and specialists to form the competition’s jury committees in all sections. With the challenges and current conditions that Palestine in general and the Gaza Strip in particular witness due to closures caused by the two pandemics; the Israeli occupation and Covid-19, the institute continued to perform the competition in West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
This year on the 6th of December, the competition started both in Gaza and the West Bank, and I had the chance to witness bits and pieces of this amazing competition with Dr. Ismail Dawoud, the chairman of Edward Said National Conservatory Institute. I had unfathomable pleasure seeing these little hands playing love songs and music on their instruments in clear persistence to carry on living to the best of their own capacity, and as natural as any other kids on this planet. I felt they constituted a choir of unequaled talented children playing a chorale for life and happiness.
The results of the competition were even more surprising to me than the excellent playing. Most first places were won by the players and bands from the Gaza Strip. The first prize winners in Solo from Gaza were:
Guitar: Mohamed Shoman
Qanun instrument: Rima Al-Habbash
Qanun instrument: Firas Al-Sharafi
Oud (Lute): Siraj El-Sersawy
Ney (end-blown flute): Bashir Al-Ayoubi (second place)
In band playing: Tartim band ranked first
I asked Dr. Dawoud for the possible explanation of winning the first places despite the rarity of resources in the Gaza Strip. He said, “This is attributable to the students’ interest in acquiring first places, achieving excellence and raising high the name of Gaza as a Palestinian city that knows music, art, and culture as it knows aggressions, death and sounds of shells and canons.” He continued, “The small area of the besieged Gaza Strip, the lack of entertainment facilities and places, and difficulty of traveling out of the Strip make students invest their time with training, hard work and diligence; playing and singing. They are also trained and supervised by specialized and experienced academic professors with experience in playing musical instruments and singing. They meet on many occasions and play collectively which also develops their abilities.” “We should not forget the support of parents;” he said, “especially when participating in national competitions that offer financial prizes.”
Notwithstanding the convincing answer of Dr. Dawoud, I still have my own speculations about the reason of such effort made by children in Gaza to win in the National Competition. Music, as far as I think, to such a group of Gazan children is more than a collection of melodies to be played on musical instruments; it is a way of survival, it has a healing effect as a treatment that soothes the injuries of life in Gaza. It is a method for eliminating the risks of depression, reducing physical pain, and increasing motivation. This is, probably, the reason behind the children’s performance in the Palestine National Music competition; as if they try to prove, somehow, and by playing music, that they are in favor of life under the death of the Israeli occupation, and in favor of happiness despite the anguish, pain, and suffering afflicting their families and homeland.
Ayman H. El-Hallaq
Ayman H. El-Hallaq is an Associate Professor in English literature and critical theory at the Islamic University of Gaza. He graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and published a book on 19th Subjective Realism in George Eliot’s literature, and many academic articles in international SCOPUS peer-viewed journals.
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