Standing Together Vienna

“The most terrible thing in this war is the sound of the drones. It’s with you all night and day, buzzing like your mind is about to explode.”
This is a quote by Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha, who was a music teacher at the Edward Said Conservatory, before the genocide changed everything. He has been displaced almost thirty times.
I will let Ahmed’s words speak for themselves: “My deepest wish is to live in a safe place with my family where I can continue my musical and humanitarian work freely. I dream of sharing our music with the world, travelling, performing, and being a voice of beauty from Gaza, not a voice of war.
We don’t carry weapons, we carry melodies.
We don’t spread hate - we spread love. We believe the world can be a better place if only it would listen to the voice of art.”
While in a displacement camp, someone gave Ahmed a guitar. He began to sing with the children there. When the camp manager told him: “We need food and water; music doesn’t do anything, “ Ahmed replied, “No, we are going to make a change,” and created “The Gaza Birds Singing” with displaced children and other music teachers.
Among the many terrible things people in Gaza live through is the constant sound of drones. “Day and night, buzzing like your mind is about to explode,” Ahmed said. Because it is impossible to escape this terrible sound, Ahmed had the idea to sing with the drones; to turn the worst thing in this war into something beautiful.
That’s how Sheel, Sheel ya Jamal Sheel, the song that was just played, was adapted to accompany the sound of war. Musicians around the world have sung it too, to show Ahmed, his students, and Gaza that the world sees them, that the world hears them, and that the world stands with them.
That’s what we aim to do today. By performing our version of this song, with a sustained note echoing the drones, we send to Palestine not just our support, but also our solidarity and love.
Art and culture are essential to life. They shape communities, nourish the human spirit, and most importantly, are a powerful weapon of resistance. Oppression and violence may try to destroy them, but they can never fully silence them. We stand against such devastation.