Gaza’s only grand piano makes public comeback

The only grand piano in the Gaza Strip has been played in public for the first time in a decade – after a complicated international restoration effort to fix the instrument which was nearly destroyed in an Israeli airstrike.

About 300 fans attended the performance, staring in awed silence as Japanese and local artists performed. For many, Sunday’s concert was the first time they had heard a piano performed live.

“Playing this piano is feeling like playing history,” said Japanese pianist Kaoru Imahigashi. “It’s amazing. I felt the prayer of peace for many people.”

The piano’s story goes back many years, mirroring in many ways the story of Gaza.

The Japanese government donated the piano some 20 years ago, following interim peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians. At the time, Gaza was envisioned as becoming the Singapore of the Middle East.

Fayez Sersawi, a Culture Ministry official, was responsible for receiving the piano, which was placed at a large theatre in the newly built al-Nawras resort in northern Gaza. He said music festivals were a regular activity before the beginning of the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 2000.

In 2007, the resort closed the theatre and swimming pool and scaled down most activities after Hamas, an Islamic militant group, took control of Gaza by force after winning legislative elections. Under Hamas rule, many forms of public entertainment, including bars, movie theatres and concert halls, have been shuttered.

Read the article in The Sydney Morning Herald (AP).