Al-Kamandjati's Journey in Palestine
published by: http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=1040&ed=93



For the third time in a row, a group of 30 persons (musicians, Al-Kamandj coordinators, and movie makers) was in Palestine in order to organize workshops and to perform concerts from the 1st to the 30th of July 2004.On the 15th of July, at around 4 pm, the group arrived to the Abu Dis neighbourhood of Jerusalem for a concert in front of the Wall.

It was hard to describe what we felt in front of this stone monster. Misunderstanding, anger, sadness? The Wall, we are often talking about it, we follow its growing route on a Palestinian map, in the newspapers, on TV, but to see it, touch it, to realize that the human madness is real, one of Al-Kamandjati's coordinators commented. The Wall isn't just a word, it is first and foremost a disastrous situation for many Palestinians. In Abu Dis, the Wall divides the whole city into two parts. It places, for example, Al-Quds University behind the Wall: students who are living on the "wrong" side have to ride or walk for two hours in order to reach their school, instead of the usual 10 minutes.The concert was very moving for many of the artists. Especially for the two German musicians in the group who had experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall 15 years ago.

The workshops that Al-Kamandj has already organized in the Bethlehem area allowed it to create links with two cultural centres (Al-Rowwad and Ibdaa) and with the International Centre of Bethlehem-Dar Annadwa, with the aim of organizing the first music lessons next September.Al-Kamandj hopes that its activities will lead to the substitution of daily violence with dialogue. It would like to see its project joining the efforts of international NGOs and representatives of the Palestinian society who work in the cultural field.

Al-Kamandj wishes to express its thanks to all its partners who made this project possible: the A.M. Qattan Foundation, the Greek Cultural Centre, the Palestine Avenir Foundation, the PRCS, the PYU, Riwaq, the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre, the National Conservatory of Music of Ramallah, the Popular Dance Centre, and all the other cultural centres of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.