Screenshot by Zoe Broughton

Tonight is the iconic Last Night of the Proms. Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of Rule Britannia, they sang for the people of Gaza.

The composer Malcolm Atkins and I have kicked off

Sing 4 Gaza

in Oxford but it’s something anyone can use anywhere, in a choir, in a group you create, at a football match or just on your own – Sing4Gaza. It’s my dream that people all over the world will SING 4 GAZA. We need to march & protest, but we can Sing 4 Gaza at any time, anywhere without lots of organisation. I sometimes write for the Madras Courier & they kindly published these features. One concerns the bias in British mainstream media. That’s why we have to show that we support the Gazans and what is happening is not in our Name despite our government arming and providing intelligence to Israel and welcoming its President.

https://madrascourier.com/opinion/history-informs-us-that-violence-begets-violence-why-cant-we-learn-from-it (Comparing Palestine with Ireland

https://madrascourier.com/opinion/are-we-sleepwalking-into-world-war-iii/ ( Undermining of the UN by Israel, USA and UK -a danger to world peace)

https://madrascourier.com/opinion/im-ashamed-of-my-government-of-the-bbcs-reporting-on-gaza/

I’ve been consumed by the events in Gaza since the Hamas atrocity as well as  writing about it, I’ve been going on vigils and marches ever since. Malcolm and I recognise that marching is not in everyone’s comfort zone. We hope this is a welcoming way that people of all religions and none can show that they care about the Palestinian people and show solidarity with the tens of thousands of Jewish people who oppose Netanyahu’s war on unarmed Palestinians.

We had no idea if anyone would turn up to the launch in the Quaker Meeting House on Wednesday but, despite the downpour, 22 turned up and apologies were received from a similar number. The fabulous video journalist Zoe Broughton took some photos.

Malcolm has adapted Renaissance, Classical, Arabic and Hebrew chants on a theme of peace in Gaza. Some are simple and can be used on demonstrations and others are more complicated with part singing that will suit choirs.

‘Music has resonated at the heart of protest. Good examples are during the Civil Rights Movement in the USA and Anti -Apartheid struggle in South Africa. I’ve put some of the chants on the Sing 4 Gaza FB page. We hope some choirs may like to use them,’ says Malcolm.  I’ve put some  examples below.

It’s the IDEA that we want to spread. We don’t own it.  Anyone anywhere in the world can sing for Gaza in any language and in any musical form.’

A good example from Wednesday was when the delightful singer Nuzhat Abbas sang a Punjabi poem about love – not romantic love but a passion, which can be passion for a cause.

The evening was enthusiastically received so we have set up a Whats App group and we plan another event in Littlemore, Oxford. We hope singers for Gaza will perform in Bonn Square and the Martyr’s Memorial to engage with the general public.

Above all we want the idea to spread across the country and around the world.