Hamas bans music in Gazastan

Actually, not all music. But you can no longer play the violin, the piano, or the flute.

I lead a group of 26 musicians – we play traditional Palestinian music. But for the last two months we haven’t been able to work.

This group, Hamas, believe they are the leaders of Islam. The violin, piano, flute, all these instruments are banned. Only the drum is allowed. They say any other instrument is not mentioned in the Koran.

[…] Hamas have already beaten one of my singers for singing for Fatah. He was attacked at the wedding where he went to perform.

We had to send him to Israel for hospital treatment.

We have to keep our traditional music because it is Palestinian. People without traditions are not civilised, they are nothing.

But hey, the other two Palestinians on the BBC website say that life in Hamas is okay. It’s the evil Israelis who are behind all the misery.

The Western media try to paint Hamas as the source of all evil. But Hamas are Palestinians as well. They are not strangers from another planet.

A friend of mine had his wedding party a few days ago. It was mixed male and female, not a traditional wedding. It went ahead as normal, so our way of life has not changed.

However, since the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped [last year] we have had less electricity. We only get between 12 and 14 hours a day.

We get it from an Israeli company and Israel decrees how much electricity we need – they want to make us suffer.

Uh-huh. They want to make you suffer. That’s why they supply electricity at all. The cognitive dissonance of the eternal Palestinian victimhood survives.