Musicians raise their voices in song to help children in Gaza

Proceeds from the album ‘2 Unite All’ will support humanitarian relief for Palestinians. The album, featuring the likes of Roger Waters and Peter Gabriel, has themes of unity, forgiveness, and starting over.

|
Andy Kropa/Invision/AP/File
Peter Gabriel appears in the press room at the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York, April, 10, 2014. Mr. Gabriel participated in the ‘2 Unite All’ album.

“Open up your heart and mind and just listen,” singer Philip Lawrence crooned against a gentle piano accompaniment before slipping into a falsetto sigh during a performance at Los Angeles nightspot The Study late last month.

Lawrence – part of Bruno Mars’ songwriting trio The Smeezingtons – has helped pen hits such as Flo Rida’s “Right Round” and Snoop Dogg’s “Young, Wild, and Free.” Rather than encouraging people to tear up the dance floor or smoke weed, the singer-songwriter hopes his new tune, “Begin Again,” will inspire peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Lawrence’s song is one of 30 original compositions on the benefit album “2 Unite All,” which was released last month. The album enlists legendary talents like Roger Waters and Peter Gabriel to deliver music with themes of unity, forgiveness, and starting over. The event at The Study also included performances from other artists on the album, including Iranian Sufi singer Sussan Deyhim, composer and Flamenco guitarist Fritz Heede, and organist Christoph Bull, showcasing the wide range of musical styles on “2 Unite All.”

“I’m humbled to be a part of this album and to really just take pause and reflect on what else is going on in the world,” Lawrence said before his performance. “It’s very easy to think that [the] world revolves around yourself, and it does not.”

Proceeds from the album support peace initiatives in the Middle East, along with psychological support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Steve Robertson, the album’s producer and founder of L.A.-based humanitarian group Project Peace on Earth, felt compelled to bring PTSD counselors to Gaza in 2014, when conflict escalated between Hamas and Israeli forces in the western slice of land that borders the Mediterranean Sea. Roughly 2,000 Palestinians and 70 Israelis were killed in 50 days of violence.

At the Hollywood event, Robertson explained that he had heard a story on the news about a four-year-old girl in Gaza who was fighting for her life after a bombing. Robertson became teary-eyed as he recounted that even if the child survived, she’d be on her own, as her entire family had been killed in the bombing. He knew he had to act.

“All of these children are ours,” Robertson said. “They’re looking up to us to take care of them, to protect them, to think like sane and kind human beings.”

For the 1.2 million Palestinians who live there, life in the Gaza Strip is difficult. Although Israeli forces do not live in Gaza, they control the border, restricting travel and the import of goods and resources. Unemployment is high, power outages are frequent, and about 80 percent of Palestinians rely on assistance from international aid agencies to survive.

Shymaa, the girl who inspired Robertson, did survive. He located her nearly a year after hearing her story. Shymaa’s voice is featured on the album on the song “We Are the Ones” as part of the Gaza Children’s Choir.

Album sales will fuel National Center for Community Rehabilitation, an NGO that helps children like Shymaa recover from both emotional and physical war wounds. While funding is crucial, Robertson believes that simply listening to the music can have an impact.

“If we know one thing, there is no greater path to inspire people to a way to peace than music,” he said.

“Buy a song, buy an album, tell a friend,” Robertson urged the crowd. “If we can bring peace there between Palestine and Israel, there’s no question that we can bring peace to the world.”

Samantha Cowan is an associate editor for culture at TakePart.

This article originally appeared at TakePart, a leading source of socially relevant news, features, opinion, entertainment, and information – all focused on the issues that shape our lives.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Musicians raise their voices in song to help children in Gaza
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2016/0518/Musicians-raise-their-voices-in-song-to-help-children-in-Gaza
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe