RAMZI Abu Redwan says he remembers waiting in the halls of Al-Fara'a prison as a boy, holding his grandfather's hand and staring up at the walls as he waited to see his father, jailed by Israel. Now, those same walls echo, not with the footsteps of Palestinian prisoners, but with music and children's laughter. The prison, just outside the West Bank city of Nablus, was used in turn by the British, Jordanians and Israelis. It was made into a youth sports center in the 1990s, after limited Palestinian self-rule began in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in a 1967 war. Now, each summer, Abu Redwan turns the facility into a music camp for Palestinian youth from poor families and refugee camps. Abu Redwan is not the only one whose past meets the present in the halls of Al-Fara'a. The parents of some 20 youngsters who have attended the camp have been imprisoned there, and one teacher is a former prisoner. “We're trying to liberate people. We're giving our children a kind of internal freedom,” Abu Redwan said. “Maybe (my generation) didn't have the means of expressing ourselves, but our children will have a different means of resisting occupation that is better, and stronger.” International Instructors His project, called “Al-Kamanjati” (“The Violinist”) offers youngsters musical training from September to June. They are given instruments, and to wrap up the school year, they spend a week at Al-Fara'a and perform in an end-of-session concert. About 25 instructors come from Europe and the United States to participate at the summer camp. Ethan Cardoze, a member of the Paris Orchestral Ensemble, has come to the camp for the past two years. He said he benefits as much from the experience as his pupils. “Each day I'm learning Oriental music, and that's something that makes me richer. I love the freeness (of Oriental music). Western music is really square, with bars, with rhythms. It's very strict. Oriental music is much more supple. You have to listen more, you have to adjust your personal sense of rhythm.” This year, the project will fund a visit to London by 18-year-old Shehadeh Shalady, where he will study violin-making. At the camp, he proudly shows off the first two violins he has made. One has a tiny Palestinian flag painted on it. Asked if he feels strange using a former prison as a music camp, Abu Redwan shook his head. “It's true that this was a prison, but walls don't hurt you. It's the people who use them that do. It's true that this place brings back a lot of memories, but it's great that now we can fill the place with something positive,” he said. The refugee's story Abu Radwan became a symbol of the first Intifada that erupted in the occupied Palestinian territory in the late 1980s when he was caught on film, at the tender age of eight, throwing stones at Israeli army jeeps and soldiers who repeatedly entered Amari refugee camp, Ramallah, in search and arrest campaigns. Today, Ramzi is considered to be among the top Arab violin players, in addition to playing the viola, Oud and Bouzoq. At the age of 16 Ramzi was adopted by the Edward Said Conservatory of Music to study music. Later on he met Mohammad Fadl, a Palestinian musician. Fadl spotted Ramzi's natural talent and with help from Edward Said Conservatory of Music, the young Ramzi went to study music professionally at a music conservatory in the French city of Anger. In 2002, while teaching music at the Edward Said conservatory, Ramzi was invited to perform before Palestinian children traumatized by the ongoing violence. Happy with his performance and while reviewing the children's drawings he was struck by the images of death, blood and destruction. It was then that he decided to form Al-Kamandjati Music Center (al-kamandjati is Arabic for ‘the violin player'). He set up shop in a beautifully restored old building in the city of Ramallah, succeeded in clearing through Israeli customs some two tons of donated musical instruments from France, registered children from the nearby refugee camps and along with a legion of Palestinian and foreign volunteer musicians started teaching music. Not satisfied he branched out and started going to refugee camps outside the city of Ramallah and to border villages and other areas introducing music, music appreciation and how to play the instruments. Today, 350 children train on various musical instruments in Al- Kamandjati center while others shine when singing as part of his singing troupe
