Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha, Music Teacher
"In the middle of this war and this madness, there is a flower inside the fire”
“After a while, they respect what I’m doing. They’re shocked that in the middle of this war and this madness, there is a flower inside the fire” – Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha, interviewed by Al Jazeera
I remember when I was preparing for the launch of Imago Palestina’s second magazine volume, as I was going over the footage that my Gazan friend Rabie had sent me to a company his message (as he could no longer send a video because of the escalated siege) and I heard the buzzing for the first time. I opened one of the videos and watched as he pointed the camera at various landmarks, but in the background, there was this constant hum. He didn’t remark on it in the video—it wasn’t what he was trying to show me—but I thought I knew what it was. I sent a message back.
“Rabie, is that the sound of the drones?”
For the past 2 years of this genocide, Israel has flown both winged and quadcopter drones non-stop through the skies of Gaza. You may remember these as the precision weapons which were used to kill Mahmoud Almadhoun of Gaza Soup Kitchen and injure Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya during Israel’s extermination campaign in the north of Gaza. Even during the ceasefire, one of Israel’s many violations was that it’s drones still flew, still stalked the skies, still buzzed and buzzed and buzzed.
Can you imagine having that incessant hum blaring at you from the sky at all hours of the day? To call it torturous is not an exaggeration—psychiatrist Mahmoud Siyam has argued that the constant drone flights create “psychological pressure on everyone,” making them “feel extreme anxiety and lose their ability to concentrate.” And beyond just the buzzing, Israel has also used quadcopters equipped with speakers to transmit distressing sounds of “dogs savaging children, terrifying screams of children in pain, desperate cries from elderly people, and women ululating in grief,” according to the EuroMed Monitor. “These tactics have deeply damaged both individual and collective mental health, exacerbating chronic fear among the population, particularly women and children.”
But I’m not here today to tell you all about this horrid sound. I’m here to introduce you to the man who was able to make music out of it.
Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha is a music teacher from Gaza. Before the genocide he taught guitar performance and music production at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, but since Israel’s bombardment began, he and his family have been thrown out of their home into the thrum of perpetual displacement. One day, in a tent shelter far from his classroom or studio, his friend found him a guitar and told him to play. That tether gave him the inspiration to found “Gaza Birds Singing”—an ensemble formed of children and other music educators from Gaza’s refugee camps—and spread the joyful and healing power of music throughout his community.
Ahmed and the Gaza Birds Singing went viral earlier this month for using this power to turn the droning sounds of Israel’s war machines into music. If you haven’t seen the video, you can watch it here (and I highly recommend that you do, because it gives me goosebumps every time I hear it). To hear him tell it:
“The kids, they told me, ‘Mister, we have a headache from this noise. Can we stop the music?’
“I told them, ‘No, we’re going to sing. And we’re going to sing with it…Concentrate for the sound of the drone. It’s going to be A or E’…So this is the idea of the song: that we’re going to make the baddest sound in this war into something beautiful” (Al Jazeera, Sept 1)
As a Christian, Ahmed’s words—both the ones you just read and the ones with which I opened this introduction—ring especially brightly to me. I can’t help but think of three other young men pushed out of their homes and thrown into a fire, only to find beautiful company. Or of Joseph, sold out by those he once trusted, faced with degradation after degradation, who in the end praised God for his ability to draw good out of evil.
But before we are tempted to see this as an “all things happen for a reason situation,” let’s not kid ourselves. There is no overstating the evil and depravity that Israel and its Western allies are currently inflicting on Ahmed and our other neighbors and Gaza. Israel continues to bombard Gaza City from the sky, on the ground, and even through the use of remote detonated explosive vehicles, with the clear intent of ethnically cleansing the city and “finishing the job,” as Netanyahu brazenly proclaimed to the United Nations this week. Let us not forget that the relentless hum of the drones is still accompanied by the whizzing of airstrikes and the cries of mangled children.
In this light, Ahmed and his song of resistance show a faith that all our hymns rarely capture. It celebrates beauty while acknowledging and subverting, but never disregarding, the reality of suffering.
Music is such a fundamental piece of our humanity. For as long as we have had lungs to sing with and something hollow to slap, we’ve been joining with our neighbors to make something beautiful together, even if it only lasts a moment. According to Ahmed, many were puzzled when he chose to sing, even when he didn’t have enough to eat. What he understood, and what they later came to as well, was how much dignity and humanity that can be reinforced by voices drawn together in harmony.
I think of the song that grew from the women of the 1912 Lawrence textile strike, its word reminding: “hearts can starve as well as bodies. Give us bread but give us roses.” We can never allow the hum of the drone—or the grim rhythm of the artillery or the choir of starving voices—to become the familiar background tone of our lives. We must end the genocide. We must challenge our countries’ complicity. We must bring down the occupation’s walls. But we must not disregard the roses, especially when they bloom through the flames.
“We don’t carry weapons — we carry melodies. We don’t spread hate — we spread love. We believe the world can be a better place, if only it listens to the voice of art.” – Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha
With your heart: Lord of spirit and song, you hear us when we join that’s a beautiful choir and when we cry out in the depths of our loneliness. We pray for Ahmed as he uses his creativity and compassion to pluck life out of death. Protect and strengthen him, even as he pours his strength into protecting the hearts and dignity of his neighbors. End this genocide, end this occupation, and overcome all evil with your song of liberation. Give us bread but give us roses.
With your voice: MP Jenny Kwan has announced the “No More Loopholes” bill to end Canadian weapons shipments to Israel that go through the USA. Contact your MP today and tell them that you expect their support for this vital legislation
With your hands: Support Ahmed and Gaza Birds Singing by contributing to his GoFundMe fundraiser or purchasing their music at SongsFromTheRubble.Bandcamp.com
Join the Palestinian Youth Movement for the “Rise Up for Gaza” mass mobilization on October 4 at Sankofa (Yonge & Dundas) Square, 2pm
Most relevant first, then organized chronologically with regards to the main text. Resources linked in the text are denoted with a ❦
Visit Ahmed’s website at SongsFromTheRubble.com
Follow Ahmed on social media at @AhmedMuin_AbuAmsha (Instagram), @AhmedMuin (TikTok), @ahmed.abuamsha (Facebook), and @ahmadmuin659 (YouTube)
Find Ahmed’s music on Bandcamp, Tidal, Spotify, and Apple Music
Support Ahmed and the Gaza Birds Singing by donating to their GoFundMe
“Meet the Gaza music teacher behind viral drone song” video at Al Jazeera, September 1, 2025 ❦
“Instead of Birds, Gazans Wake up to Zanana” by Valerie Wiggin on Medium, March 4, 2024
“Always on edge” by Amjad Ayman Yaghi at Electronic Intifada, August 26, 2020 ❦
“Israel intensifies use of quadcopters to terrorise and target civilians in Gaza, with terrifying sounds and home invasions” press release by EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, June 1, 2025 ❦
“Israeli army detonates 17 booby-trapped vehicles daily in Gaza City, each equivalent to a 3.7-magnitude earthquake” press release by EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, September 21, 2025
“Netanyahu vows to ‘finish job’ in Gaza during UN speech as delegates walk out” by Andrew Roth at the Guardian, September 26, 2025
Other neighbours mentioned (or linked to) in this word of introduction:
This is so very beautiful Sven! Thank you so much for sharing Ahmed’s and his students’ story.