Buddies raise almost £3,500 to support starving and ill in Gaza
Organised by Paisley4Palestine, in partnership with The Bungalow and a host of musicians, the gig raised £3,340 for Medical Aid for Palestine
Buddies have helped raise almost £3,500 to support starving and ill Palestinians in Gaza.
Paisley people came together with musicians from across Scotland to stand in solidarity with innocent civilians as part of Gig for Gaza.
Organised by Paisley4Palestine, in partnership with The Bungalow and a host of musicians, the gig raised £3,340 for Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP).
The charity delivers life-saving aid, food and medical supplies to Gazans who now face starvation as well as the daily bombing from Israeli Defence Forces.
The gig, featuring an array of musical talent, was held just days before Israel lifted its blockade on Gaza, which had not received any food, fuel or medical supplies for 11 weeks.
About 130 lorries carrying humanitarian aid have crossed into the Gaza Strip in the past three days.
However the UN says it would need to see 600 trucks – carrying food, medicines, baby food and medical equipment – per day in order to begin tackling Gaza's humanitarian crisis.
John Kelly, a founding member of Paisley 4 Palestine told the Paisley Daily Express: 'All of the artists and The Bungalow gave their time free to this event and Paisley4Palestine are eternally grateful to them all.
'Buddies contributed over £3,000 to MAP, aid which is badly needed as the Israelis continue their relentless assault on the civilian population of Gaza, at the same time as they pursue a colonial settler project in the West Bank.
'Both assaults are in flagrant breach of international law and we once again call upon our political representatives to do all they can to boycott and disinvest from Israel, as the only way to stop the ongoing murderous assaults on innocent people, with the main victims being women and children.
'Paisley4Palestine urge all Buddies to contact their local Westminster MPs calling on them to make their voices heard in defence of the innocents under attack and facing starvation.'
The gig took place last week and saw punk/rap band Aidan and the Outkkasts kick off the show with a blistering performance. Iona Fyfe mixed her own songs of protest with classics in a really heartfelt session which had the crowd in raptures.
SHOUT! had the Bungalow jumping as did Alexx Munro's set, before Howlin' Radio took to the stage with some very well received classic rock.
Special guest 'Replacement Kneecap' –otherwise known as Paisley's own Tannahill Makar Sean – delivered spoken words on the situation across the world but particularly on the role of Zionism in the attacks on Gaza and on the West Bank.
Clydebank singer/songwriter Eddie Reid's voice was impressive as he gave the crowd some lovely, thoughtful and inspirational numbers while Barrhead's Kitti – repeat winner of the best jazz vocalist award at the Scottish Jazz Awards – finished her set with Viva Palestina before making way for radical rockers The Tenementals.
They finished the night off with radical sounds and tales of resistance reflecting the tone of the night.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 53,655 Palestinians and wounded 121,950, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Israel launched its offensive after Hamas killed around 1,200 Israelis and took 250 people hostage in an attack on October 7, 2023.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
3 days ago
- The National
Palestinian jazz singer to share rich musical heritage in Edinburgh
The Manchester-born Palestinian singer Reem Kelani is set to play The Queen's Hall in Edinburgh on June 21 as part of this year's Refugee Week and is aiming to showcase the rich heritage of Palestinian songs. Considered the unofficial musical cultural ambassador for Palestinians in the UK, Reem is a musician who studies the cultural musical heritage of Palestine to help safeguard it as she teaches it to children. 'For me, it's like a manifestation of my being, so it's not that I found this career or this career found me, I was just born with a voice,' she told The National. READ MORE: Europe's first museum of Palestinian art opens in Scotland Reem first started singing at just four years old, her first song was about Palestine. 'It was after what Israel calls the Six Day War, so there was an overwhelming sense of defeat,' she said. Reem said she was standing on a stage singing a song about Jerusalem, and at first everyone seemed very happy, but all of a sudden, they all 'broke into tears'. She added that her four-year-old self was worried that she had a terrible singing voice, but then everyone 'burst into laughter'. Since that day, she said the song has always been associated with Palestine's laughter and tears. Singing is a seminal part of Reem's life, who said she prefers teaching kids about music rather than being on the stage. Originally trained as a biologist, Reem worked for four years in the fields of marine biology, but switched from researching fish to researching traditional songs and teaching them to kids. (Image: Brian Homer) One of Reem's songs, Sprinting Gazelle, is even now taught in the national curriculum in England as she shares her joy of Arabic and Palestinian music with young people. Reem's life is denoted by moments infused with music, as she described another important memory of hers, when she learnt her own cultural identity when she attended a wedding in a small village in Palestine, aged just nine years old. It was the first time she had visited Palestine. Born in Manchester, Reem grew up in Kuwait and said she 'didn't know who she was' until then. 'I can even smell to this day, the food that was being cooked that night, the music, the songs, I was singing, there were all these people,' Reem said. 'In Kuwait, they always have their weddings in hotels, but there, it was in a proper Palestinian village, and everybody was invited. 'There wasn't a Western band with men with bellbottom trousers and beards and mustaches playing Abba and The Beatles,' Reem joked. She added: 'I am just in this village, and to see women the way they were proud of singing and dancing, and it's very much similar to the Scottish women when they're doing the walking songs, that sense of collective just captured me.' Reem has her own connection with Scotland, her father studied as a physician in Glasgow, and she also spent time in Millport while she underwent her own studies. She has since come back numerous times and performed in a variety of shows across Scotland, including at the ever-popular Celtic Connections, and has even taken her music to Stornoway. (Image: Simon Pizzey Photographer) Reem drew parallels with Arabic music and Scottish folk songs, explaining they are both built on modes and not scales, adding that with her performances, there is a 'call and response' type of relationship with her and the audience. 'I just love performing in Scotland and Ireland,' Reem said. 'It's just something about Celtic people. 'It's something about the appreciation of music, the understanding of these notes.' She explained there is a deep sense of connection between Scots and Palestinians when it comes to their culture due to their national instrument – the bagpipe. Reem added that the bagpipe, which is also played in the southwest of Spain, helps to 'unite' the culture between the three. 'It's a very gut feeling inside me that something connects these cultures that they all have the bagpipes in common,' she said. (Image: Supplied) Reem added: 'Before the British mandate, AKA the British occupation, Palestinians had their own indigenous bagpipes, but since then they use the Scottish Highland pipes instead. 'You're talking about kind of the affinity with the kind of the instruments, instead of tartan on the bagpipe, you have the fabric of the Palestinians, the black and white one, or the red and white one.' Reem said she hopes that those who attend her concert in Edinburgh will be transported back to the Palestinian village where she attended a wedding when she was just nine years old through her music. She joked that she is sad she can't provide the wonderful food that was on offer that evening to go alongside the show. 'The wedding speaks of the existence of cultural identity,' Reem said. 'We are here. We've always existed. We are indigenous to the land. 'These are our songs, our dances, our jokes, even our swear words, that are thousands and thousands of years old.'
South Wales Guardian
4 days ago
- South Wales Guardian
Israeli soldiers bar media from West Bank villages on tour by Oscar winners
The directors of the film, which focuses on settler attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory, said they had invited the journalists on the tour on Monday to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area. In video posted on X by the film's co-director Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is 'no passage' in the area because of a military order. Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, said the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit. 'They don't want journalists to visit the villages to meet the residents,' said Mr Adra, who had invited the journalists to his home. 'It's clear they don't want the world to see what is happening here.' Some of the surrounding area, including a collection of small Bedouin villages known as Masafer Yatta, was declared by the military to be a live-fire training zone in the 1980s. About 1,000 Palestinians have remained there despite being ordered out, and journalists, human rights activists and diplomats have visited the villages in the past. Palestinian residents in the area have reported increasing settler violence since October 7 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time. Mr Adra said the journalists were eventually able to enter one of the villages in Masafer Yatta, but were barred from entering Tuwani, the village where he lives, and Khallet A-Daba, where he had hoped to take them. This is one of the main villages you saw in No Other Land. Today it was destroyed by the Israeli army. — Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) May 5, 2025 He said settlers arrived in Khallet A-Daba on Monday and took over some of the caves where villagers now live, destroying residents' belongings. The military demolished much of the village last month. No Other Land, which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. The joint Palestinian-Israeli production was directed by Mr Adra, Hamdan Ballal, another Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, and Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film has won a string of international awards. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution. Israel has built more than 100 settlements, home to over 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The three million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centres.
North Wales Chronicle
4 days ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Israeli soldiers bar media from West Bank villages on tour by Oscar winners
The directors of the film, which focuses on settler attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory, said they had invited the journalists on the tour on Monday to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area. In video posted on X by the film's co-director Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is 'no passage' in the area because of a military order. Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, said the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit. 'They don't want journalists to visit the villages to meet the residents,' said Mr Adra, who had invited the journalists to his home. 'It's clear they don't want the world to see what is happening here.' Some of the surrounding area, including a collection of small Bedouin villages known as Masafer Yatta, was declared by the military to be a live-fire training zone in the 1980s. About 1,000 Palestinians have remained there despite being ordered out, and journalists, human rights activists and diplomats have visited the villages in the past. Palestinian residents in the area have reported increasing settler violence since October 7 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time. Mr Adra said the journalists were eventually able to enter one of the villages in Masafer Yatta, but were barred from entering Tuwani, the village where he lives, and Khallet A-Daba, where he had hoped to take them. This is one of the main villages you saw in No Other Land. Today it was destroyed by the Israeli army. — Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) May 5, 2025 He said settlers arrived in Khallet A-Daba on Monday and took over some of the caves where villagers now live, destroying residents' belongings. The military demolished much of the village last month. No Other Land, which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. The joint Palestinian-Israeli production was directed by Mr Adra, Hamdan Ballal, another Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, and Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The film has won a string of international awards. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three for their future state and view settlement growth as a major obstacle to a two-state solution. Israel has built more than 100 settlements, home to over 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship. The three million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centres.
