We are San Ghanny which means ‘We Shall Sing’ in Arabic. We came together to travel to the West Bank, to meet people and learn of their day to day experience under occupation and to sing in solidarity with them. We went first in 2012 and again in 2017
Our overwhelming experience in both trips was of the generosity, energy, commitment and soumoud (steadfastness) of those involved in the nonviolent resistance to the occupation. When we asked them what we could do to support them, they said go back and tell people what is happening here. We promised them that when we returned we would tell their stories.
Open Shuhada Street solidarity singing, Feb 2023
Flyer with more info about what’s happening in Palestine just now, and what you can do to support.
Grape Vines for Palestinian Farmers
This spring we are collecting donations to support Palestinian farmers living in the West Bank (in Israeli controlled ‘Area C’) who are part of the Popular Struggle Committee.
These farmers have begun to plant grapes to protect their land and resist incursions by nearby illegal Israeli settlements as well as receive much needed income. They seek support for their campaign to purchase and plant an additional 500 vines.
If you would like to make a donation, please email sanghanny@gmail.com and we’ll send you our bank details. All donations will go directly to support Palestinian farmers.
We will send the money on April 18th 2022, so there are two weeks to donate.
Abu Dia’: The Story of a Palestinian Farmer
San Ghanny choir have recently supported a young activist living in the Bethlehem Hills to make his first short film. The film tells the story of Abu Dia’, a farmer who, despite the occupation and Israeli settlers trying to remove him, remains living on his land. The premiere will include a Q&A with the filmmaker, Mohamad Zwahre, and his father, activist Mahmoud Zwahre. All welcome. The session is free, though we will be taking donations to buy seeds and saplings for Palestinian farmers living and working in the same area of the West Bank. Info above.
The premiere of this film took place on Sunday March 27th, 2022. If you are interested in showing this 10 minute film, please contact Mohamad at mzwahra1@gmail.com.
1001 Olive Trees: Tales of Resistance
Following our second trip to Palestine in 2017, we produced a book of our experiences and reflections. It includes a CD of some of the songs that we sang in Palestine and that we sing here.
If you would like a copy of the book, you can order one by contacting me.
ISBN: 978-1-9999114-0-9
Telling Stories of Palestine
Over the last 7 years, we have been telling the stories of the people we met and of their lives, illustrating them with photographs taken on our trips there. Together with this we sing the songs we sang when there: songs drawn from the South African anti apartheid struggle, songs drawn from the US civil rights struggle, traditional Palestinian songs and songs protesting the occupation and support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. https://bdsmovement.net/
We have done this in community centres, church halls and theatres in many parts of Scotland. We are completely self financing. We sometimes raise money at our performances and all of that money goes back to people and projects we were and are in contact with in Palestine.
If you would be interested in San Ghanny doing an event in your area, please do contact us at sanghanny@gmail.com
We also join with others in solidarity actions to support the non-violent resistance to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, again using our songs to boost the impact of the action.
Some examples of this include:
Ya Gaza – we made this video in June 2021, following the most recent bombardment of Gaza. It is a love letter from Edinburgh to Gaza.
Open Shuhada Street. We engage in public actions every February in solidarity with activists in Hebron. Read more here: www.friendsofhebron.com/openshuhadastreet.
Cultural Boycott street singing to support the boycott of the Israel based Eurovision Song Contest:
We Stand With You, Sending love and solidarity to our friends in Palestine:
Balfour – acknowledging our role in the historic and ongoing oppression of Palestine:
Heroes and Martyrs, a poem written and shared by one of our singers, Margaret, in solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli prisons:
BDS demonstration outside and inside Barclay’s Bank:
You can hear a short extract from our shared experience of singing in solidarity with Palestinian villagers on a protest in Nabi Saleh in the West Bank on the BBC radio programme Short Cuts. Our story begins at 23 minutes into the episode entitled ‘restistance’.
Penny Stone 