A Way to Remain Alive

In 2005, a Belgian NGO came to Ramallah with a truck full of musical instruments to donate to the city’s nonprofit music school, ​​Al Kamandjati (“The Violinist”). One of the boys who helped to unload the violins, violas, cellos, double-basses, and guitars was 15-year-old Shehada Shalalda, who lived in the neighborhood. It was an innocuous moment that changed the course of his life. Growing up during the Second Intifada, he didn’t think he would reach adulthood. When he encountered the work of the luthiers who traveled from Europe to Palestine to repair instruments for Al Kamandjati, he found “a way to remain alive.” 

Now 33, Shalalda still works around the corner from Al Kamandjati as Ramallah’s only luthier specializing in western string instruments (others handle instruments like the oud, but—as Shelalda explains—its rounded body makes it a completely different animal). He’s about an hour-long drive from the Gaza Strip, and while the majority of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attacks have centered on Gaza in the last eight weeks, the West Bank has also faced increased violence even before October 7. In June, the UN estimated that 2023 would be the deadliest year on record for residents of the West Bank since the organization began recording casualties in 2005. 

I spoke with Shalalda from his workshop in Ramallah on a relatively quiet afternoon, punctuated by the mid-afternoon call to prayer and a customer’s visit.