Japanese grand piano, gifted to Arafat in 1997, plays on in Gaza
The Yamaha grand piano that Japan gave to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1997 returns to make music again after being exposed to three devastating wars.
In 1997, the Japanese government offered a grand piano, a product of the Japanese company Yamaha, as a gift to late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, in addition to other musical instruments, such as a cello, violin, clarinet, saxophone, and other aerophone and percussion instruments to entrench Palestinians’ cultural values, including music, three years after the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994.
Yamaha is one of the largest musical instruments’ manufacturing companies in the world, and its products are distinguished by tradition and luxury. It is based in the Japanese city of Hamamatsu.
Due to its large size and cultural symbolism, the grand piano was placed in the Roman theater inside al-Nawras resort in the northern Gaza Strip in 1997. The piano survived the bombing of the Roman theater in three devastating Israeli military operations in 2008, 2012 and 2014.
The Belgian Music Fund mission headed by Lukas Pairon, which is specialized in maintaining musical instruments, has maintained the grand piano several times. Yamaha conducted maintenance on the piano in 2018.
