Palestinian kids and Holocaust survivors face the music
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Music, War, coexistence
The Strings of Freedom Orchestra (AP)
It happened last week in Holon, as part of ‘Good Deeds Day,’ an annual event run by an organization connected to Bank Hapoalim heiress and billionaire Shari Arison. The 13 musicians, aged 11 to 18, belong to ‘Strings of Freedom,’ and the survivors are patrons of Holon’s Holocaust Survivors Center.
According to the Associated Press, most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from Jenin, one of the more extremist terror strongholds in the West Bank, and the youths had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide — or even what the Holocaust was.
Some 30 elderly survivors gathered in the center’s hall as teenage boys and girls filed in 30 minutes late — delayed at an Israeli military checkpoint outside their town, they later explained.
Some of the young women wore Muslim head scarves — but also sunglasses and school ties.
As a host announced in Hebrew that the youths were from the Jenin refugee camp, there were gasps and muttering from the crowd. “Jenin?” one woman asked in jaw-dropped surprise.Conductor Wafa Younis, from the Arab village of Ara in Israel, then explained in fluent Hebrew that the youths would sing for peace, prompting the audience to burst into applause.
“Inshallah,” said Sarah Glickman, 68, using the Arabic term for “God willing.”
Glickman, whose family moved to the newly created Jewish state in 1949 after fleeing to Siberia to escape the Nazis, said she had no illusions the encounter would make the children understand the Holocaust. But she said it might make a “small difference.”
“They think we are strangers, because we came from abroad,” Glickman said. “I agree: It’s their land, also. But there was no other option for us after the Holocaust.”
Younis said the main mission of the orchestra, formed seven years ago to help Palestinian children overcome war trauma, was to bring people together.
“I’m here to raise spirits,” Younis said. “These are poor, old people.”
However, back home in Jenin, the event drew strong condemnations from refugee camp leaders and political activists, who accused the organizers of exploiting the children for “political purposes.”
According to The Jerusalem Post, Adnan al-Hinda, director of the Popular Committee for Services in the Jenin refugee camp, said that the participation of the children in the concert was a “dangerous matter” because it was directed against the cultural and national identity of the Palestinians.
He accused “suspicious elements” of being behind the Holon event, saying they were seeking to “impact the national culture of the young generation and cast doubt about the heroism and resistance of the residents of the camp during the Israeli invasion in April 2002.”
Ramzi Fayad, a spokesman for various political factions in the Jenin refugee camp, also condemned the participation of the teenagers in the Holocaust event, saying all the groups were strongly opposed to any form of normalization with Israel.
“There can be no normalization while Israel is continuing to perpetrate massacres against our people,” he said.
Leaflets distributed in the Jenin area over the weekend also attacked the event and accused the organizers of exploiting the children. The leaflets also warned the Palestinians against participating in similar events in the future.
Sources in the camp said that the political factions in Jenin have also decided to ban an Israeli Arab woman who helped organize the event from entering the city.
Fatah activists in the city also filed a complaint with the Palestinian Police against the woman under the pretext that she had misled the children by taking them to the Holocaust event. The activists also sealed an apartment that had been rented out to the woman in the refugee camp.
So, just like most attempts to draw people together here, the Jenin-Holocaust survivors summit seems to have ended on a sour note. But let’s hope the youth orchestra returns to play again, and that some day, a group of young Israeli musicians might even be able to go to Jenin and play some music there, without having to fear for their lives.
Papal baggage
Filed under: History and Culture, Politics, Religion, coexistence
Only two popes have ever visited Israel. In 1964, which was a good 29 years prior to the Vatican’s eventual recognition of Israel as a sovereign state, Pope Paul VI set foot in the Holy Land.
And in 2000, when a pre-intifada Israel seemed poised to position herself as the venue for ushering in a new Millennium of peace and tolerance, Pope John Paul II went on an inspirational whirlwind tour of the land. He held a mass for tens of thousands on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, met with dignitaries and religious leaders from many sectors and even made appearances at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and the Western Wall (pictured).
The Polish-bred, relatively reconciliatory and dovish pontiff made quite an impression, and many felt that the visit represented a landmark in global healing. As John Paul II said in a statement in Jerusalem,
“We know that real peace in the Middle East will come only as a result of mutual understanding and respect between all the peoples of the region: Jews, Christians and Muslims. In this perspective, my pilgrimage is a journey of hope, the hope that the twenty-first century will lead to a new solidarity among the peoples of the world, in the conviction that development, justice and peace will not be attained unless they are attained for all.”
Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a highly comprehensive mini-site aimed at commemorating the occasion, with resources including an extended streaming commemorative video (link towards the top of the main page).
Ha’aretz recently announced that it had discovered plans for the current pontiff, Benedict XVI, to come to Israel this coming May (just a few weeks prior to Bob Dylan’s expected arrival), thanks to an invitation issued by President Shimon Peres.
Apparently the Vatican has yet to confirm Ha’aretz’s announcement, prompting many to wonder what the full story here may be. It might just be a case of bureaucracy needing to work itself out, but the complex context and baggage surrounding the controversial Benedict and his relationship with the Jews and their homeland are undeniable. In the meantime, news site eFluxMedia has done an impressive job of enumerating some of these factors….
[There's] an ongoing controversy over Vatican moves to elevate to sainthood the World War II-era pontiff Pius, who many Jews accuse of failing to speak out against the Nazi mass-murder of Jews, the Holocaust.
The German-born Benedict defended Pius when commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death this year. However, he has put Pius’ beatification – an important step towards sainthood – on hold.
Late last year the Vatican turned down an invitation by Peres to visit the Holy Land in 2008, citing a stall in long-standing negotiations with Israel.
The talks focus on taxation of church property and visas for Catholic clergy – issues that have marred Israel’s relations with the Holy See for decades.
Image courtesy escapedtowisconsin from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
Focusing in on Haifa
Funny what a difference two years makes. In the throes of the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, the northern Israeli city of Haifa is thriving once again. And the proof in the pudding is the 24th Haifa International Film Festival, which is running during the Succot holiday from October 14-21 at the Haifa Cinematheque.
In addition to featuring over 150 films from all over the world, the festival is hosting guests like Jeanne Moreau, star of Truffaut’s Jules et Jim, director Paul Schrader, British actress Kelly Harrison, and Joseph Fiennes, best known for starring in Shakespeare in Love. Fiennes’ latest movie, Spring 41, was directed by Israeli Uri Barbash and is being screened at the festival. Moreau appears in Amos Gitai’s Plus Tard Tu Comprendras (One Day You’ll Understand), a movie about a woman who has kept her past as a Holocaust survivor a secret from her children, and she’ll receive an award at the festival.
The festival opened on Tuesday with the Israeli premier of Woody Allen’s latest offering Vicky Cristina Barcelona, starring Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, and Javier Bardem. Original reported stated that the Woodman would be attending the opening, but alas, it was not to be.
Homegrown talent Ayelet Zurer, known internationally for her role in Steven Spielberg’s Munich, will attend screenings of her new movie, Fugitive Pieces, about a child whose family is killed in Nazi-occupied Poland and grows up longing for his lost sister.
And among the seven Israeli feature films being screened is Castles in the Air, Broken Wings’ director Nir Bergman’s look at a family gathering for their parents’ 35th wedding anniversary. Two films focus on the host city of Haifa and the effects the war had on it – Oren Gvili’s Secured Space looks at how that conflict affects a couple trying to hold its wedding, and Tamar Glezerman’s The Other War follows three women during that conflict.
So while it may rain on in most of the country during ‘hol hamoed’, dampening hikes and camping trips, the screening rooms at the Haifa Cinemateque will be dry, warm and full of provocative films. Thanks to The Jerusalem Post’s Hannah Brown for providing the information on the films.
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