Sunday, March 29, 2009

And It's Out of the Music

The Palestinian youth orchestra that serenaded Israeli Holocaust survivors has been roundly condemned by local Palestinian authorities for its trip, and has now officially been disbanded by the local PLO, whose officers claim the Holocaust is "political" and that the children were being "exploited" by the orchestra director.

Khaled Abu Toameh reports:
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."

It was a small good thing. Now, it is just another victory for the forces of hate over the forces of peace.

2 comments:

chingona said...

This seems related, though I thought about posting it in comments on the post above.

A production of Animal Farm in the Jenin refugee camp is well received by some audiences, but threatened with violence, including an attempt to burn down the theater. They originally were going to do "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," but between threats against (your old friend) Mer Khamis and the Gaza campaign, they thought better of it.

(And I apologize if you already posted something on this. When I saw it yesterday, it seemed vaguely familiar, as if I'd seen it discussed somewhere else, but I didn't see it in a quick trip through the last week or so, so ...)

Cory said...

I blogged about this as well.

What struck me the most was the comparison made by West Bank officials between the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I find such comparisons to be frightening in their revisionism--both by exaggerating Israeli actions and by diminishing Nazi ones.