Why the Strings of Peace were silenced by Karin Kloosterman

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Why the Strings of Peace were silenced

by Karin Kloosterman

23 April 2009

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TEL AVIV – Scanning through the weekend news looking for ideas, a New York Times story caught my eye. Beyond all the expected political rhetoric, Palestinian kids from the West Bank town of Jenin had played a concert for Holocaust survivors in Holon, outside of Tel Aviv. My heart jumped with happiness.

If you are reading this from the comfort of your multicultural cities in Berlin, Toronto or New York, you might have read the same headline, yawned and flipped the page. Arab kids playing classical music for some old Jewish fogies in Israel - what’s the big deal?

But in the context of the bitter divide between Israelis and Palestinians, this is was indeed unique.

Palestinian teens from Jenin, under the guidance of their Israeli Arab music teacher, had come to play for Holocaust survivors in Israel with no strings attached.

The story began three years ago when Wafa Younis, a 52-year-old music teacher from northern Israel, decided she would show Palestinian children the virtues of playing music. She called the group Strings of Peace.

Her Israeli citizenship meant she could pass freely between the West Bank and Israel. After the rehearsals, parents signed forms, and entry permits to Israel were arranged. The kids had already played a couple of shows in Israel before the mid-March annual Good Deeds Day performance. In attendance was the day’s benefactor, the wealthiest woman in the Middle East – Shari Arison, who danced to their music. The audience included elderly Arab-Israeli citizens and Jewish-Israeli Holocaust survivors.

Most Palestinian kids have no idea what the Holocaust is or means in the Israeli collective identity, while most Israelis have no idea what life is like in the occupied Palestinian territories. This was a genuine opportunity for both sides to learn about each other and see the humanity in the other.

And all would have gone off without a hitch if Hamas leaders in the West Bank hadn’t heard about the show and then spun the Holocaust into another political issue. Their leadership quickly dashed any chance those Palestinian kids had to be heroes; their parents quickly showed allegiance to the authorities and provided the requisite death threats to their kids’ much-loved teacher.

A week later, Strings of Peace was disbanded, their rehearsal room boarded up and money to support them seized. Younis is back in Israel. Worst of all, the kids’ instruments were taken away, report media outlets.

“Hamas accused us of normalization activities, of identifying with the enemy, so we were forced to expel Younis. The subject is now closed,” said a Fatah official.

Another Palestinian political leader, Adnan Hindi, said that creating a bridge for peace with Holocaust survivors was too wide a divide for the West Bank kids to cross. The kids had been “tricked” into playing for Israelis, he said, adding that the Holocaust was a political issue.

"If I had known this was a political excursion, I would not have let my son go,” said a father of one of the kids.

Of course he’d say something like that. It’s risky business allowing your kids to go against the norm, to make peaceful gestures to the enemy. Living in the West Bank or Gaza today is not much different from living in communist Russia, or what being stranded on the metaphorical Lord of the Flies island must have been like. Groupthink prevails over individuality, the emotional over the rational.

In this environment, it’s almost impossible to stand up and make sincere gestures of peace with Israel. Doing so could lead to fatal consequences. This makes the actions of the children and teacher of Strings of Peace even more remarkable.

In the movie The Pianist, the Jewish protagonist hiding from the Nazis next door finds solace, and a way to keep the music playing. Despite not being able to strike one key, a symphony comes to life in his head as his fingers gently sweep the air above the keyboard.

Can the kids in Jenin do the same, and let the music in their hearts and minds keep playing to trump hate and ignorance? If so, they’ll be my heroes forever.

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* Karin Kloosterman is an Israeli-based journalist, editor and blogger from Canada. She is currently building greenprophet.com, the only environment news site focusing on the Middle East. Karin writes commentary at two of the world’s most popular blogs, and is an associate editor at the beyond-the-conflict news source, ISRAEL21c.org. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 23 April 2009, www.commongroundnews.org.
Copyright permission is granted for publication.


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