AP
|
| By: Associated Press |
| Published: December 29, 2004 |
| |
A Palestinian whose violin performance at a West Bank checkpoint embarrassed the military, angered Palestinians and upset some Israelis said Tuesday that he has found goodwill at an Israeli kibbutz which invited him to take some lessons there.
Wissem Tayem, 29, was speaking in an interview with The Associated Press after spending three days as the guest of Israelis at a music workshop on a kibbutz communal farm in the hills of the Galilee.
"They gave me a wonderful, warm reception," Tayem said of his kibbutz hosts. "Everyone was lovely, in this kibbutz they treat people with respect no matter who they are."
During a three-day visit, he attended violin lessons, had experts repair his fiddle and was invited into the homes of kibbutz families. Tayem, however, said that it didn't take his long weekend at Kibbutz Eilon to show him that not all Israelis are hostile toward Palestinians.
"I knew that before," he said. "Even at the checkpoints, some of the soldiers are not bad, but those who treated me badly, I hate them."
Tayem, a third-year music student at A-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus, lives with his ailing, widowed mother in the nearby A-Fara refugee camp.
On Nov. 9 he was passing through a military checkpoint at the village of Beit Iba, on his way home from the city.
"I saw my friends being turned back, the troops were in a bad mood and I was afraid of them," he said Tuesday in an interview at the university.
"An officer came past and told me to open my violin case, which I did. Then he asked me to play, to play something sad. I was afraid to say no, so I played a sad Arab melody called 'Hijazi' for about three minutes," Tayem recalled.
"The soldiers laughed at me and I felt shamed, dishonored," he added. "At that moment I remembered what happened to the Jews in Germany when they were also humiliated."
The military at first said that soldiers involved had been reprimanded over the incident, then five days later backtracked and denied that Tayem had been forced to play, albeit adding that troops acted with a lack of sensitivity in not stopping him.
During more than four years of fighting between Palestinians and Israelis, the Israeli army has set up dozens of checkpoints throughout the West Bank, saying they are needed to prevent Palestinian attackers from reaching Israeli targets.
The roadblocks are sources of constant friction between harried young army recruits and large crowds of frustrated and angry Palestinians, who are often held up for hours. The Palestinians say the roadblocks are a form of collective punishment, meant to crush their spirits.
The Beit Iba incident was filmed by Israeli peace activists who regularly monitor roadblocks and the film was played extensively on Israeli TV. It touched raw nerves in an Israeli audience steeped in memories of the Nazi holocaust and the acts of degradation, large and small, heaped daily on the Jews of Europe.
Among those watching the news footage were members of Keshet Eilon, a nonprofit musical outreach organization based on the kibbutz.
Keshet is the Hebrew word for the bow of a violin, but also an archway. Keshet Eilon's managing director, Gilad Sheba, says the project, started to help ease the pangs of relocation for Russian-speaking immigrants to Israel, has become a portal for communication between cultures, "a real melting pot."
"We have for some time been trying to invite a player from the Arab world," Sheba said. "We approached a violinist from Lebanon and he got cold feet, the same happened in Egypt and Jordan."
Watching Tayem perform on TV news, Sheba and his colleagues saw an opportunity to cross a cultural bridge.
"We wanted to show him that Israel is not just about terror and violence, that you can also find warmth and good people," he said. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
