Plain talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
For some time now the British press has been occupied with reviews of Daniel Barenboim's performance of Beethoven's Sonata Cycle at the Royal Festival Hall. He performed the sonatas over three weeks, a rare, possibly unique, achievement. The Observer describes it as Barenboim's big adventure and one critic writes that he holds the whole world in his hand.
But who is Barenboim and what, apart from his virtuosity, creates this worldwide interest. One thing is his application for Palestinian citizenship. Here we have a Jewish Argentinian with an Israeli passport applying for Israeli- Palestinian citizenship.
The first time I was introduced to Barenboim was through the late Edward Said during one of his visits to Cairo. He told how, together with an Israeli conductor and pianist, they had founded the East-West Divan, an orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians performing side by side, sharing desks, alternating leadership. Under Barenboim's baton the orchestra has performed in Ramallah in the West Bank. Israel has refused to invite the orchestra. I have to admit that my knowledge of Barenboim's achievements is from what I have read about him in an interview in The Times entitled "Let's all sing the same song of the pianist/conductor". The interview is by Richard Morrison, the music critic of the newspaper. In the interview Barenboim airs his opinions about the Arab Israeli problem. He believes that because of the Holocaust Israel was created hastily, with insufficient thought given to the Palestinian problem. "Don't forget", he says, "Jews were only 15 per cent of the population of Palestine in the 20th century. No wonder that the other 85 per cent didn't look with a benevolent eye on people coming from Ukraine, Iraq or Argentina and claiming the land."
What would Barenboim have done in 1948, asks the interviewer. "Having achieved the state of Israel", he answers, "the Israelis should have been understanding about the Palestinian narrative."
During his performances of Beethoven's Sonata Cycle Barenboim gave a series of lectures at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the new series The Artist as a Leader. The series aims to explore the quasi-political power of the arts to help solve global problems. In The Observer, Anthony Holden writes about Barenboim: "This is a performer who uses his eminence as a musician to give politicians master classes about how they can and should work. Talking about the East/West Divan, Barenboim says that an orchestra is the perfect forum to illustrate that "self-expression is best achieved by listening to others".
"There is no way Israel will deal with the Palestinians," he goes on to say "until one Israeli leader accepts the responsibility for Palestinian suffering."
Apart from the Divan, Barenboim started a foundation that has established a conservatoire for Palestinians living in Israel and pays for music teachers to work in the occupied territories. He has also financed musical research on both sides of the disputed borders. Talking to an audience in Ramallah he said "either we kill each other or we share what there is to share". The East-West Divan has been called "one orchestra for peace"; he prefers to call it "an orchestra against ignorance".
In his interview with Richard Morrison he said he will continue his crusade to forge cultural links between Jews and Palestinians. Defying Israeli government pressure and the denunciation of some Zionists, he has embarked on master classes and recitals with Palestinian students.
"I come across many people in Tel Aviv who are oblivious of what's going on in the West Bank, as though it was a place beyond Vietnam. Yet it is so close. Ironically the concert halls in Tel Aviv and Ramallah both have the same name, the Palace of Culture," he points out. "I recently drove from one Palace of Culture to the other in 35 minutes," he says "That's why I say that Jews and Palestinians must start to understand each other."
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/894/cu23.htm