JERUSALEM — Palestinian political activists from the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Sunday condemned a camp youth orchestra’s performance for Holocaust survivors in Israel last week, and said they were banning the orchestra’s director, an Israeli Arab woman, from entering the camp.
In an unusual, almost surreal encounter, a group of 13 young musicians from the Jenin camp, ages 12 to 17, played Wednesday for about 30 elderly Holocaust survivors at a social club in the Israeli town of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv. The hourlong concert was a central event of Israel’s annual Good Deeds Day, sponsored by an Israeli billionaire.
Adnan al-Hindi, the leader of the camp’s Popular Committee, a grass-roots group representing the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the young musicians had been exploited by the orchestra director, Wafaa Younis, for the purpose of “normalizing” ties with Israel. He said by telephone that the children had been “deceived” and dragged unwittingly into a political situation that “served enemy interests” and aimed to “destroy the Palestinian national spirit in the camp.”
“It was a shock and a surprise to the children and their relatives,” he said, adding that Ms. Younis had told the young musicians’ families only that the trip to Holon was an opportunity for artistic self-expression.
Ms. Younis, from central Israel, has been traveling to Jenin every week for several years to teach music in the camp. Mr. Hindi said that the house she rented as a studio had been sealed, and that she was barred by the Popular Committee from all activity in the camp.
Ms. Younis accused camp officials of wanting to take over the orchestra to get its financing, according to The Associated Press. “They want to destroy this group,” she said. “It’s a shame, it’s a tragedy. What did these poor, elderly people do wrong? What did these children do wrong?”
Jewish suffering under the Nazis is a volatile subject in Palestinian society, where there is widespread ignorance of the details of the Holocaust and a feeling that Palestinians paid a price for it, viewing it as a main catalyst for the establishment of the Jewish state.
In Holon on Wednesday, it was clear that the young musicians knew little or nothing about the Holocaust or the nature of the audience that they were performing for.
Ms. Younis spoke of peace and brotherhood and said the orchestra, Strings of Freedom, had come “to put love and warmth into people’s hearts.”
The Jenin refugee camp, the capital of suicide bombers to the Israelis and a symbol of resistance to the Palestinians, was the scene of a bloody battle between advancing Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen in 2002.
Most of the Good Deed Day events were organized by Ruach Tova (Good Spirit), an Israeli organization that couples nonprofit groups with volunteers.
Ms. Younis had told Ruach Tova that she wanted to bring the youth orchestra to perform in Israel. Ruach Tova made the match with Amcha, an Israeli association that provides Holocaust survivors with emotional and social support.
Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, and Khaled Abu Aker from Ramallah, West Bank.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/world/middleeast/30mideast.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print
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