Palestinian youth orchestra disbanded over concert for Holocaust survivors

Palestinians playing their fiddle to the so-called 'holocaust survivors', i.e. to their white European Jewish colonizers? I can't get over it!

It has been over 24-hours since I have been possessed with a revolting anger over the Palestinian youth singing to European Jewry in Palestine in memory of Euro-Jewry's 'holocaust'. Oh! Oh! How I am seething! What the hell is wrong with the Palestinians? These Euro-Jews holocausted Palestinians not too long ago and they had crowded the hilltops of Palestine to get a best view of the carnage; smiling and chuckling all along. It was none other than Abe Foxman who was gloating about the solidarity and unity of American Jewry for their holocausting brethren in Palestine. Jews in Palestine who are ashamed of the word 'Jew' and hence prefer to be referred to as 'the chosen' i.e. 'Israelites' were united to the tune of 94% in favor of the holocaust of the people of Gaza. If you know the story and these people, that 94% actually = 99.999999999%! These Palestinians were singing to the very same people who were cheering and applauding the mayhem, death and destructions of the Palestinian people of Gaza. What the hell is wrong with these Palestinian Violinists?

I just can't get over it; it just would not leave my mind. Jewry rained its bombs of hell on innocent Palestinians in Gaza only in December of 2008 and January of 2009 [i.e. not too long ago!] At least 1500 people went to their early graves when Juden decided to do a surprise attack on a people who do not own bomber planes, war ships or bulldozers. The Palestinians are an impoverished people facing off one of the most lethal, brutal, and International people on earth, which International People also secured the guarantees of the major powers to come to their aid if they find themselves overpowered by the colonized Arabs. If these Palestinian violinists were to demonstrate their skills, it aught to have been to raise funds for the vanquished and impoverished people of Gaza and not for Euro Jewry in Palestine that lives a very comfy life courtesy of the American taxpayer and because they are a very money-hungry people that has yet to stop milking the German people after six long decades. This foreign people on Arab soil lives surrounded by swimming pools and Asian Maids. Euro Jewry arrived on Arab soil not as victims seeking refuge but as lethal and merciless Supramacist colonizers. What prompted these young Palestinians to perform such an unforgivable act? They are of course young and they could be forgiven for their errors in judgment. But the adults who put them up to it should be paraded on the streets of Gaza as traitors.

Interesting to notice that International Juden seems to object to any criticism of the Palestinians playing music to their colonizers. Had the roles been reversed, we would have witnessed these leeches taking up arms to regain their dignity. But they seem to like it when "hewers of wood and drawers of water" were serenading a stampeding European Jewry that is now occupying Palestine.

You will find below many articles about the matter from various sources. I am hoping that having compiled this link will help me ease the anger that I feel at such callous betryal of the Palestinian cause.

Speaking of Germany and the amount of money that Juden extorts from it: I think it is a sure bet that all the Arab and Muslim people of the world would be more than happy to pay back Germany ten-fold for all its expenses paid to Juden as long as it would take back its own Jewry away from Arab land. I have no doubt that this would be a welcome situation for Arabs and Muslims to rid their land of this very unwanted alien group of people who are holding the Palestinian people and all Arabs hostages! But that will never be a lucrative deal for the Germans or any Europeans or any other people on earth. These people have proven to the world that they have an insatiable thirst to spill gentile blood. Read the Old Testament and you will find the answers as to what causes this people to be so brutal and so bloodthirsty. Theodor Herzl did mention in his diary that Europeans were willing to pay a premium to rid Europe of Jewry and Herzl then expresses his worries that if that fact became known that no other people would want to receive a people that the host nation deems it to be so undesirable that the host nations were willing to pay a premium for its good riddance. For now, Euro Jews seems not to want to budge from the Arab land that they had stolen. Of course, tomorrow is another day. Just imagine if Iran were still ruled by a corrupt monarchy. That would have meant that Hizbullah or Hamas would not have come into being. Tomorrow sure is another day, and the Arabs may finally get the most highly awaited event which is to rid their land of this merciless, unwelcome, unwanted, lethal foreign European invader!

These are the Palestinians who were performing for Euro-Jewry who stampeded to Palestine to steal Arab land. These Palestinians are singing to their own HOLOCAUSTERS! What is going on? For what reason would these Palestinians do such insane act? Is is for money! It has got to be! These people have disgraced the valiant Hamas fighters whog gave up their lives to defend the homeland! My head is literally spinning to grasp the essence of this betrayal!

These are the European Jews who were being serenaded by the Palestinian violinists! Incredible! These people stole Palestine under the guise of being 'holocaust survivors'. What have Arabs got to do with these Euroepan people's discored with their European neighbors? Look at them! One has to wonder what business these European Juden have on Arab soil!

Palestinian youth orchestra disbanded over concert for Holocaust survivors

Members of the Palestinian youth orchestra.

By The Associated Press

Palestinian authorities disbanded a youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp after it played for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel, a local official said on Sunday.

Adnan Hindi of the Jenin camp called the Holocaust a political issue and accused conductor Wafa Younis of unknowingly dragging the children into a political dispute.

He added that Younis has been barred from the camp and the apartment where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.

"She exploited the children," said Hindi, the head of the camp's popular committee, which takes on municipal duties. "She will be forbidden from doing any activities.... We have to protect our children and our community."

The move highlights the sensitivity of many Palestinians over acknowledging Jewish suffering, fearing it would weaken their own historical grievances against Israel.

"The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews themselves," Hindi said. "We lost our land, and we were forced to flee and we've lived in refugee camps for the past 50 years."

Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, and hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors emigrated to Israel after the war.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their homes in the war that followed Israel's creation - an event known by Palestinians as their Naqba, or catastrophe.

Kaynan Rabino, director of Ruach Tova, or Good Spirit, the charity that organized the event, said he was disappointed to hear about the reaction in Jenin.

"They approached us and volunteered to play. Wafa knew the orchestra would play before Holocaust survivors," he said. "We wanted to bring people's hearts closer together and if they are against that then that's a real shame."

Hindi said Palestinians - especially in his hardscrabble cinder block refugee camp - had suffered at the hands of Israel and demanded their grievances be acknowledged first.

The refugee camp in the northern West Bank was the scene of a deadly April 2002 battle where 23 Israeli soldiers were killed, alongside 53 Palestinian militants and civilians, in several days of battle. The clash destroyed swathes of the refugee camp.

The camp's residents are descendants of Palestinians who were displaced during Israel's war of independence.

The youths, aged 11 to 18, of the modest orchestra performed a goodwill concert for elderly survivors in the Israeli town of Holon Wednesday.

The event, held at the Holocaust Survivors Center in the central Israeli town, was part of Good Deeds Day, an annual event run by an organization connected to billionaire Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman.

Hindi said the children's parents were not aware that the orchestra would play for Holocaust survivors.

Younis was not immediately available for comment Sunday. But as the controversy erupted over the weekend, she said Saturday that her intention was purely to perform music. "We didn't do anything wrong," she said.

At last Wednesday's performance, most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from the West Bank, a rare sight in Israel these days. And the youths had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide - or even what the Holocaust was.

Palestinian orchestra shut over Holocaust concert

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank have shut down a youth orchestra because it performed before Holocaust survivors at a concert in Israel.

Adnan Hindi, an official in the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin, said on Sunday the band's director had broken rules against holding "political" performances by taking the 18 boys and girls to a concert last week near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

About 10 women who survived the Holocaust were in the audience, said Wafa Younis, director of the "Strings of Freedom" orchestra based in Jenin refugee camp, a site of a fierce 2002 battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants.

Hindi told Reuters by telephone Younis had "used the children for political activities."

"She took them to a place in order to teach them about the Holocaust, this is against her objectives and ours, which are only recreational," Hindi said.

Many Palestinians feel formally recognizing the murder of six million Jews in World War Two amounts to an acceptance of the West's justification for Israel's establishment in 1948, an act which displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

"We decided to close down her office and now she is not allowed to work in Jenin refugee camp," Hindi said, adding the band would also not be permitted to meet again.

Hindi said Younis, an Israeli-Arab citizen, was no longer welcome. "We won't prevent her from entering Jenin refugee camp, but we can't ensure her safety," he said.

Younis said the show in Israel was part of a good-will day sponsored by an Israeli businesswoman and philanthropist

"I have no political agenda," she told Reuters, dismissing the decision to disband the orchestra as "ignorant." She vowed to return to Jenin to continue her work.

"Hindi can't, and even (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) can't, prevent or stop my project," Younis said.

Hindi also accused Younis of taking the orchestra to a protest demanding the release of an Israeli soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip, a charge which she denied.

(Reporting by Wael al-Ahmed; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Palestinian youth orchestra disbanded for serenading Jews

Headline News

Sunday, March 29, 2009 Israel Today Staff

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday disbanded a youth orchestra from the northern Samaria town of Jenin after it participated in a musical event honoring Jewish Holocaust survivors in the Israeli town of Holon last week.

The orchestra "Strings of Freedom" had 13 members all between the ages of 11 and 18, and was led by an Israeli Arab woman, Wafa Younis.

Younis has now been banned from entering Jenin, and the apartment where she taught music to the children has been boarded up.

Local Jenin officials cited by The Jerusalem Post said the incident had caused tremendous outrage among Palestinians, who do not want their children to be pushed toward coexistence with Israel.

PA Leaders Blast Arab Teens Playing Music for Jews

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) Fatah-linked community leaders in the PA-controlled city of Jenin slammed the participation of 13 young local musicians aged 11 to 18 in a "Good Deeds Day," held at the Holocaust Survivor's Center in Holon.

The PA politicians made a point of using the issue of the young musicians' performance as a platform upon which to launch a diatribe against participation in any integrative activity with Jewish Israelis.

Observers noted that Palestinian Authority leaders speak to United States officials about the "vision of two states for two peoples, living side by side in peace and security" but when it comes down to actually allowing their children to participate -- let alone encouraging such activity with Israelis -- they sing a different tune.

Some 30 elderly Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide attended the event in question; they received with quiet courtesy the news that the performance would begin late because the musicians had been held up at a security checkpoint outside their town.

The conductor, 50-year-old Wafa Younis, was later attacked for her efforts towards co-existence, both verbally and in leaflets distributed throughout the area. Members of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction also sealed her apartment and banned her from entering the city. Although a resident of the village of Ara, an Arab village inside Israel, Younis had rented out an apartment locally in Jenin.

More ominously, Abbas's loyalists also filed a complaint with the PA Police against the conductor, claiming she "misled" the young musicians in bringing them to perform at the Israeli concert.

The youths were indeed unaware of who it was they were scheduled to entertain. They later explained, however, that their conductor was unable to make them listen to her description of the audience due to their excited chatter on the bus on the way to the event.

The concert, which opened with the Arabic melody "We Sing for Peace" included musical pieces as well as a song in Hebrew. One song was dedicated by the Israeli Arab conductor to kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. The concert, produced by an organization owned by Israeli leftist billionaire Shari Arison, was held as part of the group's annual event.

The performance of the youths, members of the Jenin-based "Strings of Freedom" was roundly criticized by other PA officials as well, including Adnan al-Hinda, director of the local Popular Committee for Services.

Al-Hinda claimed the participation of the youths was meant to "impact the national culture of the young generation and cast doubt about the heroism and resistance of residents of [Jenin] during the Israeli invasion in April 2002."

Jenin politician Ramzi Fayad also slammed the participation of the young musicians, saying "There can be no normalization while Israel is continuing to perpetrate massacres against our people."

PA Fights Tolerance and Co-Existence Among Youth

The prohibition against any form of peaceful co-existence with the rest of the Israel is a familiar theme among PA officials and local Muslim leaders. Israeli Arab leaders Sheikh Ra’ad Salah and MK Jamal Zahalka harangued Israeli Arabs at a rally in October 2007, threatening those who agreed to allow their children to take part in any Israeli national service.

Men from the Bedouin and Druze sector serve in the IDF, and some carry out national service as an alternative to army service. Some non-Bedouin Arabs are also accepted into the army.

A proposal advanced by the government suggesting an alternative national service program for Israeli Arabs was slammed by MK Zahalka, a member of the Balad party, and Salah, head of the radical northern branch of the Islamic Movement.

The ban on encouraging any form of peaceful co-existence or tolerance between Israeli Arabs and the rest of the country was reinforced last summer by former Balad party chairman, ex-MK Azmi Bishara, who is a fugitive from justice. The suspected Arab spy addressed a Balad youth convention on the subject via video link from Qatar, calling on the teens not to serve the country and warning them not to participate in any national service with other Israeli youths, claiming it would "erase our identity."

Bishara fled the country in April 2007 just as police were closing in to arrest him on charges of treason, based on evidence that he had passed intelligence information to the Hizbullah terrorist organization during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

AJC Condemns Disbanding of Palestinian Youth Orchestra

March 29, 2009 – New York – The American Jewish Committee (AJC) condemned the decision of Palestinian political activists to disband a youth orchestra in the West Bank city of Jenin after it performed a concert for Holocaust survivors in Israel earlier this week.

"A brave, deeply moving gesture for peace and reconciliation which deservedly earned international media coverage has been wantonly destroyed by elements of the Palestinian leadership more concerned with their extremist agenda than with the well-being of their own people," said David Harris, AJC Executive Director.

"Their despicable act denies first and foremost the young Palestinians in the orchestra the opportunity to rehearse and to perform,” said Harris. “They are being punished for using their talents to advance the cause of peace. In effect, they are being told that Palestinians and Israelis must forever be locked in conflict."

Adnan al-Hindi, the leader of the Popular Committee in the Jenin refugee camp, denounced the concert, which was attended by 30 elderly Holocaust survivors in the town of Holon, as serving "enemy interests." Al-Hindi also described the Holocaust, which is not taught to children in Palestinian Authority schools and is routinely denied in much of the Palestinian media, as a "political matter."

The conductor of the orchestra, Wafaa Younis, an Israeli Arab who has taught music in Jenin for several years, said that the orchestra had come to Holon “to put love and warmth into people’s hearts.” Ms. Younis has been banned from Jenin and the apartment where the orchestra rehearsed has been boarded up.

Palestinian youth orchestra disbanded for serenading Jews

Silenced: She had taught strings to the youth of Jenin for years. Wafa Younis is no longer welcome there after leading her Strings for Freedom group in a concert for Holocaust survivors in Israel. (David Silverman/Getty Images)

True beauty is rare. Stupidity is rampant. Last Wednesday, 13 young Palestinian string musicians and old Israeli Holocaust survivors created a rare moment of beauty free of boundaries as they found themselves face to face at the Holocaust Survivors Center in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv, performing, listening, and at times singing together. Neither group realized it would be facing the other until the moment happened. Neither group regretted it. Far from it. They reveled in the moment, learned more than a few heartbreaks one from the other, and posed for pictures together.

When the Strings of Freedom orchestra returned home to Jenin, the Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, their music director, Wafa Younis, was fired, her studio apartment in the camp shuttered, and the orchestra disbanded. The reason: Adnan Hindi, leader of the camp’s Popular Committee, which sounds like one of those proto-fascist guilds of grass-root thuggery, decreed that Younis had deceived her musicians and had exploited them, in The Times' account, "for the purpose of 'normalizing' ties with Israel. [Hindi] 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.'"

Between small minds and self-destruction, there's hardly any distance at all. The point of the encounter was precisely to defy politics, to raise spirits on both sides and to lower barriers of ignorance: hardly any of the children knew who they were facing because the Holocaust isn't taught in the Palestinian Territories. Palestinian suffering isn't exactly taught in Israeli schools, either, and Palestinians, especially in Jenin (a camp ridden in the violence of Israeli oppression and Palestinian resistance, a mix rife with terrorism on both sides), have more than a few reasons to be concerned about their own suffering for the past decades. The string group was half an hour late to its performance because it was delayed at an Israeli checkpoint, one of those instruments of sheer humiliation that Palestinians live with every day. But none of that argues against Younis' courageous act, capped by her decision to dedicate one of the orchestra's songs to Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held captive by Palestinian militants in Gaza, and to criticize Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

For that, the orchestra she started and has run for the past seven years, commuting from a town in Israel to do so, is falling prey to the very bitterness and bigotry she was aiming to override on "Make a Difference Day" last week.

Ruach Tova, Hebrew for "Good Spirit," is an Israeli service organization that connects volunteers with people who need help of all kind. Last Wednesday was Good Deeds Day, a sort of Israeli Make a Difference Day coordinated by Ruach Tova and initiated in 2007 by Sheri Arison, Israel's richest woman and one of the richest people in the world (thanks to Carnival Corp., the cruise ship company). The charity approached Wafa Younis, who accepted the offer to perform. It's true that the Holocaust survivors were not told that they'd be looking at Children from Jenin that day. It's also true that the children weren't told they would be performing for Holocaust survivors, though Younis says she tried to tell the children about the audience on the bus but couldn't be heard over their rowdiness.

So what? No one was manipulated. There was no intention to harm, and there was no harm. How could there be when the occasion is about music and songs of peace? But some distances can't be bridged. The distance between Jenin and Holon would be no more than a couple of hours in normal geography, on normal roads, in a normal country. It's an indication of the immense distance between the two places that the Palestinian children were positively startled at the sight of civilian Israelis, whom most of them had never seen, because their experience of Israelis is limited to soldiers, heavily armed and just as metallically furrowed. The old Holocaust survivors, most of them poor, were just as startled to see children from Jenin, a town they've only heard of on television or in the papers, a town typically associated with the word "terrorist" in Israel's vocabulary of preconceptions.

That Wednesday both groups were survivors, up to a point. Strings of Freedom no longer exists. That, in the end, is the tragedy of this story.

Jenin orchestra shut down after playing for survivors

Palestinian official explains youth orchestra disbanded because it played for Holocaust survivors in Israel; refers to Holocaust as 'political issue'

Associated Press

Published: 03.29.09, 15:36 / Israel Culture

Palestinian officials in a West Bank refugee camp say they have disbanded a youth orchestra

after it played for Holocaust survivors in Israel.

The Concert

Palestinian children sing for Holocaust survivors / Associated Press

Strings for Peace, youth orchestra from Jenin refugee camp, gives touching musical performance for Holocaust survivors in Israeli town Holon as part of Good Deeds Day. Zeid, one of musicians in group: Only people who have been through suffering understand each other

Full Story

Jenin refugee camp official Adnan Hindi says the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra should not have played for the survivors, calling the Holocaust "a political issue."

Hindi added Sunday that the conductor has also been barred from entering the camp.

Conductor Wafa Younis says she was not informed of the ban.

The orchestra performed a goodwill concert for elderly survivors in the Israeli town of Holon Wednesday.

"I feel sympathy for them," Ali Zeid, an 18-year-old keyboard player said after the concert. He said he was shocked by what he learned about the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews in their campaign to wipe out European Jewry.

"Only people who have been through suffering understand each other," added Zeid, who said his grandparents were Palestinian refugees forced to flee the northern city of Haifa during the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948.

Orchestra Criticized for Good Deeds Day Performance

29-Mar-2009

Written by: Andrew Randall

A Palestinian youth orchestra was criticized for their performance in front of Holocaust survivors.

According to the New York Times, a concert in Holon, Israel, held for Holocaust survivors, has been condemned due to the participation of a Palestinian youth orchestra in the concert.

The concert, held for 30 Holocaust survivors, was a key section of the yearly Israeli Good Deeds Day. The 13 children who played Wednesday, aged 12 to 17, came from the Jenin refugee camp.

Adnan al-Hindi, leader of the Popular Committee, a group representing the political interests of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the children were exploited by their director in order to “normalize” relations with Israel.

Hindi said, “It was a shock and a surprise to the children and their relatives.” Hindi commented further, saying that the group’s director, Wafaa Younis, told the children’s families that the purpose of the trip was only artistic expression.

Younis, who lives in central Israel, has been journeying to Jenin every week, only to teach music. She claimed camp officials only wanted to control the group to get its funding. According to an AP report, she stated, “They want to destroy this group. It’s a shame, it’s a tragedy. What did these poor, elderly people do wrong? What did these children do wrong?”

The anguish of the Jewish people in the Holocaust is a precarious topic in Palestinian life. Palestinians feel they have been penalized in order to justify a Jewish state.

The majority of the Good Deed Day proceedings were planned by Ruach Tova (Good Spirit), an Israeli team that pairs volunteers with non-profit groups.

PA dismantles W. Bank youth orchestra

Mar. 29, 2009

khaled abu toameh and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST

Palestinian authorities disbanded a youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp after it played for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel, a local official said on Sunday.

Adnan Hindi of the Jenin camp called the Holocaust a "political issue" and accused conductor Wafa Younis of unknowingly dragging the children into a political dispute.

He added that Younis has been barred from the camp and the apartment where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.

On Saturday, The Jerusalem Post found that leaders and representatives of the Jenin refugee camp condemned the participation of Palestinian teenagers from the camp in a concert honoring Holocaust survivors in Holon last week.

The 13 Palestinian musicians, aged 11 to 18, are members of the Palestinian orchestra Strings of Freedom that is based in the refugee camp.

The concert was held at the Holocaust Survivors' Center as part of "Good Deeds Day," an annual event organized by an organization belonging to Israeli billionaire Shari Arison.

The event drew strong condemnations from refugee camp leaders and political activists, who accused the organizers of exploiting the children for "political purposes."

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."

Hindi claimed that the organizers "misled" the children by promising to take them on a free trip to Israel and teach them music.

Ramzi Fayad, a spokesman for various political factions in the Jenin refugee camp, also condemned the participation of the teenagers in the Holocaust event, saying all the groups were strongly opposed to any form of normalization with Israel.

"There can be no normalization while Israel is continuing to perpetrate massacres against our people," he said.

Leaflets distributed in the Jenin area over the weekend also attacked the event and accused the organizers of exploiting the children. The leaflets also warned the Palestinians against participating in similar events in the future.

Sources in the camp said that the political factions in Jenin have also decided to ban an Israeli Arab woman who helped organize the event from entering the city.

Fatah activists in the city also filed a complaint with the Palestinian Police against the woman under the pretext that she had misled the children by taking them to the Holocaust event. The activists also sealed an apartment that had been rented out to the woman in the refugee camp.

The youths said their conductor, Wafa Younis, 50, of the Arab village of Ara in the Triangle, tried to explain to them who the elderly people at the event were, but chaos on the bus prevented them from listening.

Some 30 elderly survivors gathered in the center's hall as teenage boys and girls filed in 30 minutes late - delayed at an IDF checkpoint outside their town, they later explained.

The encounter began with an Arabic song, "We sing for peace," and was followed by two musical pieces with violins and Arabic drums, as well as an impromptu song in Hebrew by two in the audience.

The encounter was not devoid of politics. Younis dedicated a song to kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.

AP contributed to this report

Concert for Holocaust Survivors Is Condemned

Young Palestinian musicians met with Holocaust survivors on the outskirts of Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

By ISABEL KERSHNER and KHALED ABU AKER

Published: March 29, 2009

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.

Survivors’ concert the finale for Palestinian band

March 29, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A Palestinian youth orchestra from Jenin was disbanded after it played for Holocaust survivors in Israel.

Palestinian authorities also banned Strings of Freedom orchestra conductor Wafa Younis from the northern West Bank refugee camp and her apartment, where she taught the 13 music students, was sealed off, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

The orchestra played for the elderly Israelis in Holon March 25 as part of a Good Deeds Day sponsored by the Good Spirit charity, which is connected to billionaire Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman.

The Jenin Palestinians want their historical grievances against Israel acknowledged before they recognize the Holocaust, the AP reported.

After playing for Holocaust survivors, Palestinian youth orchestra faces backlash

By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent 03.29.09

After playing for Holocaust survivors, Palestinian youth orchestra faces backlash

By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent 03.29.09

Tel Aviv – Last week, I reported on a goodwill performance by a Palestinian youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp. They played for about an hour for a group of 30 Holocaust survivors in a Tel Aviv suburb.

But that moving performance is now stirring tension in Jenin, where the orchestra’s members live.

A Palestinian official from the Jenin refugee camp told the Associated Press Sunday that the apartment where the orchestra practices has been boarded up. The official also said that the conductor Wafaa Younis, an Arab citizen of Israel who visits Jenin several times a week to give lessons, would be barred from the camp.

The Holocaust is “a political issue,” said Adnan Hindi, who heads the camp’s municipal committee. “She exploited the children…. She will be forbidden from doing any activities.”

But Ms. Younis rejected the charges and defiantly vowed to return to the refugee camp early this week. “Empty words,” she said in response to Mr. Hindi’s remarks.

Hindi says that he has called Palestinian parents to urge them to boycott the orchestra.

At least one girl has called the conductor in tears, Younis told me in a telephone interview Sunday. She predicted that the pupils, aged 13 to 18, would return despite the pressure.

“These are my children. Tomorrow I will be there. The camp is Palestinian land. It’s my land. I feel like I belong there,” she said.

“What happened that Adnan Hindi is speaking so much? Because my orchestra succeeded in Holon and Tel Aviv? I’ve gotten nothing from the camp. In seven years I have never seen him. The parents are with me,” she said.

The Nazi Holocaust is a taboo topic in Palestinian and Arab society because of its place in the narrative of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Palestinian refugees see a link between their displacement and the arrival of Jewish refugees in British Mandatory Palestine after World War II.

Palestinian orchestra shut after Holocaust concert

By DIAA HADID and BEN HUBBARD – 9 hours ago

JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Authorities in an impoverished Palestinian refugee camp have shut down a youth orchestra, boarded up its rehearsal studio and banned its conductor from the camp after she took 13 young musicians to perform for Holocaust survivors in Israel, an official said Sunday.

Conductor Wafa Younes took the children from her Strings of Freedom orchestra to sing songs of peace last week as part of an annual Good Deeds Day organized by Israel's richest woman. But once parents and leaders back in West Bank's Jenin refugee camp realized where the group had been, they shut down the program, saying Younes had dragged the children into a political issue.

The discord highlights both the distrust many Palestinians have of any engagement with Israel, as well as their reluctance to acknowledge Jewish historical suffering because of concerns that it weakens their own claim to this disputed land.

Some 6 million Jews were killed in the Nazi campaign to wipe out European Jewry, and the urgent need to find a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of survivors catalyzed the creation of Israel after World War II.

A community leader in the Jenin camp, Adnan Hindi, said the musicians' parents had not known where Younes was taking their children and were angry when they learned of the performance from media reports.

"She exploited the children for a big political issue," said Hindi, head of a camp committee responsible for municipal duties.

Hindi did not deny there was a Holocaust, but said Palestinians had suffered at the hands of Israel.

"The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews themselves," he said. "We lost our land, and we were forced to flee and we've lived in refugee camps for the past 50 years."

More than 700,000 Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their homes in the war that followed Israel's creation, an event Arabs call the Naqba, or catastrophe. Many of their descendants still live in refugee camps like Jenin.

"If I had known this was a political excursion, I would not have let my son go," said Ibrahim Samour, father of 18-year-old Qusay, who plays the kamanja, a traditional Arab stringed instrument similar to a violin.

When asked why he objected to his son performing for the group of about 30 elderly Holocaust survivors, near Tel Aviv, Samour, 61, said his family fled to Jenin in 1948 from land that is now part of Israel.

"I'm not denying bad things happened to them, but there has to be mutual recognition," he said.

Avner Shalev, chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, called the orchestra's closure "very unfortunate."

Ignorance and even denial of the Holocaust is widespread in Palestinian society.

To increase awareness, Yad Vashem created an Arabic-language Web site last year with survivor testimonies that has so far received about a half million visits, Shalev said.

Khaled Mahameed, an Arab Israeli who runs a small institute in the biblical town of Nazareth to teach Palestinians about the Holocaust, said many Palestinians feel Israel uses the Holocaust to justify its actions against Palestinians.

"They think that if you talk about the Holocaust, then you feel sympathy for the Jewish people, and the conclusion is that you have to support Israel," he said.

Younes, an Arab from the northern Israeli village of Ara, had been training the modest orchestra of 11- to 13-year-olds for about three years and had taken them on previous trips, camp residents said.

Younes said camp officials closed the ensemble so they could take over its funds.

"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?"

The project was bankrolled by billionaire businesswoman Shari Arison.

At Wednesday's concert in Holon neither the orchestra nor the audience initially knew where the other was from. Audience members gasped when the performers were introduced as West Bank Palestinians, a rare sight in Israel.

And the performers had no idea the audience were survivors of the Nazi genocide — or even what the Holocaust was.

Israeli historian Tom Segev said lack of knowledge about each other's history hinders prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

"You can't understand Israel unless you understand the role of the Holocaust in Israeli identity," he said. "And if you don't understand your enemy, you can't make peace."

Palestinians scrap youth orchestra that played to Israelis

March 30, 2009 Edition 2

JENIN: Palestinian authorities disbanded a youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp after it played for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel, an official said.

Adnan Hindi, of the Jenin camp, called the Holocaust a "political issue" yesterday and accused conductor Wafa Younis of unknowingly dragging the children into a political dispute.

He said Younis had been barred from the camp and the flat where she had taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra had been boarded up.

"She exploited the children," Hindi said. "She will be forbidden from doing any activities … We have to protect our children and our community.

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About 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their homes in the war that followed Israel's creation - an event known by Palestinians as their Naqba, or catastrophe.

Hindi said Palestinians had suffered at the hands of Israel and demanded their grievances be acknowledged first.

The Jenin refugee camp was the scene of a deadly 2002 battle where 23 Israeli soldiers were killed, alongside 53 Palestinian militants and civilians. - Sapa-AP

Holocaust concert draws anger in Palestinian camp

3/29/2009

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JENIN, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian authorities have disbanded a youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp and barred the conductor from her studio after she directed a concert for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel.

A local official from the camp in Jenin says the conductor, an Arab who lives in Israel, "exploited the children" and unfairly dragged them into a political dispute.

The official says the conductor has been banned from the camp, and the apartment where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.

At last week's concert, most of the Holocaust survivors didn't know the youths were Palestinians from the West Bank. And the youths had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide.

The Holocaust is a touchy issue in Palestinian society, where many either deny it happened or don't even know what it is.

Associated Press

Palestinian refugee youth orchestra disbanded after playing for Holocaust survivors

By ALI DARAGHMEH and DIAA HADID | Associated Press | 14 hours, 24 minutes ago in World

Palestinian authorities have disbanded a youth orchestra from a West Bank refugee camp and barred the conductor from her studio after she directed a concert for a group of Holocaust survivors in Israel, a local official said on Sunday.

In this March 25, 2009 file photo, Palestinian children from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank play for Holocaust survivors at a center in Holon near Tel Aviv. Palestinian officials in a West Bank... (Associated Press)

In this March 25, 2009 file photo, Palestinian children from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank pose for a photo after playing for Holocaust survivors at a center in Holon near Tel Aviv, Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

Adnan Hindi of the Jenin camp called the Holocaust a "political issue" and accused the orchestra's conductor of unfairly dragging the children into a politics.

The dispute underscores Palestinian sensitivities over acknowledging Jewish suffering, which many fear could weaken their own historical grievances against Israel. Ignorance and even denial of the Holocaust is widespread in Palestinian society.

At last Wednesday's concert in Holon, most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from the West Bank, a rare sight in Israel these days. And the youths, who range in age from 11 to 18, had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide _ or even what the Holocaust was.

Hindi said that conductor Wafa Younis, an Israeli Arab living in Israel, has been banned from the camp, and the apartment where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.

"She exploited the children," said Hindi, the head of the camp's "popular committee," which takes on municipal duties. "She will be forbidden from doing any activities ... We have to protect our children and our community."

Younis, the conductor, denied the issue was political, saying camp officials wanted to take over the orchestra to get its funding.

"They want to destroy this group. It's a shame, it's a tragedy. What did these poor, elderly people do wrong? What did these children do wrong?" she said.

Some 6 million Jews were killed in the Nazi campaign to wipe out European Jewry. The urgent need to find a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors catalyzed the creation of the Jewish state after World War II.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their homes in the war that followed Israel's creation _ an event known by Palestinians as their Naqba, or catastrophe.

Kaynan Rabino, director of "Ruach Tova," or "Good Spirit," the foundation that organized the event, said he was disappointed to hear about the reaction in Jenin.

The foundation was founded by billionaire Shari Arison, Israel's wealthiest woman.

Hindi said Palestinians _ especially in his hardscrabble cinder block refugee camp_ had suffered at the hands of Israel and demanded their grievances be acknowledged first.

The camp's residents are descendants of Palestinians who were displaced following Israel's creation in 1948.

Palestinians shut down refugee youth orchestra that played for Holocaust survivors

In this March 25, 2009 file photo, Palestinian children from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank pose for a photo after playing for Holocaust survivors at a center in Holon near Tel Aviv, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Palestinian officials in a West Bank refugee camp say Sunday, March 29, 2009, they have disbanded a youth orchestra after it played for Holocaust survivors in Israel. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill, file) (TARA TODRAS-WHITEHLL, AP / March 25, 2009) BEN HUBBARDDIAA HADID Associated Press Writers Associated Press Writers

1:39 PM EDT, March 29, 2009

ENIN, West Bank (AP) — Authorities in an impoverished Palestinian refugee camp have shut down a youth orchestra, boarded up its rehearsal studio and banned its conductor from the camp after she took 13 young musicians to perform for Holocaust survivors in Israel, an official said Sunday.