“Celebrated conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim has long sought out using music to encourage dialogue and coexistence between hostile enemies,” writes Tsutomu Ishiai in Sunday’s (6/24) Asahi Shimbun (Japan). “Barenboim and [Palestinian-American intellectual Edward] Said established the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brought together young musicians from Israel, Palestine, the Arab world and Iran…. ‘Neither in the orchestra nor in the academy are we trying to practice a political line that everybody has to adhere to,’ Barenboim said. ‘We believe one thing only, all of us: There is no military solution, there is no political solution, there is only a human solution. I expect them to agree 100 percent on Beethoven. But I don’t expect them to agree on a line for the conflict…. But you must expect and get compassion because sympathy is an emotional thing. Compassion is a moral attitude. An Israeli who does not feel compassion for the tragedy of the Palestinians has no place in this orchestra, and vice versa. I think this is what we have to work for, to get compassion and understanding for the suffering of the other. … This is not a political project; this is a humanistic project.”
Posted June 25, 2018
