As a musician, listening to others is essential for me. If I don't listen to the people around me when playing in an orchestra, I can't be sensitive to what others are playing and I'll end up drowning them out when they're the ones who are playing all the interesting bits. Without listening, it would be impossible to create music together as a group. But does that only apply to music?
Though we sometimes may not realize it, listening to other people is essential to having good relationships with them. Dialogue cannot be defined as dialogue if one merely talks the whole way through. It is a combination of talking and listening that dialogue is born.
There is a youth orchestra based in Spain called the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. It's "interesting" at the least - in the fact that the orchestra consists of musicians from a variety of Middle Eastern backgrounds, such as Egyptian, Lebanese, Iranian, Syrian - and of course, Israeli and Palestinian. It was founded by Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian-American theorist Edward Said in 1999 as a workshop. Its aim was for young musicians from Israel and other Middle Eastern countries to focus on musical development as well as development with the sharing of knowledge and comprehension between people from cultures traditionally have been rivals.
An excerpt of the West-Eastern Divan playing the Adagio from Gustav Mahler's 10th Symphony:
Between the exhaustive rehearsals, the members hold forums on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, focusing on dialogue and reflection, but never with negative intent. In short, this ensemble of less than a hundred is the perfect model of what human society is capable of.
The West-Eastern Divan has performed in countries around the world, including Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Imagine, Israelis playing Beethoven alongside Palestinians for Palestinians in the West Bank!
The conductor himself is an fascinating figure. Conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim is an Argentinian-born Israeli who lived in the United States for a number of years, now based in Berlin, with honourary citizenships from Spain and - get this - the Palestinian Authority. Nevermind Argentina and Spain - Barenboim is the first person ever to hold both Israeli and Palestinian passports. He is also one of the few musicians in the world who has a minor planet named after him, but that's beside the point.
Barenboim has been a controversial figure in Mid East politics - conducting the music of Richard Wagner in Jerusalem for example. Wagner's music had been unofficially tabooed in Israel since the Holocaust, as Wagner was an anti-Semite and his music was used predominantly in Nazi Germany for propaganda (he was also a personal role model for Adolf Hitler, who mentions Wagner in his so-called autobiography Mein Kampf). However, Barenboim argues that the music itself is what matters to him.
Here's an interview with Barenboim on Al Jazeera:
A number of media outlets have called the West-Eastern Divan an "orchestra for peace", to which Barenboim has responded: "You can't make peace with an orchestra." In an interview with the Guardian, he states: "The Divan is not a love story, and it is not a peace story. It has very flatteringly been described as a project for peace. It isn't. It's not going to bring peace, whether you play well or not so well. The Divan was conceived as a project against ignorance. A project against the fact that it is absolutely essential for people to get to know the other, to understand what the other thinks and feels, without necessarily agreeing with it. I'm not trying to convert the Arab members of the Divan to the Israeli point of view, and [I'm] not trying to convince the Israelis to the Arab point of view. But I want to - and unfortunately I am alone in this now that Edward died a few years ago - ...create a platform where the two sides can disagree and not resort to knives."
As a member of the orchestra puts it, the orchestra "is a human laboratory that can express to the whole world how to cope with the other."
This is my answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No, I don't mean putting every Israeli and Palestinian in a gigantic orchestra - that sounds too similar to Parliament Hill. Listening is my answer. Listening to all sides, with mutual respect and dignity, with the goal of being open-minded and understanding the other points of view. Listening constructs dialogue; dialogue generates interest; interest yields knowledge; knowledge invokes understanding; understanding leads to peace. If there is no dialogue, if there is no listening - there is no hope of peace.
We have the solutions - we've had them for years! The two-state solution is a completely viable solution to this conflict. Israel can go back to its pre-1967 borders and the Palestinians can take the rest of the land. Jerusalem can be established under international jurisdiction, as a shared capital of the two states, or as an open city. Israel can put a halt to the building of settlements on disputed territory. Israel can start talks with Hamas about removing its blockade of the Gaza Strip in exchange for a peace treaty. The right of return can be discussed through town hall meetings involving both Israelis and Palestinians. But all of these prospects involve dialogue - and to achieve that, all sides MUST listen to each other. We must destroy this culture of ignorance we have lived in for all these years, and move forward with open ears and open minds.
Growing up isn't easy, but sometimes it's necessary.
The West-Eastern Divan has performed in countries around the world, including Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Imagine, Israelis playing Beethoven alongside Palestinians for Palestinians in the West Bank!
The conductor himself is an fascinating figure. Conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim is an Argentinian-born Israeli who lived in the United States for a number of years, now based in Berlin, with honourary citizenships from Spain and - get this - the Palestinian Authority. Nevermind Argentina and Spain - Barenboim is the first person ever to hold both Israeli and Palestinian passports. He is also one of the few musicians in the world who has a minor planet named after him, but that's beside the point.
Barenboim has been a controversial figure in Mid East politics - conducting the music of Richard Wagner in Jerusalem for example. Wagner's music had been unofficially tabooed in Israel since the Holocaust, as Wagner was an anti-Semite and his music was used predominantly in Nazi Germany for propaganda (he was also a personal role model for Adolf Hitler, who mentions Wagner in his so-called autobiography Mein Kampf). However, Barenboim argues that the music itself is what matters to him.
Here's an interview with Barenboim on Al Jazeera:
A number of media outlets have called the West-Eastern Divan an "orchestra for peace", to which Barenboim has responded: "You can't make peace with an orchestra." In an interview with the Guardian, he states: "The Divan is not a love story, and it is not a peace story. It has very flatteringly been described as a project for peace. It isn't. It's not going to bring peace, whether you play well or not so well. The Divan was conceived as a project against ignorance. A project against the fact that it is absolutely essential for people to get to know the other, to understand what the other thinks and feels, without necessarily agreeing with it. I'm not trying to convert the Arab members of the Divan to the Israeli point of view, and [I'm] not trying to convince the Israelis to the Arab point of view. But I want to - and unfortunately I am alone in this now that Edward died a few years ago - ...create a platform where the two sides can disagree and not resort to knives."
As a member of the orchestra puts it, the orchestra "is a human laboratory that can express to the whole world how to cope with the other."
This is my answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No, I don't mean putting every Israeli and Palestinian in a gigantic orchestra - that sounds too similar to Parliament Hill. Listening is my answer. Listening to all sides, with mutual respect and dignity, with the goal of being open-minded and understanding the other points of view. Listening constructs dialogue; dialogue generates interest; interest yields knowledge; knowledge invokes understanding; understanding leads to peace. If there is no dialogue, if there is no listening - there is no hope of peace.
We have the solutions - we've had them for years! The two-state solution is a completely viable solution to this conflict. Israel can go back to its pre-1967 borders and the Palestinians can take the rest of the land. Jerusalem can be established under international jurisdiction, as a shared capital of the two states, or as an open city. Israel can put a halt to the building of settlements on disputed territory. Israel can start talks with Hamas about removing its blockade of the Gaza Strip in exchange for a peace treaty. The right of return can be discussed through town hall meetings involving both Israelis and Palestinians. But all of these prospects involve dialogue - and to achieve that, all sides MUST listen to each other. We must destroy this culture of ignorance we have lived in for all these years, and move forward with open ears and open minds.
Growing up isn't easy, but sometimes it's necessary.
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