Monday, March 30, 2009

No good deed goes unpunished

Last week, on Israel's annual Good Deeds Day, a youth orchestra from Jenin, in the West Bank, played a concert for a group of Holocaust survivors in a suburb of Tel Aviv. The symbolism was powerful, although the actual message was much more muddied and complex: None of the children spoke Hebrew, the elderly survivors spoke no Arabic, and apparently the children knew almost nothing of the Holocaust. (I assume as well that the survivors know little or nothing of the Palestinian version of Israel's birth.) Still, it was a nice gesture, a ray of light.

A gesture that has now been condemned by political "leaders" in the refugee camp from where the children come.

Makes you think that if we could get the adults out of the way....

1 comment:

Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper said...

It's probably a stretch to refer to those behind these atrocious actions as adults. There is so much ignorance, distrust and hatred in the region, that the players are little more than bullies in an elementary school yard.