Daniel Barenboim turns 80

Reconciler and musical genius

Daniel Barenboim is not only a world-famous pianist and conductor. He has also worked tirelessly to foster understanding and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. By Lukas Philippi and Katharina Rogner 

One of the world's best-known conductors, Daniel Barenboim is driven by the idea that music can change people for the better. He is passionate about music, but for him, music alone is not enough.

Barenboim's central conviction is that music must become "an essential part of social interaction". His own musical commitment has always been inextricably linked to his socio-political involvement.

On 15 November, the Argentine-born and world-renowned musician turned 80.

Barenboim has been general music director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and chief conductor in perpetuity of the Staatskapelle Berlin since 1992. Until recently, the busy star was a regular guest in the world's famous concert halls. But at the beginning of October, he announced that he would not be able to perform for the time being due to a serious illness. In particular, he would withdraw from conducting, the Berlin State Opera announced.

On Twitter, Barenboim had previously reported a "serious neurological illness" and that he first had to "concentrate on his physical well-being". The birthday concert planned for 15 November in Berlin, at which he was to perform as pianist, was also cancelled for health reasons.

Music against hatred: the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is a project close to Barenboim's heart.  He founded it in 1999 with his friend, the Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said (1935-2003). It is a peace project for young musicians from the Middle East – from Israel, the Palestinian Territories and other Arab countries. The maestro once stated that after two hours of rehearsal, he had "reduced the level of hatred to zero"

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra: A contribution to peace

Barenboim is inspired by the idea that music can change people for the better. One of his most cherished projects is the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. He founded it in 1999 with his friend, the Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said (1935-2003).

It is a peace project for young musicians from the Middle East – from Israel, the Palestinian Autonomous Territories and other Arab countries. After two hours of rehearsal, he had "reduced the level of hatred to zero", the maestro once stated.

He is also committed to founding "music kindergartens" to introduce even the youngest children to sounds, rhythm and instruments. His credo is: "Not music education, but education through music".

The Barenboim-Said Academy for young musicians from the Middle East, which began its work in Berlin at the end of 2016, is also intended to serve education and peace. The students at the private music academy are also taught philosophy, history and literature.

Making music and learning together is intended to contribute to understanding, a willingness to compromise and reconciliation. Can the academy really contribute to a peaceful solution in the Middle East conflict? "Certainly not in the short term, but in the long term there is a good chance," Barenboim said at the opening.

He is also famous for addressing the audience prior to giving a performance. In 2017, for example, as Brexit was in full swing, he warned against isolationism and nationalism in Europe during a concert at The BBC Proms in London. A few weeks previously, an article he wrote had criticised the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories following the 1967 Six-Day War as "immoral".

International career

The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires in 1942 and grew up in Israel from 1952 onwards. When he was five years old, his mother began giving him piano lessons. Later he studied with his father, who remained his only piano teacher.

The gifted pianist gave his first public concert at the age of seven in his native city of Buenos Aires. As a small child, he is said to have played with another Argentinian piano prodigy, Martha Argerich, under the grand piano at home. They would later share a stage together.

Barenboim was ten years old when he made his international debut as a pianist in Vienna and Rome. At the age of eleven, he also took conducting lessons, studying harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He first appeared on stage as a conductor in London in 1967, and six years later he made his debut as an opera conductor in Edinburgh, Scotland, with Mozart's "Don Giovanni". Later he held positions as chief conductor in Paris and Chicago.

In addition to the classical concert and opera repertoire, Barenboim has increasingly devoted himself to contemporary music with the Berlin Staatskapelle, performing compositions by Pierre Boulez, Wolfgang Rihm and Elliott Carter. But he has also repeatedly paid tribute to the tango of his native country.

Barenboim is married to the Russian pianist Yelena Bashkirova. His first wife, the British cellist Jacqueline du Pre, died in 1987, and his two sons are also musicians.

"Music is not a profession, it is an attitude to life," Barenboim wrote in an article in the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit at the end of October. It is how he has spent his entire life.    (epd)

Daniel Barenboim's Dream

I watched a special today on BBC World on the great classical pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. It was an inspiration.

Daniel Barenboim: The Power of Music

Saturday 6th May at 1230 GMT & 1930 GMT and on Sunday 7th May at 0730 & 1730 GMT.

BBC arts correspondent Razia Iqbal reports on her travels with the world famous Israeli conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim. Barenboim who considers music "an international language" that can cross barriers, visits Jerusalem and Ramallah, where he talks about the role of music in society and politics.

He is not only great because of his status as a muscian but as a pro-Palestinian Jew who is not a Zionist. His personal efforts to create a harmonious community co-exsitance between Jews and Palestinians in Israel has created a musical orchestra that belies the hostility between these competing States.

Anyone who has heard his extraordinary West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an ensemble made up of Arab and Israeli musicians, cannot fail to be moved.

Here is peaceful collaboration in action; young people from communities which, though apparently hopelessly divided, have come together to make music and, in the process, understand more about each other and each other's cultures.

'No matter how great an individual you are, music teaches you that creativity only works in groups,' says Barenboim, 'and the expression of the group is very often larger than the sum of the parts.' Barenboim's harmonious message goes beyond classical music

Ah yes cooperation, collectivism, all that stuff the right wing likes to denounce. But that reality shows is the only way we function as social beings. And the only way we will ever overcome hatred, prejudice and war. The individual as social being, as the sum of all their social parts, reflected in us. In our freedom. And freedom for Barenboim is essential. It is the source of his dream.

Cooperation and collective endeavour to dare to believe in a differnt Palestine and Israel. One that reflected his and his close friend, Palestinian academic Edward Said, common understanding. That only through dialouge, in this case music reflecting ideas, can there be understanding and peace.

Also a highlight of Voices Forward, the recent film fest that aimed to promote Israeli and Palestinian dialogue -- conductor Daniel Barenboim and the late writer Edward Said create the Middle East's most unique peace initiative: An orchestra made up of young Arab, Palestinian and Jewish players. TORONTO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL Globe and Mail, Canada - 5 May 2006

Barenboims Dream is not his alone but one he shared with Said and that is shared by those of us who oppose the current State of affairs in Israel and Palestine.

I Have a Dream

Only twenty-four hours. To change the world you must stick to this timetable. In my dream, I am Prime Minister of Israel. My baton conducts a magnificent new symphony- a Treaty celebrating the harmonious co-existence of Israel and Palestine. In this work I will accomplish what has been impossible until now - the equal rights of these two peoples in the Middle East. The theme of the overture has Jerusalem as the common capital city. This Holy Town should immediately become a shared home for Christians, Muslims and Jews. For me, Jerusalem is a city that still resonates with a history from beyond the ancient civilizations of Rome and Athens.

It is Thursday morning, eight am. A sunny sky, the air mild. It's a pleasant autumn day that has an air about it of history in the making. The philosopher Baruch Spinoza knocks at the door of my residence, diagonally across from the wall of prayers. Though he has been dead for 300 years I have selected him as my advisor. He has brought my favorite food, hummus. There is also fresh pressed orange juice and strong coffee.

Just as we finish strengthening ourselves the phone rings. It is my friend Edward Said. In real life he is Professor of Literature at Columbia University, but in my dream he has been selected by the Palestinians to sign the peace treaty. 'Hey', I say to him, 'where are you? We want to make peace today, and you're going to be late?' When he finally turns up, all three of us know that there will be no turning back. To start with we decide that the Peace-treaty will be enacted from the 15th of May: because on this day fifty-one years ago both our peoples were at war. For the Jews it was the War of Independence, for the Palestinians it was the 'Alnakbah' - ' the Catastrophe.' From tomorrow this anniversary of war will only be known as the 'Day of Peace'.

Three conditions must be met, or the Treaty will not be worth the paper it is written on. Firstly, both nations are obligated to work together. This cooperation will be so tight that not only our economic futures, but also our cultural and scientific futures, will be interwoven. This ensures that Palestine and Israel will be as close-knit as a family. It also implies solidarity. For example, what is to be done with the money European banks stole from the Jews during the Fascist era? My dream is, if there are no survivors to whom to give the money, then Israel should spend the millions of dollars on Palestine refugees.

Secondly, I am in favour of arming both nations. Israel must remain vigilant against the Arab world – but so should Palestine, (at least for her own peace of mind). It will be very difficult for the ultra-religious Jews to accept this. I'll take options in my treaty to separate Church and State – like in the rest of the Western world. I would do everything for the religious and for the study of religion. After all, Judaism is almost a science, and the Talmud is much more than just a text we declaim. But what will I do about the spectre of radical religious groups…?

Of course this runs counter to the State ideology of Israel, Zionism will hold no cant with discourse when it can run around screaming Anti-Semitism at it's critics. And heaven forbid you be a Jew who castigates the State for being less than free and democratic. Let alone culturally open.

DANIEL Barenboim is a Jewish conductor who attracts lightning, most recently when an Israeli minister called him "a real Jew-hater, a real anti-Semite". He has been accused of worse and it makes him angry. But right now he has another bee in his bonnet.

"I am very unhappy, and have been for a long time, about the place of music in society," he says. It makes him so exasperated that he has devoted a series of broadcast talks, commissioned by the BBC for its Reith Lectures (the equivalent of the Boyer Lectures), on the subject. He began pianissimo in London early last month and built his theme during the ensuing weeks in Chicago, Berlin, Ramallah and finally Jerusalem.

After breaking an Israeli cultural taboo by giving a performance in Jerusalem of Richard Wagner, whose music sometimes accompanied Jews to the Nazi gas chambers, he was accused of cultural rape.

"Someone had to explain to me the meaning of that expression," he says wryly. While acknowledging Wagner was a virulent anti-Semite, Barenboim contends that he was not responsible for Auschwitz.

Last summer, his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra of young Israeli and Arab musicians set alight the Proms in London before playing in Ramallah, the Palestinian town under virtual occupation in the West Bank.

He feels less at ease in Israel, where he lived briefly as a child, than in Germany, where he runs the Berlin State Opera and is a champion of German music. He is also completing his few months as musical director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

So what is his beef about music's place in society? "My main grievance is that music is not any more part of the general culture," he replies. "When you go to kindergarten and school, you don't come into contact with classical music. No one seems to think it's as important to know your Beethoven as your Shakespeare or Goethe." Music to mend a broken world

Daniel Barenboim - The Paradox of the Peacemaker

By Norman Lebrecht / November 6, 2002

There is no bigger name or more complex paradox on the modern concert platform than the Argentine-born Israeli pianist-turned-conductor and peace campaigner, Daniel Barenboim.

Publicly, Barenboim is a paragon of liberal enlightenment. He has brought together an orchestra of young Israelis and Palestinians in Weimar, beneath the shadow of the Buchenwald death camp, and bravely given recitals in the insurrectionist West Bank towns of Ramallah and Bir Zeit. He has just brought out in America a book of conversations with the New York-based Palestinian academic Edward Said, whom he describes as 'my most intimate friend'.

In Jerusalem he declared that prime minister Ariel Sharon would be unwelcome at his concerts. The Israeli right clamoured for his arrest over curfew violations and hecklers in a restaurant called him 'traitor' (his wife, Elena, loyally pelted them with salad vegetables). But when the Madrid government awarded him Spanish citizenship last month, Barenboim insisted that he would continue to travel the world on his restrictive Israeli passport.

In Germany, where he heads the Berlin state opera, he is a symbol of anti-racism. In the US, as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he successfully premiered a memorial symphony for Aids victims and a celebration of Afro-American creativity.

Barenboim's own web page testifies to his enlightenment politics, influenced as they are by Spinoza another Jew who was hated by the Jewish establishment of his day.

What is interesting is that I have been reading Toni Negri's study of Spinoza in light of Marx. And Spinoza was one of the most important early philosophers to the young Hegelians, as Marx and Engels point out in the Holy Family. He remains one of the most over looked and under rated of philosophers by those in academia even today.

And it could well be because of an inherent anti-semitism that underscores the dismissal of his work on Freedom. He was after all an athiest, and a defender of athiesm while it was still a hanging offense in England. While a materialist philosopher, he also embraced a metaphysics that undercuts the empiricism of the later English and German philosophers.

That metaphysics, which Negri tackles, is one of Freedom. And it is just this appeal to Freedom that Barnenboim uses as the basis of his critique of Zionism and it's State in Istrael.

The Purpose Of The State Is Freedom

Daniel Barenboim on the relevance of Spinoza's Ethics to the conflict in the Middle East - and music

I read Spinoza's Ethics for the first time when I was 13 years old. Of course we studied the Bible at school - which for me is the ultimate philosophical work. However, reading Spinoza opened up a new dimension for me. I am still dedicated to it. Spinoza's simple principle 'man thinks' has become an existential mindset for me. My copy of Ethics has become dog-eared and torn. For years I took it with me on my travels and in hotel rooms or intervals in concerts I became absorbed by many of the principles.

Spinoza's Ethics is the best training ground for the intellect, because Spinoza like no other philosopher teaches us the radical freedom of thought. Only an individual who reflects on all consequences in life is able to find a form of happiness. This awareness has become a kind of pre-Freudian self-analysis for me. Spinoza helps me to see myself objectively. This makes life bearable even in experiencing suffering; and with the teachings from the Ethics the world is perceived as manageable.

The great Voltaire once accused Spinoza of 'abusing metaphysics'. Is not the uncompromising nature of metaphysics more important today than ever? Has not liberated thinking become the most valued freedom at a time when political systems, social constraints, moral codes and political correctness often control our thinking?

Spinoza would not tolerate restrictions, imposed by any political or religious system or by any moral attitude. He struggled for the ideal of free thought. Hardly any other philosopher made so many enemies. He was labelled 'a troublemaking Jew', banned from the synagogue and from the academic establishment. Even his pupils would acknowledge him in private. And when Karl Ludwig asked the impoverished lonely philosopher to lecture at the University of Heidelberg, he turned him down. Spinoza could not guarantee that his thinking would not threaten 'widely accepted religious concepts'. The philosopher in him preferred the quiet retiring life to a bourgeois career.

Spinoza had no particular interest in music. Nonetheless, his logic was influenced by his approach to music. My father, who studied philosophy, was the first to introduce me to Spinoza. He advised me to look at scores philosophically and rationally. Spinoza's principle that reason and emotion cannot be separated, became for me a primary approach to music. I believe that one can approach a concept and a piece of music only if the logical structure can be established simultaneously with the emotional content.

I think back to the last discussion I had with the great conductor Otto Klemperer. We talked about Spinoza and he said "Spinoza's Ethics is the most important book ever written". Klemperer was, as we know, Jewish. At the age of 22 he converted to Christianity because he believed that only as a Christian could he conduct Bach's St Matthew Passion. Many years later, after the War, when Klemperer had already reached old age, he converted back to Judaism. And the reason he gave was Spinoza's Ethics. Perhaps the most important Jewish philosophy. Questions about Jewish ethics and morals and "What is being Jewish?" were long identified as being a minority. The traditional thinking and perceived identity of the Jewish people in its 2,000 year history was as a minority. Historically the Jews were integrated into social and cultural life but tragically persecuted under the Spanish Inquisition and the tyranny of Adolf Hitler. What is special about Spinoza's philosophy is that, despite persecution, abuse and alienation, his thinking was never based on the premise of Jews being a minority. That is precisely why his philosophy is so contemporary, now that the Jewish people have their own state, i.e. are no longer a minority. Spinoza's Ethics remains a potent formula for creating intellectual and moral unity among the Jews.

When in 1948 the Jews achieved statehood, the minority became a nation. This development was at the core of a profound change of identity. However, only 19 years later, the Jews in Israel had to meet a new challenge: the former minority suddenly found it had control over another minority, the Palestinians. This second transition has not yet been achieved. I would go so far as to say that it has not yet actually started. Even today, many Jews in Israel are still not real patriots, concerned with the good fortune of all inhabitants of Israel; they have taken on naïve nationalism. Spinoza once stated 'the purpose of the State is in true freedom'. I wonder how far Israel has progressed with the State on the one hand and with freedom on the other. Spinoza speaks of the equality of mankind - the idea of the ruler and the ruled are foreign to him. Israeli democracy has not yet solved the problem of a state where minorities are suppressed yet freedom for all is the key goal. We are still living in a two-class democracy.

I am convinced that the Jews in Israel must come to a conclusion about their position before the conflict in the Middle East can be resolved. Jewish humour demonstrates that this is not yet the case. The humour of a minority demands courage. A Jew who throws a piece of stale bread before the feet of a Gestapo officer in the Warsaw Ghetto and says "that's good enough for a non-Jew!" is displaying courage. A Jew who throws a piece of stale bread before the feet of a Palestinian and uses the same words, "that's good enough for a non-Jew" in Ramallah, demonstrates only primitive inhumanity.

In the Fifties, Spinoza's spirit was evident in Jerusalem - the city was the centre for Jewish intellectuals. Martin Buber and Max Brod taught there. I was living in Tel Aviv at the time. We were more practical - we built up the land, with hope and enthusiasm and created material value. The Hebrew University in Jerusalem provided the intellectual core of our lives. Now secular Jewry has left Jerusalem and the Orthodox Jews determine the spiritual climate; it is the reestablishment of the Spinoza philosophy in Jerusalem which is essential if progress is to be achieved in the conflict in the Middle East.

Spinoza suffered two experiences which are strongly evident today. Although a Jew, he was excluded from the Jewish community; he also became a victim of anti-semitism. A recent survey in Germany exposed the reality that a majority of Germans believe that the Jews were the greatest risk to world peace. Here a disturbing confusion has arisen: criticism of the State of Israel and anti-semitism. The one has become a reason for the other. There is every reason for criticism of the Israeli government -I have expressed it vehemently and often myself. To use this as a reason to fire anti-semitism is fatal.

Anti-semitism has no historical, political and certainly no philosophical origins. Anti-semitism is a disease. It is significant that Spinoza's ideas had an influence on what is regarded as typical German thinking today - on Feuerbach, Wagner and Nietzsche. How could Richard Wagner become an anti-semite while influenced by Spinoza? Anti-semitism definitely formed part of the profile of a German nationalist in the nineteenth century. Why did Wagner pursue this idea with such fervour? He could not draw these ideas from his spiritual father, the heir to Spinoza, Feuerbach. Wagner's anti-semitism, like any form of Jew-hating, had an irrational basis. He was too similar to his arch-enemies, the Jews Meyerbeer and Heinrich Heine. In the desire to belong to the chosen people, we have the dangerous separation of logic and private motives. Anti-semitism has no philosophical origins. It is a disease which we are not in any way adequately addressing.

A reading of Spinoza's Ethics makes this perfectly clear. It is as relevant today as ever. On the one hand it could be an opportunity for revelation to the reader - to logic and free thinking. On the other, it offers a philosophy for our laws of co-existence. With Spinoza's Ethics Israel could develop as a truly democratic state in which every part of the community defines its ethical values and the ultimate purpose of humanity.

Finally another Jew the marxist musicologist Sidney Finkelstein who promoted not only classical music but Afro-American music, Jazz, before it was popular, in his book How Music Expresses Ideas; says about the metaphysics of freedom

the ideas which music embodies are not the ideas which may be found in a scientific tract, but commentaries on a society showing what it means to live in it. They embrace developments in sensitivity, in the human's awareness of his own powers, and in the situation of internal freedom, as conditions change in the external world. In this way music joins the other arts in creating social consciousness, or the individual's awareness of the internal life he shares with society, and in revealing the internal history of society. The Experimental Years: A View from the Left

Finkelstein also wrote on the peasant origins of classical music. A source that Barenboim is trying to find in his search for Arab music of the Palestinian people for his youth orchestra to play.

It is not too difficult to understand why composers continue to this day to root themselves in the folk traditions of the nation. It is not only a way to enrich the musical imagination, it is also a way to identify with some of music's most progressive traditions. Obviously, as capitalism continues to destroy the social basis of folk music--the peasantry--it will be more and more difficult to find inspiration in the world that surrounds the composer. Singling out Bartok, the great communist musicologist Sidney Finkelstein addressed this theme in "Composer and Nation: The Folk Heritage in Music":

"Bartok represents the end of a period, and at the same time helps lay the ground for a new development. He is the greatest of those in his generation who saw the peasantry as Synonymous with the nation; a viewpoint no longer possible in the next generation. For the transformation of the countryside is a world-wide process. Whether under the conditions of capitalism or socialism, masses of peasants, farmers, farm workers and their children are entering city industrial life, and those that remain on the land are working under conditions of large-scale production that bring them close to the city working class. The cultural isolation of the countryside, which fostered the great oral tradition of folk music but the other side of which was poverty and illiteracy, is being broken down. Like the research of others in folk music, Bartok’s devoted and intensive effort to record and preserve the old forms of folk music came at a time when this music was losing its currency as a living oral tradition. And the preservation of this music gives it renewed life on a different level, for it becomes part of the conscious national heritage, lending its vitality to new forms of musical creation." Muzsikás and Bela Bartok

Finkelstein faced anti-semitism as well as anti-communist hysteria from the American right during his life time too.The Marxist Minstrels

An intolerance that is reflected today in the Zionist attacks on Barenboim. And by those who would create States that limit the freedom of the people.


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Opinion

Britain’s greatest living conductor has fled to Berlin – it’s a loss to us all

Simon Heffer
Sat, 4 May 2024 

Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2004 - United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

Simon Rattle is perhaps Britain’s greatest living conductor. He achieved eminence at an age when many in his profession are struggling to feed themselves, becoming assistant conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at 19, and joining Glyndebourne the following year. 

He was still only 25 when, in 1980, he was appointed conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He became principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in 2002, and then music director of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2017. Now he is back in Germany, conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Rattle has not lacked critics. Some musicians have questioned his interpretations of the classics, and he caused upset on the eve of his departure for Berlin by attacking the British attitude to culture and to public funding of the arts. His appointment in Berlin was mildly controversial. It was made by a vote of the orchestral players, a substantial minority of whom wanted Daniel Barenboim in the role. 

Rattle’s achievements in Berlin, notably his championship of new music, were considerable, but it took several years for the orchestra to get used to him. The conductor himself described his relationship with the players as “turbulent”. However, he was doing something right: in 2008 the orchestra decided not to wait until 2012 to renew his 10-year contract, but did so at once. 

One reason for his growing popularity was that he ensured the orchestra was better paid, and that it was controlled by a foundation rather than by the Berlin Senate. He also set up an education department, renewing a commitment to young musicians that had been the hallmark of his time at Birmingham.

In his long career, he has shown a catholicity of taste; this was seldom more visible than in his recent tenure of the LSO. Part of his legacy there is captured on a new disc in the LSO Live series, which contains recordings of three works by Benjamin Britten.

To my mind, Rattle’s golden age as a recording artist coincided with his time at Birmingham – the repertoire included some fine recordings of British music, a canon the Germans in particular seem not to recognise exists. He recorded numerous works by Britten with the CBSO, not least the explosive Sinfonia da Requiem, a piece that defines the composer’s genius. An equally outstanding account of that work is on the LSO Live disc; it is worth buying for that alone.

However, it also includes the only performance of Britten’s Spring Symphony that I have heard that matches, and in some respects exceeds, the recording made by the composer himself more than 60 years ago. Rattle creates a clarity, intensity and, eventually, exuberance that are utterly mesmerising. The disc ends with a performance of The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra that richly demonstrates Rattle’s command of his players. Any admirer of Rattle, and indeed of Britten, should own this recording.

Why Do Americans Get Attacked for Saying What Israelis Say about Israel?

Story by John Nichols • Yesterday 

 The Nation


Twenty years ago, in June of 2003, B’Tselem, Israel’s largest human rights organization, complained that Israel was “enshrining racism in law.” Objecting to temporary legislation that rescinded the right of Israeli citizens who had married residents of the Occupied Territories to establish their home in Israel, the group said, “This bill is racist.”

Two years later, when the Israeli Knesset enacted a law restricting the family unification of Israeli citizens and residents (including residents of East Jerusalem) and Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem declared that the restriction was “racist and violates the principle of equality.”

Founded by Israeli parliamentarians, civil liberties lawyers, and academics, B’Tselem would eventually determine, in 2021, that, “Israel is not a democracy that has a temporary occupation attached to it: it is one regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and we must look at the full picture and see it for what it is: apartheid. This sobering look at reality need not lead to despair, but quite the opposite. It is a call for change. After all, people created this regime, and people can change it.”

That was not an isolated statement of concern. International human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have described Israeli policies that systemically discriminate against Palestinians as “apartheid.” And so do many prominent Israeli political and cultural figures. Former Israeli cabinet members Yossi Sarid, a 32-year-member of the Knesset and longtime columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, and Shulamit Aloni, a 26-year-member of the Knesset who was a recipient of the prestigious Israel Prize, had both concluded before B’Tselem’s 2021 report was published that Israel was practicing a form of apartheid. A year after the report was released, internationally acclaimed Israeli novelist AB Yehoshua wrote that, “The cancer today is apartheid in the West Bank.” The same year, former Israeli Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair concluded: “It is with great sadness that I must also conclude that my country has sunk to such political and moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime. It is time for the international community to recognize this reality as well.”

These are, to be sure, controversial opinions—within Israel and beyond its borders. But they are opinions that are frequently voiced by prominent Israelis—including conductor Daniel Barenboim, who wrote in 2018, “we have a law that confirms the Arab population as second-class citizens. It follows that this is a very clear form of apartheid. I don’t think the Jewish people lived for 20 centuries, mostly through persecution and enduring endless cruelties, in order to become the oppressors, inflicting cruelty on others.”

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So how is that, when American political figures use words such as “racist” and “apartheid” to describe Israeli policies, they face not just a withering rhetorical assault from media pundits and politicians — including charges of antisemitism– but immediate congressional action rejecting the language?

Last weekend, Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal caused a stir when she said at the Netroots Nation conference in Chicago that “it is clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy.” Condemnations were fast and furious—from House Republicans and many Democrats. Jayapal quickly clarified that “I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist. I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government.”

That did not blunt the outcry from congressional Republicans and the vast majority of their Democratic colleagues, who on Tuesday voted 412-9 for a hastily crafted resolution that asserted Israel “is not a racist or apartheid state” and declared that the U.S. “will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel.”

Progressive Caucus members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), Jamaal Bowman (New York) Summer Lee (Pennsylvania) Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Cori Bush (Missouri), André Carson (Indiana), Delia Ramirez (Illinois) and Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts) opposed the resolution, while Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum voted “present.”

Jayapal voted for the measure, as did several other outspoken critics of Israeli policies, including Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin, who sought to reframe the debate by describing the measure as “aspirational: it embodies what Israel wants to be and what we hope it is.”

“But,” he added, “if we want to make this vision a reality, then as friends of Israel, we must point out the significant barriers to those aspirations – as any good friend would.” Pocan concluded, “Israel is a friend of the United States. Criticism of the Israeli government and their actions is not antisemitism – it’s real and honest friendship.”

Among those who voted “no” on the resolution, Tlaib spoke most bluntly, declaring, “I am the only Palestinian American serving in Congress and I have family members all throughout the West Bank—what many people call the illegally occupied territories But we’re here again reaffirming Congress’s support for apartheid, policing the words of women of color who dare to speak up about truths, about oppression. It’s just not what we should be doing here in Congress.”

Most of Tlaib’s colleagues disagreed with her. Some of them quite ardently, and undoubtedly sincerely. Yet, the reference to the policing of language stung in a chamber that was racing with uncommon urgency to proscribe words that have been used by Israeli human rights groups, political figures, and cultural icons.

PATHETIQUE
Senate Democrats hit roadblock in bid to help millions become U.S. citizens

David Shepardson
Sun., September 19, 2021

U.S. Democratic senators face reporters following weekly

 policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington


By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Senate Democrats hit a major roadblock on Sunday in their effort to allow millions of immigrants to legally stay in the United States, after the Senate Parliamentarian ruled against attaching the measure to a $3.5 trillion spending bill, lawmakers said.

The provision aimed to give a path to citizenship for millions, including so-called Dreamer immigrants, brought to the United States as children, who are protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Farmworkers, essential workers and immigrants with temporary protected status, which gives work permits and deportation relief to those hailing from nations hit by violence or natural disasters, also stood to benefit.

In a statement, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats were "deeply disappointed in this decision but the fight to provide lawful status for immigrants in budget reconciliation continues."

Senate Democrats have prepared alternate proposals and aimed to hold further meetings with the Senate parliamentarian, Schumer added.

A legislative remedy has become all the more pressing since a July court ruling that struck down DACA, which now protects around 640,000 young immigrants.

Sunday's ruling was "deeply disappointing," a White House spokesperson said, but added, "We fully expect our partners in the Senate to come back with alternative immigration-related proposals for the parliamentarian to consider."

On Twitter, Senator Chuck Grassley, the Judiciary Committee's top Republican, praised the parliamentarian's ruling, saying, "Mass amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants isn’t a budgetary issue appropriate for reconciliation."

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, "Democrats will not be able to stuff their most radical amnesty proposals into the reckless taxing and spending spree they are assembling behind closed doors."

An estimate in Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough's ruling, obtained by Reuters, showed the step would have helped about 8 million people become lawful permanent residents, including about 7 million now deemed to infringe the law.

MacDonough said that if the reform were allowed to proceed in a budget bill a future Senate could then rescind anyone's immigration status on the basis of a majority vote.

That would be a "stunning development ... and is further evidence that the policy changes of this proposal far outweigh the budgetary impact scored to it," she added.

"It is not appropriate for inclusion in reconciliation."

Lawful permanent status allows people to work, travel, live openly in U.S. society and become eligible, in time, to apply for citizenship, MacDonough said.

As the Senate's parliamentarian, MacDonough, in the job since 2012 under both Republicans and Democrats, advises lawmakers about what is acceptable under the chamber's rules and precedents, sometimes with lasting consequences.

Chosen by the Senate majority leader, the holder of the job is expected to be non-partisan.

Early this year, MacDonough barred inclusion of a minimum wage hike in a COVID-19 aid bill.

Most U.S. Senate bills require support from 60 of the 100 members to go to a vote. Budget reconciliation measures, however, can clear the chamber on a simple majority vote, in which case Vice President Kamala Harris could break the tie.

The proposed designation of essential workers covered 18 major categories and more than 220 sub-categories of employment, MacDonough said in the ruling.

DACA beneficiaries receive work authorization, access to driver's licenses and better access, for some, to financial aid for education, but not a path to citizenship.

The law protects primarily young Hispanic adults born in Mexico and countries in Central and South America who were brought to the United States as children.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Susan Cornwell Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Daniel Barenboim plays Beethoven Sonata No. 8 Op. 13 (Pathetique)

Beethoven Graphic Novel in the Works

Graeme McMillan 

© David Mack/Z2 Comics

Z2 Comics is continuing its line of music-themed graphic novel releases with a brand new project spotlighting one of the most acclaimed musicians and composers of all time, The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively reveal. Following books showcasing artists as diverse as Poppy, The Grateful Dead, and Charlie Parker, this November will see the release of Final Symphony: A Beethoven Anthology.

Produced in association with Universal Music Group, the graphic novel will retell Ludwig van Beethoven’s life story with a number of “world class artists” celebrating the main events with all-new illustrations, as per the publisher. The book will be released with an accompanying compilation of Beethoven’s music by Z2 and Deutsche Grammophon a month ahead of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in December.

“As one of the longest-standing record labels, Deutsche Grammophon has been celebrating Beethoven’s 250th anniversary this year with a number of projects, including the most comprehensive New Complete Edition of Beethoven’s Works ever issued and wonderful new releases with stars like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma and Rudolf Buchbinder,” said Deutsche Grammophon VP of marketing Kleopatra Sofrioniou in a statement. “We are delighted to be encouraging the dialogue between the visual arts and classical music and hope that this exciting new project will open doors for comic book fans to discover the magic of Beethoven’s music.”

“Beethoven wrote some of the most universally recognizable pieces of music in the history of the planet,” added Z2 publisher Josh Frankel. “It is of course, incredibly exciting to publish the work of some of today’s well-known artists, but to have this chance to tell comic book stories from and inspired by the life of one of the most legendary artists of all time is humbling. We have done our very best to honor this by putting together what we believe will be an essential read for music lovers of all ages.”

Final Symphony: A Beethoven Anthology will be written by Brandon Montclare (Marvel’s Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Image Comics’ Rocket Girl), with David Mack (Cover, Daredevil) providing painted cover artwork, as seen above. The line-up of artists illustrating the book will be revealed at a later date.

War in Ukraine: ‘It’s not clear whether there is an endgame’

As the war rages in Ukraine, “it’s not clear whether there is an endgame,” warns Dr. Natasha Kuhrt, Lecturer in War Studies Education at King’s College London. She mentions one possible scenario whereby Russia emerges victorious and “essentially Ukraine would be brought back into the Russian fold” sans Zelensky. “There’s been talk about Yanukovych being brought back, being brought in as a kind of puppet leader, should there be a Russian victory,” although Dr. Kuhrt thinks “that would be a very strange move, given his unpopularity.” Yet she also recognizes that “any Russian occupation is obviously going to have to be without the consent of the Ukrainian people, and will only succeed with wide-scale repression, which is the kind of scenario we’ve seen in Chechnya.”

Russia sieges Ukrainian cities amid world condemnation

Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv and Mariupol face heavy shelling, as an incursion into Kyiv looms. Meanwhile, over 1 million people have fled Ukraine and the ICC has opened a war crimes inquiry.

The invasion has devastated Ukraine's civilian population, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee

Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters its eighth day

International Criminal Court opens war crimes investigation into Russia

The majority of UN member states call for Russian forces to leave Ukraine

Air raid sirens in Kyiv

Residents of the Ukrainian capital were told to go to the nearest shelter early Thursday morning. Videos shared on social media showed explosions hitting the city.

Watch video 04:49 Kyiv under attack: Ukrainian MP Yelyzaveta Yasko talks to DW

More than 1 million refugees flee Ukraine

The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said more than 1 million people have fled Ukraine.

Grandi tweeted, "In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighboring countries."

The 1 million figure amounts to the displacement of more than 2% of Ukraine's population. As of 2020, World Bank figures showed Ukraine had a population of 44 million.

The UNHCR predicts up to 4 million people could make an exodus out of Ukraine, though with the caveat that this figure too could increase.

At this rate, UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said that "at this rate" Ukraine could experience "the biggest refugee crisis this century."

German TV to broadcast benefit 'Concert for Peace'

German television will broadcast a soldout "Concert for Peace" to raise funds for humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine. The concert is being organized by the Berlin State Opera with Staatskapelle Berlin star conductor Daniel Barenboim.

The concert and television event will be in the form of a matinee scheduled for Sunday. Proceeds will go to the UN Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UNHF).

The presidents of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, and the Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel, will attend. Both central banks will make donations to the UNHF.

The Ukrainian national anthem, based on Pavlo Chubynsky's poem "Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished," set to music by Michailo Werbizki, will be included along with symphonies by Schubert and Beethoven.

The Berlin State Opera said its management and staff were "horrified, shocked and deeply concerned about the war that the Russian government has launched against Ukraine."

ICC proceeds with war crimes inquiry in Ukraine

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan QC announced he is opening an active investigation into war crimes occurring against the civilian population of Ukraine.

In a statement, Khan wrote, "I have notified the ICC Presidency a few moments ago of my decision to immediately proceed with active investigations in the Situation. Our work in the collection of evidence has now commenced."

Thirty-nine signatories to the court's jurisdiction, including Germany, referred the situation in Ukraine to the ICC, speeding up the course by which it could act.

Russia is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the treaty which established the ICC.

UN records 752 civilian deaths in Ukraine

The UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) monitoring mission in Ukraine said it had recorded 752 deaths among Ukrainian civilians since the conflict began at 4 a.m. (0300 GMT) on February 24. An additional 525 have reportedly been injured during the war.

In a statement, the monitoring mission noted, "This is more than the total number of civilian casualties recorded by OHCHR in the conflict zone of eastern Ukraine from 2018-2021," when 136 people were killed.

"Most of these casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and airstrikes," the UN body said.

The statement added that the UN "believes that real figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intensive hostilities have been going on was delayed and many reports were still pending corroboration."
Summary of events in Ukraine-Russia crisis on Wednesday

The Russian military said it took control of the southern city of Kherson, yet both the Ukrainian military and Pentagon disputed the claim.

The UN registered 752 civilian deaths in Ukraine since the invasion began on February 28.

A member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation's (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission was killed during an attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

Russia claims 498 of its troops have been killed so far, a number far lower than Ukrainian estimates.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the war has ushered in a "new era" for Europe and urged the continent to take charge of its own security.

Meanwhile, US top diplomat Antony Blinken described the death toll in Ukraine as "staggering" and voiced support for a cease-fire. President Joe Biden vowed to "inflict pain" on Russian Vladimir Putin in his State of the Union address.

A vast majority of member states in the UN General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution calling for Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine. Russia, along with four other countries, voted against the measure.

Watch video 01:58 Guterres: 'The message of the General Assembly is loud and clear'

The International Criminal Court confirmed that it will open an investigation into the conflict in Ukraine.

In Germany, the mayor of Berlin is calling on other German states to assist in helping Ukrainian refugees.

In addition, Germany has pledged help for Ukrainian forces on the ground, with German weapons having arrived in the country.

Russia's economy has taken a hit due to Western sanctions, with international credit rating agency Fitch downgrading Russia to "B" and several multinational firms shuttering operations in Russia.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny called for daily anti-war protests in Russia and Belarus to decry the invasion.

wd, ar/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)

UN: Large majority backs condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Well over 100 UN member states voted to demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. China abstained from the vote rather than backing Moscow, only five countries voted against.



Only five states, including Russia itself, voted against the resolution

The UN General Assembly voted to demand Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine by a large majority on Wednesday following its invasion of the country that began six days ago.

With 141 UN member states, out of a total of 193, backing the resolution, Moscow is finding itself increasingly isolated on the world stage.

Ahead of the vote, those behind the resolution had been hoping for at least 100 votes in favor, making the final figure quite unexpected.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock thanked those member states who voted for the resolution for this "historical result." She wrote on Twitter that the vote made clear "when our peaceful order is under attack, we stand together."

Key member states such as China and India, who have yet to explicitly condemn the invasion themselves, abstained, along with 33 others. Only five countries voted against: Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea.

Watch video 09:40 UN General Assembly adopts Ukraine resolution: DW's Richard Walker

Russia rejects resolution

The General Assembly resolution "demanded that the Russian Federation immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine and to refrain from any further unlawful threat or use of force against any UN member state."

The text passed by the assembly also expressed "grave concern at reports of attacks on civilian facilities such as residences, schools and hospitals, and of civilian casualties, including women, older persons, persons with disabilities, and children."

Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, responded to the vote saying: "This document will not allow us to stop military activities."

Instead, he argued, it would encourage "radical forces" and "nationalists" in Kyiv.

Moscow has repeatedly referred to the democratically elected government of Ukraine as extremists, saying part of its campaign is to "de-nazify" the country, that is, to remove the government, including its Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Russia's goal is 'genocide'

The resolution was first presented to the assembly in an emergency meeting on Monday — only the 11th time such a meeting has been called in the UN's 77-year history. The international appeal is not legally binding, but the session was called after a similar resolution was halted by a Russian veto at the more powerful UN Security Council late last week.

"They have come to deprive Ukraine of the very right to exist," Ukraine's ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told the Assembly ahead of the vote. "It's already clear that the goal of Russia is not an occupation only. It is genocide."

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of increasing "brutality."

"We've seen videos of Russian forces moving exceptionally lethal weaponry into Ukraine, which has no place on the battlefield that includes cluster munitions and vacuum bombs, which are banned under the Geneva Convention," she said.

Originally the text of the resolution said that the assembly "condemns" the invasion, but this was changed several times to broaden its appeal. In the end the assembly said it "deplores in the strongest terms the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine."

But the resolution did clarify that the UN was "condemning" Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to put his country's nuclear forces on alert.

ab/msh (dpa, AFP)

Ukraine: Zelenskyy says Russia wants to 'erase our country'

Ukraine's president has condemned Russia's attack on Kyiv, saying the conflict cannot be won with rockets and bombs. He also called on Jewish people to speak out after a missile strike damaged a Holocaust site.



Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned a Russian attack on Kyiv that damaged a Holocaust memorial

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday accused Russia of trying to "erase" his country and its history.

Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine six days ago with attacks on the capital, Kyiv, and other cities. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have fled to safety in neighboring countries.

Speaking in a video address, Zelenskyy claimed that almost 6,000 Russian soldiers had been killed since the invasion began on Thursday, adding that Moscow cannot win the conflict with rockets and bombs.

Russia's Major General Igor Konashenkov later said 498 Russian troops had been killed and 1,597 more wounded, the first time Moscow had issued specific figures on casualties. He dismissed the higher death toll as "disinformation.''


A woman cuddles her newborn baby in her arms at a basement used as a bomb shelter at the Okhmadet children's hospital in central Kyiv

Strike damages Babyn Yar

Zelenskyy also condemned a Russian missile strike that hit a television tower in the capital and damaged the site of a Holocaust massacre, saying it shows that "for many people in Russia our Kyiv is completely foreign."

"They know nothing about our capital. About our history. But they have an order to erase our history. Erase our country. Erase us all," he said.

Kyiv's TV tower is next to the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial

Ukrainian authorities said five people were killed in the strike near the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial. During World War II, German occupying troops killed more than 33,000 Jews at the site.

"We all died again by Babyn Yar. Although the world has promised again and again that it will never happen again," said Zelenskyy, who is Jewish.

"Don't you see what is happening? That's why it is very important now that you, millions of Jews around the world, do not stay silent. Because Nazism is born in silence. Scream about murdering of civilians, scream about murdering of Ukrainians."

Holocaust remembrance organizations have also condemned the attack.

Russia claims control of Kherson

Russian forces have faced tougher than expected resistance since the invasion began and have not released their own casualty figures.

On Wednesday, Russia's army claimed to have taken control of the southern city of Kherson, while shelling continued in Mariupol and Kharkiv. Meanwhile, a massive Russian convoy has been inching toward Kyiv from the north.

DW correspondent Mathias Bölinger, who is in western Ukraine, said it was not clear what the massive Russian military convoy advancing toward Kyiv would do next.

"We have seen these columns standing there for some time. There are also questions about how long they can stand there because all the fuel and food that they have with them will be eaten away in the time they are standing there."

ICC to start 'active' probe into war crimes in Ukraine


Russian forces have shelled Ukraine's second-biggest city, Kharkiv

 (AFP/Sergey BOBOK) (Sergey BOBOK)

Jan HENNOP
Wed, March 2, 2022

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Wednesday an active probe into possible war crimes in Ukraine "will immediately proceed" after his office received the backing of 39 countries.

The countries include all EU member states, as well as Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland and several Latin American countries.

"I have notified the ICC Presidency a few moments ago of my decision to immediately proceed with active investigations in the Situation" in Ukraine, Karim Khan wrote in a statement.

"Our work in the collection of evidence has now commenced," he added.

Khan announced Monday he was opening a probe into alleged war crimes committed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last week.

Khan said he believed there was a "reasonable basis" to believe that crimes within the court's jurisdiction had been committed.

But he needed the Hague-based court's judges to approve his decision before going ahead.

However, the ICC countries' referral now means that Khan's probe can continue without the judges' approval, speeding up the process.

"These referrals enable my office to proceed with opening an investigation into the situation in Ukraine from 21 November 2013 onwards," Khan said.

That would include "any past and present allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed on any part of the territory of Ukraine by any person," Khan said.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "guilty of a war crime" after civilians were bombed in Ukraine, echoing an earlier accusation by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Khan, who was recently appointed as prosecutor, said his probe will be conducted "objectively and independently" and focus on "ensuring accountability for crimes falling within ICC jurisdiction".

The Hague-based ICC was established in 2002 as an independent court to try individuals accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC, however, can only prosecute crimes committed on the territory of its 123 member states.

Ukraine is not a member, but in 2014 accepted the jurisdiction of the Court.

Moscow withdrew from the ICC, so the court will only be able to reach Russians if they are arrested on the territory of a state that respects the jurisdiction of the court.

The ICC is also hampered by the fact that it has no police force and relies on state parties to detain suspects -- with varying success in the past.

jhe/lb