This solstice, celebrate trees with their gift of diversity and life, conserve dwindling resources from human predation, and aim at ending all tyrannies, capitalism, racism and bigotry and especially US imperial hegemony, the dominion of apartheid Israel over Indigenous Palestinians and Indonesia over West Papuans.
In the home zone, here’s to de-amalgamation of Noosa from the development-crazed southern Sunshine Coast vultures and protection of our UNESCO-designated biosphere in March – even if the rest of the planet goes down due to pollution and over-consumption, at least we succeeded in living in harmonious sustainability with the environment in Noosa!
Me to parent as one surveys the mountains of child-placating crap: ‘Wow, what a lot of plastic!’
Parent: ‘I never got anything at Christmas as a child so I am making sure my kids get everything!’
Me: ‘So you really spent thousands of dollars on yourself.’
Parent: ‘We can spend hours together building this rare R2D2 lego model!’
Me to child: ‘Did you get any books?’
Child: ‘No, just this instruction manuel for Power Rangers’.
Facts Uncovered: Amazing Revelations About Israel’s International Harp Contest
Why are harpists showing dwindling interest in travelling to Israel for the Harp Contest? The Contest website boasts that it looks ahead to the next 50 years, and invites harpists to join in the 18th contest from November to December, and lodge in the biblical city of Jaffa near Tel Aviv beaches.
Some interesting facts have come to light about the International Harp Contest in Israel. According to Carl Swanson, former student of the late master harpist Pierre Jamet, Israel was only supposed to be the location for the International Harp Contest in its inaugural year. Swanson wrote on a forum in the harpcolumn website: Just to let you know: My teacher, Pierre Jamet, was the one who came up with the idea of an international harp competition and was part of the original organization that founded the Israel Competition. But their original plan was to hold the competition in a different country each time, not always in Israel. They chose Israel for the first competition because of the story of King David. But as soon as the first competition took place, the Israeli organizers took hold of it and kept it in Israel. [1]
This anomaly in planning the hosting of the event should lead to serious questions by international harpists regarding the contest continually being held in Israel. More facts have been uncovered which show how the Israeli government financially sponsors the contest [2], and there is strong evidence that the harp is being used as a propaganda tool to promote the Zionist state of Israel.
ORIGINAL INTENTIONS NOT HONORED
The contest is being seriously misused since the original founders intended the competition to live up to its title as an “International” Contest. No doubt Pierre Jamet was very disappointed that the contest he helped to found never took place in his home city of Paris. Jamet’s former student, Ruth Inglefield, tells how he “worked tirelessly to help create the beginnings of the large international family [3].”
How sad that his plans were never realized. Jamet passed away in 1991, always knowing that his intentions were not honored. Indeed, research shows that Jamet disassociated himself from Israel after 1965, just 6 years after the contest began in Israel.
There were other harpists who were also undoubtedly disappointed that Israel “took hold of the contest.” Maria Korchinska (England), Phia Berghout (Holland), Clelia Gatti Aldrovandi (Italy), Vera Dulova (Russia), Nicanor Zabaleta (Spain), Lucile Johnson Rosenbloom, Lucile Lawrence and Eileen Malone (USA), Marcel Grandjany and Carlos Salzedo (USA and France) were all renowned harpists and founders of the contest, they must have had visions of someday seeing the tri-annual contest in their home countries as well. (above, this poster for the first contest is evidence that the liberty was taken to rename the contest thereafter)
DWINDLING INTEREST
The Israeli Meitar Collection Website states that:
The Harp Competition – the first in the world – was founded in 1959 on a shoe-string by [sic] Aaron Zvi Propes. It takes place every three years and is considered the most [sic] important world harp contest contributing to Israel’s prestige.
Thirty-six entrants up to age 35 are accepted for every competition [4]
In 2003, the International Harp Contest, according to Israeli harpist Sunita Staneslow, had only eleven competitors. It fell far short of 36 contestants! Staneslow wrote on her website:
There were only eleven competitors this year due to the political situation in Israel, and I wondered if that would mean a loss of stature to the competition. [5]
This is not surprising, as the contest focuses primarily on placing the culture of the Israeli state on the International stage [6], and not on harpists, their talent and art. So desperate are the organizers for participants, that the 2012 contest now offers to pay half of all hotel and food costs for contestants.
Varvara Ivanova, Julie Bunzel, Albane Mahe and Etsuko Shoji were four of the eleven contestants present in 2003, and they all received a prize in Israel. Yet, how difficult would it be to place when the competition is so scanty? By contrast, The USA International Harp Competition had 39 contestants in a recent competition [7]. Of course, Staneslow is right, there is great loss of stature to Israel’s Harp Contest.
The real underlying reason for that loss of stature and prestige comes from the fact that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people. Recently, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination emphasised:
The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations are notable because they establish that Israel’s policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are tantamount to Apartheid, and additionally determine that many state policies within Israel also violate the prohibition on Apartheid as enshrined in Article 3 of the Convention. [8]
HARPISTS PREFER CONTESTS IN EUROPE AND THE USA
In conclusion, efforts to revive the flailing contest in Israel are not likely to succeed, just as apartheid in Israel is not sustainable. Many harpists today do not even consider the Israel contest. They are looking to other contests such as the highly competitive and very popular USA International Harp Competition, the Lily Laskine in Paris[9], and the International Harp Competition of the Cité des Arts in Paris[10]. The Dutch Harp Competition is described as a “revolutionary international harp competition hosted in the Netherlands.[11]” The International Golden Harp Competition[12] was also recently inaugurated in Russia, and could likely replace the Israel Contest.
Harpists are likely investigating Israel’s many violations of human rights and are choosing to heed the call to boycott, reiterated by George Roger Waters of the legendary Pink Floyd:
This is, however, a plea to my colleagues in the music industry, and also to artists in other disciplines, to join this cultural boycott.
Artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa’s Sun City resort until apartheid fell and white people and black people enjoyed equal rights. And we are right to refuse to play in Israel until the day comes – and it surely will come – when the wall of occupation falls and Palestinians live alongside Israelis in the peace, freedom, justice and dignity that they all deserve.[13]
– George Roger Waters, The Guardian, UK, 11 March 2011
Music industry figure in Israel, Jeremy Hulsh of Oleh! Records, is encouraging the Israeli government to invest in up-and-coming musicians as soft sell ambassadors for state propaganda. From Oleh! Records’ business plan, the company has a broad interest in utilising culture as hasbara:
contributing to the overall Government’s desired long term outcome for the areas of Culture, Economic Development, Regional Cooperation, Public Diplomacy (branding), and Diaspora Relations – ‘A right to culture’ the right to create a culture and the right to consume culture’ as laid out particularly by the Ministry of Culture and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
…
Defining Israeli industry “characterized by groundbreaking entrepreneurship, Israel yields pioneering technologies, profitable business opportunities and high investment returns” – as claimed by the Ministry of Trade & Labor. Likewise- the explicit national agenda to “make it possible for every Israeli to participate in improving Israel’s image in the world, and thereby contribute to its political and economic strength as well as its international standing.” – as promoted by the Ministry of Public Diplomacy.
…
While Israeli music industry and culture professionals have long been aware that independent musicians and Israeli music sector-at large make significant contributions not only to local culture and the economy, Israeli music culture significantly improves relations with the Diaspora community and foreign populations as a measure of soft power.
Oleh! presently obtains funding from “philanthropic support outside the State of Israel including Australia and United States based foundations” and envisages that “Israeli Music will benefit from a synchronized brand identity which must be coordinated and marketed by a non governmental Israeli body with an apolitical association“.
In 2005, Nissim Ben-Sheetrit of Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated: “We see culture as a propaganda tool of the first rank, and I do not differentiate between propaganda and culture.”
Overcoming Israel’s unflattering image in the international media — especially in Europe — is another challenge. Malcolm Haynes, a music programmer for the U.K’s Glastonbury Festival, said he came to Israel to learn about the music scene and a little bit about the politics.
While Israel remains an obscure music scene, booking Israeli acts runs the risk of triggering boycotts, he said. Despite that, Haynes said he had been impressed by the musicians at the conference, and expected some might get invitations to play at Glastonberry. “I’m about building bridges.”
Despite the potential for boycott, Oleh Record’s Hulsh says that Israel’s government should invest more in helping fledgling artists reach concerts abroad as a way to boosting Israel’s image in an organic way rather than with heavy-handed propaganda.
“Each of them is an authentic cultural ambassador,” he said. “When they get on stage and tell their story, they change a narrative.”
All Israelis performing abroad who obtain Israeli government funding to do so are required to sign a contract which converts them into a marketing emissary for apartheid:
“The service provider undertakes to act faithfully, responsibly and tirelessly to provide the Ministry with the highest professional services. The service provider is aware that the purpose of ordering services from him is to promote the policy interests of the State of Israel via culture and art, including contributing to creating a positive image for Israel.”
No promotion of the state, no funding. Who can trust the stage ‘narrative’ of artists beholden to an apartheid government for favours?
Music cannot cross apartheid walls and it is an obscenity to pretend otherwise when oppressed Palestinians have requested global solidarity for boycott, divestment and sanctions in order to obtain their just rights.
Say no to musicwashing Israel’s continuing oppression of Indigenous Palestinian people and refuse to entertain musical hasbara agents who are complicit with apartheid. Palestinians do not have a massive, well-funded state apparatus to broadcast their plight, and they deserve support from conscientious people around the world. Boycott!
The latest target of the Tourism Ministry is the foodie world, specifically food bloggers, who are brought on paid trips to Israel where their senses are dulled by stolen hummus and they go home and gush appropriately about what they have seen. Indeed, “David Lebovitz, an American writer and pastry chef living in Paris whose food-centric personal website receives nearly 2 million unique visitors per month, wrote seven posts about the trip, all of which presented Israel (and its cuisine ) in a positive light.” How’jya like them apples BDSers?
In 2009, then spokesperson of Israel’s Foreign Ministry Arye Mekel said the initiative to “re-brand” Israel involved sending “well-known novelists and writers overseas, theatre companies, exhibits … [to] show Israel’s prettier face, so we are not thought of purely in the context of war.”
Likewise, current deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has said: “Branding Israel is a way to bring who we are, without the prisms of political agendas, to the masses.”
“We understood that it wasn’t enough to say we have creative energy – we actually had to be that way,” says Friedman. “This is the essence of Israelihood – everyone does what they want to do. It’s not refined, but dynamic and varied.”
Natanzon says that the Foreign Ministry considered adopting the values from the “Start-Up Nation” book, by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, when branding Israel.
“But we didn’t want to do that,” he says. “It would only reference one sector of the population, and exclude the others. We wanted to take it to the next level, to showcase the variety and creativity there is throughout the whole country.”
Out: Jewish heritage
It’s impossible not to notice that the new branding excludes central characteristics associated with Israel, such as Jewish culture and heritage and the country’s holy sites – all of which appear in countless official adverts.
“The branding looks at something broader,” Natanzon explains. “The aim was to create a new range of conversations for the country’s brand. The historical components are already part and parcel of its image.”
The anger at the incarceration without charge and the abuse of the Palestinian hunger strikers brought together different groups and new people to demand the immediate release of the hunger strikers. 9 September London protest
Report from Yael Kahn, on the London protest to support Palestinian hunger strikers, Samer Al-Barq and Hassan Safadi, who are engaged in the longest hunger strikes in history. These courageous people are highlighting Israel’s Kafkesque abuse of Palestinian prisoners, who are detained without charge or trial:
‘London protest: The tens of thousands of people walking between Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square, many of whom were involved in the final day of the Paralympics, in central London could not miss the large banners and around 40 protesters demanding the immediate release of the hunger strikers.
Amazing support for the Palestinians in general and to the hunger strikers in particular among the public, many of whom were involved in the Paralympics at Trafalgar Square. We leafleted and engaged with well over 1,000 people, with many more thousands reading our messages pinned to our clothes and posters.
Clearly among the general public and the tourists in London the support for the Palestinians is tremendous.
Even an Israeli who was sent to join the Olympics agreed the conditions of the prisoners and their incarceration without charge were unacceptable.
Another passerby got involved because his teenage daughters were very interested. He was surprised and extremely pleased to find out that the Muslims and Jews at the protest had the same aim to support the hunger strikers.
It really feels that at last people are coming together in response to the plight of the hunger strikers.’
That the agreements reached on 14 and 15 May 2012 be respected, including the release of administrative detainees who were promised release at the end of their current orders;
Unrestricted access for independent physicians to all hunger strikers;
The immediate transfer of Samer Al-Barq and Hassan Safadi, as well as all other hunger strikers, to public hospitals;
That no hunger striker be shackled while hospitalized;
That all hunger strikers be allowed family visits, while they are still lucid;
That Hassan Safadi and Samer Al-Barq, along with all other administrative detainees, in addition to Ayman Sharawna and other detainees that were released as part of the prisoner exchange deal in October 2011 be immediately and unconditionally released.
This solstice, celebrate trees with their gift of diversity and life, conserve dwindling resources from human predation, and aim at ending all tyrannies, capitalism, racism and bigotry and especially US imperial hegemony, the dominion of apartheid Israel over Indigenous Palestinians and Indonesia over West Papuans. 
