Tag: war crimes

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International Harp Contest Funded by Apartheid Israel Used as Propaganda

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:
Harpcolumn comments
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.

1959 Harp Contest
(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


[1] http://www.harpcolumn.com/forum/message-view?message_id=19143167
[2] ”The Power Behind Israel’s Harp Contest” http://boycott-israel-harp-contest.posterous.com/the-power-behind-israels-harp-contest
[3] REMEMBRANCES OF PIERRE JAMET IN HIS CENTENNIAL YEAR By Marie Claire Jamet, Ruth Inglefield, and Carl Swanson http://swansonharp.com/articles/remembrances_pierre_jamet.html
[4] http://meitarfamily.co.il/206105?language=english
[5] http://www.sunitaharp.com/articles/TopHarpists.html
[6] Propes indeed placed Israel’s culture on the international stage. http://www.harpcontest-israel.org.il/about
[7] USA International Harp Competition concludes http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=76234&search=al&section=search
[8] UN Committee 2012 Session Concludes Israeli System Tantamount to Apartheid http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5588/un-committee-2012-session-concludes-israeli-system?fb_action_ids=4127358194162&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=246965925417366
[9] http://lilylaskine.online.fr/english/competition/competition.htm
[10] http://www.harpcompetition-citedesarts.com/
[11] Dutch Harp Competiton 2012 http://www.harpfestival.nl/competition
[12] http://www.goldenharp.ru/eng/main/?year=2011
[13]Tear Down This Israeli Wall http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/11/cultural-boycott-west-bank-wall

SOURCE

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Apartheid Israel’s Abuse of Palestinian Children Prisoners

Human rights organisations have highlighted Said’s treatment by Israel because they say it is extreme. And it is. Please watch this video.

Every year, according to Defence for Children International, around 700 Palestinian minors between the ages of 12 and 17 are arrested in the West Bank and are tried in Israeli Military Courts.

Detention Bulletin – Issue 32 – August 2012

In this issue: 195 children held in Israeli military detention at the end of August 2012; new military order (1685) affecting children still not translated into Arabic; former Israeli soldiers break the silence about the treatment of Palestinian children during military operations – testimonies disclose a pattern of beatings and intimidation.

Palestinian children are also targets for violence by Israeli settler terrorists.

On 26 August 2012, three Israeli settler children, aged between 12 and 13 years, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack. One boy was conditionally released by a civilian judge on 29 August, and the other two were conditionally released the following day. This case highlights the discriminatory nature of the legal systems applied by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank. Whilst settler children are processed through Israel’s juvenile justice system and generally released on bail, Palestinian children accused of similar offences are prosecuted in military courts which deny children bail in at least 87 percent of cases, and have a conviction rate of 99.74 percent.

Palestine / Israel Links

This is the disgusting reality of Israel’s sickening apartheid: ‘The IDF’s Civil Administration is preventing the Palestinian Authority from laying a water pipe that would alleviate the acute water shortage for more than 600,000 Palestinian
s in the West Bank.

The reason given for preventing the pipe’s construction is that a section of less than two kilometers of it, laid on the margins of Route 50, would disrupt Jewish passenger traffic on the road.’

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Ilan Pappé on the Apartheid Israeli Regime

Here’s the podcast of Ilan Pappé, interviewed by Geraldine Doogue on Radio National. Ilan is speaking at several engagements in Australia and appeared at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney. He also appeared on Q and A. Accurately, Ilan stated: “Israel wants to remain a racist state and a democratic state – this is an oxymoron.”

Ilan Pappé on the National Press Club 19/9/12

Celebrated Israeli historian, Ilan Pappé whose landmark publication, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” documented the planned removal of 700,000 Palestinians from their lands in 1948, has written a new book “The Forgotten Palestinians”.

In the book, and at this September 16 community meeting at Sydney University, Pappé reveals the situation for the Palestinians who still live within Israel’s borders.

This was the first event of Professor Pappé’s 2012 Australian lecture tour. It was hosted by the Sydney Peace Foundation at the University of Sydney with the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Leichhardt Friends of Hebron. Professor Pappé is in Australia as the guest of AFOPA to deliver the annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture at the University of Adelaide.

Ilan Pappé’s Melbourne address.

The two state solution is an hegemonic Israeli plan … to incorporate the West Bank. Its time has passed … Israel will ghettoise the West Bank. You have to decolonise the land, the people, to liberate them, it’s too early to talk about peace, you have to end oppression first. Only then can people can sit down and talk about what comes after the oppressive reality. The horse sees things differently from the rider, the rider does not see things in the same way.

The first but not the only way of convincing political elites that their way is the wrong way is pressure from the outside. BDS is part of what we should do, to send a political message that what Israel is doing is unacceptable. Constructive dialogue with Israeli Jews, educating them to see what life would be like after the oppression ends is important.

You need all ingredients to be in place, you won’t do it solely through BDS.

…

Oslo was oppression by other means.

UPDATE 28/9/12

Desegregating The Conflict: The History Of Collaborative Struggle In Palestine, Collaborative Struggle Conference, 24.09.2012 at the University of Woollongong

2012 ESML Presented By Ilan Pappe

Israel’s bravest historian

UPDATE 23/9/12

Notes from Middle East Reality Check on Ilan Pappé’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas address on the subject Israel Is an Apartheid State:

Is this a dangerous idea? Many Israelis wouldn’t think so. Nor South Africans. Nor many journalists and progressive folk in the West. Liberal Zionists though find it dangerous, and for many years have been trying to square the circle in an attempt to justify Israel’s apartheid policies. Jewish communities, of course, are allergic to the very idea. No, it’s not the recognition that Israel is an apartheid state that’s dangerous, it’s Israel itself that is dangerous; dangerous to Palestinians, dangerous to Jews in Israel and abroad, and dangerous to the world beyond.

Apartheid is a generic term for a legal, economic, social and political regime based on dispossession, discrimination and segregation on the basis of race, religion or nationality. The early Zionists, who were prolific diarists, described the Palestinians as dangerous aliens and usurpers. Their resistance to Zionist colonisation led the colonisers to develop apartheid policies of self-segregation and gated communities, which they forced on the native population once they’d become a ruling majority in 1948.

They institutionalised segregation, forcing on the Palestinian minority in Israel an invisible apartheid based on restricted living spaces, double standards in the courts and reduced access to state benefits. The Palestinian Israelis are confined to enclaves, with no new Arab towns being built since 1948. In contrast, hundreds of Jewish settlements have been constructed. In the West Bank, apartheid is starkly visible. Gaza of course is a world on its own, a large ghetto. How ironic that the people who most suffered from policies based on demography and population control in Europe should be dishing it out to others in Palestine.

Update 19/9/12:

Ilan Pappé on QandA

Ilan Pappe likens Israel’s invasion of Palestine to Aboriginal dispossession

The premise of Terra Nullius, in which European settlers viewed Australia as an unoccupied space, is similar to the idea that the Palestinians willingly gave up their land.

Understanding and accepting this premise is one of the keys to reconciliation and forging a peaceful future, Professor Pappe says.

“Building reconciliation on the basis of these acknowledgments, understanding what kind of privilege you’re going to lose if you accept you are the dispossessor, and so many other issues that are really comparable. If you are an average Australian who accepts the basic narrative of what happened in Australia, the comparison is very clear.

“It is a problem of not accepting indigeneity, and claiming that it was either settled or disappeared or can be handled, instead of accepting it. Settlers and native people always have a complex relationship but the first step is acknowledging that this is the basic paradigm, the basic reality.”

Another historical comparison is that of apartheid South Africa, Professor Pappe says. Invoking the word “apartheid” is highly provocative; the term has legal implications as well as emotive ones, but he is resolute that the name is justified.

The ideology of apartheid – of separation, of segregation – is not dissimilar in the two countries, he says, arguing that Archbishop Desmond Tutu has also drawn the comparison between the two situations. “I don’t think it’s too strong a term. As a scholar I would like to go deeply into the comparison and see the similarities as well as the dissimilarities. But from the general perspective of what kind of attitude Jews have towards non-Jews in the state of Israel, I don’t know of a better term in a legal realm in that respect.”

South Africa did manage eventually to overcome the bitter policy of apartheid, and so too can Israel, Professor Pappe believes, but it must involve what he describes as “the three As”: acknowledgement, acceptance and accountability. Israeli, Jewish and Western acknowledgement that ethnic cleansing has occurred and that refugees want to return to their homeland; Israeli accountability for what has happened in the past; and an acceptance in the Arab world and among Palestinians that the Jewish nation is part of the Middle East.

It is not a completely hopeless prospect, he says, but accepts that it is very difficult for those with established standpoints to move beyond those and make a fundamental shift about how they view the problem before a solution can be found. And a solution is fundamental for the two nations, the region and the rest of the world.

“The future of Palestine is not just the future of Jews and Palestinians who live there, it’s the future of the relationship of the Arab and Muslim worlds with the west,” he said in an earlier lecture.

ABC Radio Conversation Hour with Jon Faine, Claire Bowditch & Greg Jericho Tuesday 18 Sep 2012

Related Links

Ilan Pappe in Australia at Coalition for Justice & Peace in Palestine (CJPP)
Radio National Breakfast makes Palestinians peripheral to their own dispossession, and invites zionist Morris to respond to Pappé
Danby’s petulant criticism of the ABC having Pappé on QandA

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Alice Walker and Desmond Tutu on the Forthcoming New York Russell Tribunal Hearings

The next session of the Russell Tribunal will be on Oct. 6-7, 2012.

Following the sessions in Barcelona (which focused on EU complicity), London (on Corporate Complicity) and Cape Town (on the crime of Apartheid), the New York Tribunal will go back to the root of the conflict and focus on UN and US responsibility in the denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination.

Alice Walker, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others tell you why you should support this historical initiative to bring Israel to account for its brutal crimes against the Palestinian people under the aegis of international law.

Read the findings of the previous Capetown Sessions of the Russell Tribunal, where Israel’s crimes against humanity are clearly defined:

‘The Tribunal finds that Israel subjects the Palestinian people to an institutionalised regime of domination amounting to apartheid as defined under international law. This discriminatory regime manifests in varying intensity and forms against different categories of Palestinians depending on their location. The Palestinians living under colonial military rule in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are subject to a particularly aggravated form of apartheid. Palestinian citizens of Israel, while entitled to vote, are not part of the Jewish nation as defined by Israeli law and are therefore excluded from the benefits of Jewish nationality and subject to systematic discrimination across the broad spectrum of recognised human rights. Irrespective of such differences, the Tribunal concludes that Israel’s rule over the Palestinian people, wherever they reside, collectively amounts to a single integrated regime of apartheid.’

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On Co-Resistance: Sahar Vardi and MIcha Kurz in Australia

Israeli activists, Sahar Vardi and MIcha Kurz recently completed a speaking tour of Australia. Sahar and Micha are among a growing number of young Israelis who are taking an active stand against their government’s occupation and policies of oppression against the Palestinian people.

Packed meeting to hear Vardi and Kurz
Some notes:

Kurz on Israeli politicians: ‘They are not interested in a peace resolution’.

Kurz: ‘Making up 40% of the population, Palestinian Jerusalemites are not allowed to vote’.

Vardi: ‘There’s a huge bigger picture there which has to do with foreign investment and who makes a profit out of this at the end of the line – definitely not Palestinians, but not necessarily Israeli citizens either. Israel’s biggest import today is arms, military technology – Israel can sell this stuff because it can prove it works. Israel builds the wall and they have the security systems set up, then when the US wants to build a wall between Mexico and the US it uses Israeli technology because it knows it works.’
Micha speaking
Kurz: ‘We saw G4S stickers all round Melbourne today. G4S runs the largest prison camp in the occupied territories … runs the largest private military in the world. They are active in other areas of urban warfare, in western cities everywhere. The question always has to be who is making a profit … that keeps it away from fear or anything to do with antisemitism or security, it has everything to do with global profit. What inspires me about the BDS movement is it has managed to suggest a grassroots movement where politicians have failed and has united people from the grassroots up … it’s something Israelis can support. I support the BDS movement.’

Kurz: ‘We work for justice and human rights … When I hear ‘peace’ I hear agreement between two equal parties. There are no two equal parties here. There is an Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people.’

Kurz: ‘I’ve given up on politicians. What it comes down to is strategically building a grassroots movements, both global and local. The global movement is growing and succeeding despite the mass media – we know not to trust them anyway. I’ve witnessed firsthand how things are succeeding.’