We have run two posts urging Caetano Veloso, the legendary Brazilian singer and activist, not to play Tel Aviv. (From Roger Waters and Donna Nevel).
Caetano Veloso should read this heartrending story about music, 45 miles away in Gaza, before he takes his guitar from the case:
In the rubble of eastern Gaza City’s Sheja’eyah neighbourhood, flattened during last summer’s Israel-Gaza war, Sarah Aburamadan and five other musicians remove drums, a violin and a keyboard from their black bags in front of a group of children…
Every morning for two weeks, 23-year-old Aburamadan and her other bandmates have wandered through the crumbling landscape of Gaza neighborhoods with their instruments on their backs, meeting up with groups of children for therapeutic jam sessions.
Their efforts are part of Play and Joy, a programme to treat traumatized children in the Gaza Strip.
The programme, sponsored by the Gaza-based Tamer Institute for Community Culture, encourages participants to play music, sing and read stories with children, who are found in coordination with their parents or other local centers.
Musa Tawfiq, a lute player in Aburamadan’s band and music team leader at the Tamer Institute, says the physical damage to Gaza’s infrastructure is visible and can be fixed “sooner or later”.
The psychological impact on the children who lived through the war, Tawfiq says, is not always so obvious.
During the 51-day war, 551 children were killed and more than 2,000 injured, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says.
But another 326,000 children suffer from psychological problems and need psychotherapy, the UN agency says, and many of them are not receiving the treatment they should.
Sami Oweida, a consultant in psychiatry for children and adolescents in the Gaza Mental Health Programme, says that the psychological rehabilitation process has struggled to move forward in the year since the Gaza war.
There’s a lot more at the link about the musical efforts to lift the damaged spirits in Gaza. The story is from Deutsche Presse-Agentur, by Saud Abu Ramadan. Again:
551 children were killed just a year ago by Israel, another 326,000 children are traumatized and in need of attention. Yes: an Israeli child was also killed by Palestinian forces, and many children were traumatized.
Maybe… Veloso should be trying to play his great songs for these children.
P.S. In order to write this post, I googled Tel Aviv to Gaza to be sure of the distance. As I tweeted: “Google ‘tel aviv to gaza’ and you get 9 hours 6 minutes to travel 45 miles. That’s how apartheid works.”
For jazz fans :
Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin will be performing here this week.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4660177,00.html
“Jon,
I get that you oppose the cultural boycott, but do you find the reasons behind it so trivial that it deserves mocking triumphalism?”
+1 Shmuel.
And well said Amigo!
Gilberto Gil is breaking the boycott too. https://www.change.org/p/caetano-veloso-gilberto-gil-cancelem-vosso-show-em-israel-cancel-your-concert-in-israel
One hero less.
I don’t object to boycotts in principle . A boycott can be an effective , admirable, non-violent strategy, which is why I supported the boycott of apartheid South Africa at the time, and today I support and practice a boycott of the settlements.
In a previous post on this topic I wrote that one of the problems with the bds campaign, including the cultural and academic boycott , is related to the goals, and that “I don’t get on the train if I don’t know the destination. ” Or, I may add, if the destination is known, but it’s not where I want to go.
And Mr. McFerrin and Mr. Corea will be spared the indignity of hearing that “cushim” aren’t welcome in Israel until they’ve finished entertaining the chosen people?
@hophmi
“Or maybe both have been there many times and don’t buy the BDS garbage that you’re selling because they know the country beyond the dishonest cartoon that you present.”
Right.
– July 14, 2015
“Eretz Yisrael isn’t a country for cushim [a derogatory Hebrew term that is the rough equivalent of nigger].”
Israel Refuses Entry To Black American Convert And Her 10-Year-Old Son
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com