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Seeing and hearing blind prejudice at play

Although it is now too late to catch the program - it was on ABC TV yesterday afternoon - Terry Lane in a piece in yesterday's The Age discusses this orchestra composed of Israeli and Arab musicians:

"Agonising over the never-ending punishment of the Palestinians, Barenboim and his friend, Edward Said, a Palestinian Christian, developed the idea of an orchestra composed of young Arab and Jewish musicians.

"Our point of departure," Barenboim has said, "was one very simple conclusion … that the destinies of the Palestinian and Jewish peoples are inexorably linked. All the people playing in this orchestra are Semitic — it's not a word specific to Jews. When you see these kids together, not only can you not tell who is the Arab and who the Jew, but they have the same temperament."

Read how plain blind prejudice has been allowed to cause "issues" for this worthwhile project. Sadly, not even the making of music, in harmony, can overcome blind bigotry.

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