Even After Exile, Palestinian Musician Vows to Play On

Wafa Younis, head of the "Strings of Freedom" orchestra based in Jenin refugee camp, takes part in a performance for an audience, including about 10 women who survived the Holocaust, in the Israeli city of Holon near Tel Aviv March 25, 2009. Gil Cohen Magen / Reuters

From Time Magazine:

Last week's story of a troupe of young Palestinian musicians from Jenin serenading a group of elderly Jewish Holocaust survivors near Tel Aviv seemed like an improbable ray of hope on a darkening political landscape. Instead, the music has died in Jenin, and the episode has turned into another of those daily tragedies that demonstrate the widening chasm between Israelis and Palestinians.

On March 25, Wafa Younis, 51, a vivacious Israeli-Arab conductor, led her students from the Jenin refugee camp — long a cauldron of resistance against the Israelis — through a medley of Arabic and classical tunes, while the Holocaust survivors clapped along to the violins and the oriental drumming. For the young musicians, raised behind the Israeli security barrier surrounding much of the West Bank, there was an added bonus to the trip: it was the first time many of the kids had seen the Mediterranean sea, which shimmered in the Spring sunshine. The kids even coaxed the event's benefactor, Sheri Arison, a philanthropist and probably Israel's wealthiest woman, onto the dance floor.

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