"Sharon
shouldn't be prime minister," declares Barenboim in Radio 4
interview
Talking
on 大象传媒 Radio 4's Taking A Stand, internationally acclaimed
musician Daniel Barenboim states that Ariel Sharon is not
a suitable leader for Israel because of his part in the massacres
that took place in the Lebanese refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila
in 1982.
The
comments come a little over a week before the Israeli elections
on 28 January.
"He
was declared indirectly responsible for Sabra and Shatila, by an
Israeli court, and therefore not biased.
"And
I think that somebody that was declared responsible, albeit indirectly
responsible, should not be prime minister of that country,"
comments Barenboim.
Asked
by presenter Fergal Keane, "what does that tell you though
about the state of mind of Israelis? Because he was elected, one
has to remember, after a series of very brutal suicide attacks.
What does the fact that he is the leader of Israel, what does that
tell you about the country now?"
Barenboim
replies: "You know all your ethics and things are for the minority
group so that it can survive but it has to be said once and for
all we are not talking now about the survival of Israel.
"We
are talking about the identity of the Palestinians so that Israel
can live in peace. We are not talking now of chapter two of the
Holocaust. You know the roles have been developed. I will not say
reversed as some people say, absolutely not.
"But
we have to understand - we as Jews - we have to understand, that
when we speak about 'the other' we are not speaking about 'the other'
who is above us and trying to kill us, like the Gestapo, but we
are speaking about 'the other' as somebody who at the moment depend
on us, depends on us and on somebody whose territory we are occupying."
Also
in the programme, Barenboim advocates Israeli withdrawal from the
occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state:
"And sooner rather than later, and we are already very late,
but from the beginning this has to be a state with whom Israel is
obliged to co-operate.
"In
the end, in the best of cases we are going to end up in the Middle
East with the Benelux arrangement like Belgium and Holland, and
let's face it they didn't like each other and they've learnt to
live."
The
celebrated musical director also believes that the Palestinian population
has a responsibility to lobby against the terrorists within its
midst.
"It
is important that Palestinians come out in the streets and speak
against suicide bombers," he says.
"This
is the paradox of the whole situation, there is a parallelism that
is going on in that the Palestinian violence is actually serving
the policies of the government of Israel, and the government of
Israel's policies is serving the Palestinian terrorism."
Daniel
Barenboim is the musical director of the Berlin State Opera and
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Notes
to Editors
大象传媒
Radio 4聮s Taking A Stand must be credited if any of the above
is used. The programme can be heard at 9.00am on Tuesday 21 January
2003.
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