March 30, 2006: Jenin, Judia Samaria (Palestine). Palestinian authorities have disbanded a youth orchestra from a
West Bank refugee camp and barred the conductor from her studio after she directed a concert for a group of
Holocaust survivors in
Israel, a local official said on Sunday.
Adnan Hindi of the Jenin camp called the
Holocaust a “political issue” and accused the orchestra’s conductor of unfairly dragging the children into a politics.
The dispute underscores Palestinian sensitivities over acknowledging Jewish suffering, which many fear could weaken their own historical grievances against Israel. Ignorance and even
denial of the Holocaust is widespread in Palestinian society.
At last Wednesday’s concert in Holon, most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from the
West Bank, a rare sight in Israel these days. And the youths, who range in age from 11 to 18, had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide — or even what the Holocaust was.
Hindi said that conductor
Wafa Younis, an Israeli Arab living in Israel, has been banned from the camp, and the apartment where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.
“She exploited the children,” said Hindi, the head of the camp’s “popular committee,” which takes on municipal duties. “She will be forbidden from doing any activities … We have to protect our children and our community.”
“
The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews themselves,” Hindi said. “We lost our land, and we were forced to flee and we’ve lived in
refugee camps for the past 50 years.”
Younis, the conductor, denied the issue was political, saying camp officials wanted to take over the orchestra to get its funding.
“They want to destroy this group. It’s a shame, it’s a tragedy. What did these poor, elderly people do wrong? What did these children do wrong?” she said.
avideditor
Rodan
DJM
Glezele Vayne
March 31, 2009. Salt Lake City, USA. A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer scans a woman through with a whole body scan machine, or millimeter wave machine at a security check point at the Salt Lake International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah, The new machine developed by New York based L3 Communications is in use for the first time today by passengers and takes a whole body scan penetrating clothing. This is a pilot program by the TSA to test the machines in a live setting.
