RAMALLAH, March 18 (JMCC) - Mariam Said, the widow of the late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, has fired back at a Palestinian group seeking a boycott against her husband's foundation.
Writing on the
Electronic Intifada, Said defends her late husband's friend and famed conductor Daniel Barenboim from charges of normalization. Barenboim and Edward Said started the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra together, and the group was hosted in Doha, a guest of the ministry of culture.
Writes Said:
WEDO is not a project for normalization. The yearly workshops in Spain are advanced musical summer courses. When students from Arab countries and Israel attend the same courses at any university around the world where the professor's competence is the reason for which they enroll, it is considered furthering their education, not normalization.The only requirement to attend the workshop and become a member of the orchestra is musical competence and talent. The musicians have to pass rigorous auditions and the ultimate goal is musical education on the highest level. The BSF [Barenboim-Said Foundation] has been offering music education programs in the occupied West Bank in partnership with the al-Kamandjati Music Center. We are actively supporting the AM Qattan Foundation’s Music Center in Gaza, as well as pioneering projects in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. We also offer music education programs for Palestinians in the Galilee (we have a conservatory in Nazareth) and in Jaffa. The aim is to bring together all the Palestinians in Palestine through the language of music. Read the letter on the Electronic Intifada...