Barenboims upset at Jerusalem cancellation
NewsThe Jerusalem chamber music festival, directed by Barenboim’s wife Elena Bashkirova and involving many of their close friends, was due to open on September 3.
It was cancelled last night because of sky wars in the refion. ‘The current security situation and the resultant cancellation of flights for the next few weeks by most of the major airlines means that many of the artists will not be able to arrive in Israel,’ a statement said.
Elena invested intense thought and preparation in the festival, which took place mostly in the YMCA in west Jerusalem. The atmosphere was sanatised of politics and people from both sides of the city attended.
Bashkirova Shouldn’t profit from the Israeli audience, all the while her stupid son is slandering and advocating fake news about the same audience and the army that is making this festival possible for the first place. We will not subsidise the same people that see me and my family as equal to Hamas or the PLO. Let them set this festival in Ramallah or Gaza, I’m sure it would be very successful and lucrative.
The parents are not responsible for their son’s political statements which are disgusting towards Israel but they also keep silent. This makes them complicit.
This wonderful festival, a hugely popular event in Israel, given annually since 27 years, was meticulously planned long before the tragic events of last October. Elena Bashkirova is miraculous the way she puts her heart and soul into this Festival, consistently through thick and thin while caring for her husband and giving concerts. Anyone with grown-up children will tell you that parents are usually powerless and can suffer deeply from what their children think or say. It is tragic that this unique and wonderful Festival had to be cancelled now due to force majeure. Let’s hope for peace and look forward to next year’s festival.
Very hard to put on when flights are being cancelled and folk can’t get there.
It is the Israeli audience that has been benefitting from Bashkirova’s work – not the other way round, as you suggest. Moreover, Michael Barenboim is absolutely right in his criticism of Israel. Your comment simply proves his point.
I wish all those who dare sit in Israel’s judgment, get the chance to demonstrate their moral superiority under the same conditions.
You mean by ethnically cleansing an entire people? Stealing their land? Destroying their villages? Subjugating them under dehumanizing conditions? Imprisoning, torturing, raping? Then starving them to death? I think NOT!
I, for one, without a drop of Jewush blood, have NOT ignored those suffering under Hamas leadership. But, nor will I EVER forget those innocent women & girls filmed while being raped & tortured by the invaders. Now ignored & largely forgotten.
2 milion Arab citizens of Israel. 4-5 milions more in Gaza & the west bank. Not a very effective “”ethnic cleansing”, isn’ t it? What state does not imprisom terrorists?
Starving? Surely not the way the allies starved Germany &Japan – Israel is feed water and suply electric power to it’s enemy.
And naturaly, you have absolutely nothing to say about the galant freedom rapists…
The question of what any of us would do in a completely different life, is meaningless, and you’re just talking.
Likud and Netanyahu are NOT “Israel” any more than Trump is America.
Conditions that force Israel to kill more children in a few months than has taken place since WWII?
Syria, Iraq, Afganistan (twice), Chechnya, Ukraine – millions had been butchered by the great powers, by terrorists, by muslims. (Not to mention more ancient wars since you refered to WW2).
All had a far greater number of casualties. For you this never happened…
Who initiated the Gaza war? How it began? For you this is not important.
What a happy person you must be, living the simple life where the answers are always simple.
Your types lost at 1945 and you will lose again at 2024
It’s a pity, it would be a great gesture towards the State of Israel to maintain this event with the help of local Israeli artists.
Michael Barenboim is absolutely right. His detractors on this site are just like, or the same, trolls one encounters everywhere. What are they doing on Slipped Disc, except to sniff out self-hating Jews, Woke agendists, Hamas supporters and other bogeypersons? They have no interest in classical music. You can tell from their tone.
If the Barenboim’s are right, why don’t they just stop working in this country all together. If I have a problem with the Russian politics, I don’t want to make my money in Russia. To do otherwise would be hypocritical of me. She and her family should learn a lesson from Schiff and Hungary (who is BTW a big supporter of Israel)
So anyone who disagrees with the policies being enacted in a country should leave the country. Even if they are a citizen? On that basis I’d expect to see large populations of people leaving their country – any country – at any minute.
No. He is “absolutely” ignorant at the service of Arab-Nazis set to exterminate all Jews.
Letter from George Washington to a synagogue..maybe we should all re read this!
While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced on my visit to Newport from all classes of citizens.
The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security.
If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.
The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity.
May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.[1]
May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.
It’s not worth to die in this war.
Daniel Barenboim has long since stopped performing in Israel. He is sometimes referred to as also an Israeli citizen, but that’s not really the case, and his radical politics are obviously more important to him than his disingenuous Israeli connection. He seems not to be able to take criticism well. I used to be a supporter of his artistry (which I continue to admire), as well as his politics. But not anymore. Any Jew who doesn’t unequivocally support Israel after October 7 is indeed, by definition, an antisemite. Self-hatred isn’t such a rare thing, not least in Jewish history. As for his disgusting violinist son, I’m not familiar with his playing, though I’m sure he’s a good musician. But those are a dime a dozen. Am I mistaken, or would we all not even have heard about him were there not such a thing as nepotism? And yet his inane political opinion seems worth quoting to all those antisemites out there, who only needed the excuse of October 7 to immediately reveal their disgusting racism, even before the war in Gaza began.
Bottom line – musicians should stick to music, unless they’re that rare phenomenon – an artist with a moral backbone, like Toscanini. But the Barenboims are no Toscaninis.