This NY Times article touches on many themes...
the value of music during times of conflict,
the dangerous consequences of a lack of knowledge about one's neighbors,
and ultimately...the power of music in the human experience.
HERE ARE A FEW EXCERPTS, AND CLICK BELOW TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE:
The New York Times
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: May 31, 2009
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The shy Palestinian teenager raised her flute and dispatched the courtly melodies and cascading runs of an 18th-century concerto with surprising self-assurance...
...Dalia is one of a new generation of Palestinians who have been swept up in a rising tide of interest in Western classical music in the last several years here in the Palestinian territories, but especially the West Bank. The sounds of trills and arpeggios, Bach minuets and Beethoven sonatas, are rising up amid the economic malaise and restrictions of the Israeli occupation.
But as with many endeavors in this part of the world, the pursuit of classical music is fraught with tensions and obstacles, including a desire not to be seen as working with Israelis.
A small effort to teach violin at a refugee camp in Jenin, north of Ramallah, was banned in March when camp authorities heard that the students had played for Holocaust survivors in Israel, saying the concert "served enemy interests." A lack of detailed knowledge about the Holocaust is widespread among Palestinians, who view that chapter of history as a catalyst to the creation of Israel and thus a source of their suffering. But the music teacher, Wafaa Younis, an Israeli Arab, scoffed at the complaint. "I don't think it should be a problem," she said...
...Despite the opposition of some, many Palestinians see the study of Western classical music -- part of a broader cultural revival in the West Bank -- as a source of hope, a way to connect to the outer world from a hemmed-in and controlled existence, particularly at a time when hope for a Palestinian state seems ever more distant.
"Deep inside, it's to demonstrate we are alive, that we deserve to be alive and have our culture," said George Diek, a partly self-taught Palestinian oboe teacher in Bethlehem...