The orchestra in concert
Photo: AP
Survivor in the audience
Photo: AP
Jenin orchestra shut down after playing for survivors
Palestinian official explains youth orchestra disbanded because it played for Holocaust survivors in Israel; refers to Holocaust as 'political issue'
Palestinian officials in a West Bank refugee camp say they have disbanded a youth orchestra
Jenin refugee camp official Adnan Hindi says the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra should not have played for the survivors, calling the Holocaust "a political issue."
after it played for Holocaust survivors in Israel.
The Concert
Associated Press
Strings for Peace, youth orchestra from Jenin refugee camp, gives touching musical performance for Holocaust survivors in Israeli town Holon as part of Good Deeds Day. Zeid, one of musicians in group: Only people who have been through suffering understand each other
Hindi added Sunday that the conductor has also been barred from entering the camp.
Conductor Wafa Younis says she was not informed of the ban.
The orchestra performed a goodwill concert for elderly survivors in the Israeli town of Holon Wednesday.
"I feel sympathy for them," Ali Zeid, an 18-year-old keyboard player said after the concert. He said he was shocked by what he learned about the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews in their campaign to wipe out European Jewry.
"Only people who have been through suffering understand each other," added Zeid, who said his grandparents were Palestinian refugees forced to flee the northern city of Haifa during the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948.
