'Day of recreation' ends in tears over Arabic music
Some 250 children from Jish church's summer camp leave country club in northern city of Katzrin, after club's manager refused to allow the counselors to play Arabic music. 'We can't have every sector coming to the pool and playing whatever music they want,' manager explains
Some 250 children of an Arab village's summer camp left a country club in the northern city of Katzrin in tears on Thursday, after the club's manager refused to allow the counselors to play Arabic music.
The Jish church summer camp director, Jadi Sliman, said the country club manager's conduct was "insulting and racist". The manager, Shemi Namimi said in his defense, "We can't have every sector coming to the pool and playing whatever music they want."
Children from northern Israel, as well as from abroad, take part in the Jish church summer camp every year, and according to Sliman, "It is considered the most successful summer camp among the Christian community in Israel."
This year, as always, the camp planned a day of recreational activities at the Katzirn country club's swimming pool. Sliman and Namimi worked out the details and the cost, and signed a contract for Thursday.
'The children began crying.' Katzrin country club (Photo: Avihu Shapira)
'He told me not to put music in Arabic'
"The moment we got there I realized something was wrong," says Sliman. "I asked them where I could find an electricity connection and the workers kept sending me around. We eventually connected the stereo system and I put on music of a church prater, in Arabic."
Sliman says he went to fill a pitcher of water, and was surprised to discover when he returned that the music had stopped.
"The Instructors told me that the workers had come and given them a Hebrew music CD. I turned the system on again, and then Shemi approached the system and turned down the volume to the very end. I asked him, 'Excuse me, what are you doing? If you want something, talk. This system belongs to me.' So he immediately replied, 'I am the one making decisions here.' I asked him, 'What's the problem?' And he said, 'Don't put music in Arabic. If you want, you can put music in Hebrew."
Sliman says he explained to the manager that Arabic was the summer camp children's mother tongue, "but he refused to listen and said, 'l am the manager here and I decided. There will be no music in Arabic here.'"
Sliman, who was insulted by this attitude, used a microphone to call on all the children to come out of the pool.
"I was surrounded by small children who heard everything and began crying," he recounts. "I took them all out and we waited for an hour until the buses, which had already left for Nazareth, returned. We only had breakfast at 3 pm after arriving at a different swimming pool in Nazareth."
Manager: This is a public place
Some of the children's parents, who heard about the incident, arrived at the Katzrin country club in order to pick up their kids, so that they would not have to wait in the sun for their ride.
Adib Halif, one of the children's father, told Ynet that this was a first-class act of racism. "I couldn’t believe that here in Israel there are such open expressions of racism. The manager must have thought that it’s not enough that Arab children have come to his pool, now they also want to decide which type of music he should play. My child was very disappointed. This is no way to treat children."
The country club's manager, Shemi Namimi, sees things differently. "There is no way that every sector arriving at the pool will put on whatever music it wants. Had the pool been booked for a private function, it would have been different, but this is not what happened.
"They put on the music very loudly, with other people in the pool at the same time. I turned the volume down to the end and explained to them that I am the manager of the place and that during opening hours no one will dictate which music I should play. In my place we don’t play music in Arabic. This is a public place which is not directed to one sector."
Namimi rejected the claims that he had acted in a racist manner. "Racism? So I ask why did I even let them come to the pool and offered them a cheaper entrance fee. Had I been racist, I wouldn’t allow them to come at all. It must be convenient for them to damage my reputation and not pay."
