Hello all.
Monday we set out again to Spain for concerts. I have not been in that fine country for a while. Spain has given me some of the most exciting moments of my life, and also some of the most challenging. Writing this I have a specific incident in mind, and that is the demonstrations against me during my performance at the Catalonian National Day three years ago (I was pregnant at the time) by pro-Palestinian organizations, in my beloved Barcelona. (By the way, I was sharing the stage with a local Arab orchestra, great people). The event was traumatic but I overcame it, and finally the performance was a success. These kinds of demonstrations are very frequent against Israelis everywhere, myself included, even those who are very outspoken in support of peace, as I always have been.
I would like to share with you a letter I write to one such organization last June (!!), calling for peace between us. It is important to me that you, my friends, followers, foes, whoever is reading this, be aware of this call for communication, this cry in the night.
I never got a reply to this letter. I am still waiting and have not lost hope.
Very sincerely yours,
Noa
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The letter:
Hello friends.
It has been a long time since our unhappy mail interaction. Many things have happened.
I want to make peace with you. it weighs heavy on my heart that people who basically think the same and want the same thing, who share the same principles and are working for the same goal, who dream of peace between nations, cannot make peace with eachother.
I am not interested in any negative feeling with you. on the contrary, I think we should join forces and work together, to promote public awareness for a two state solution, for the rights of the Palestinian people alongside the Israeli people, for respect and equality, for dialogue and peace.
Here is something I wrote a long time ago, that is still my deepest belief and personal truth about peace in our region:
1. RECOGNIZE-
Each side must recognize the rights of the other to life, freedom, independence, identity, the right to flourish, the right to a peaceful existence. This is the first and critical stage of the plan. Without formal recognition, in writing, signed by the recognized leaders of each nation, no progress can be made.
2. APOLOGIZE-
Both sides have done horrible things to each other in the name of this and that ideal. Since the death of one life is parallel to the death of all of humanity, there should be a true and deep remorse for these actions, a heartfelt apology on both sides for the pain and anguish they have caused.
3. SHARE-
Each side should revoke their dreams of a complete ‘anything’. Only through compromise is peace achievable. In this way, on one small piece of land, we can create 2 countries, Israel and Palestine, living peacefully and respectfully alongside each-other.
I send you all my best wishes.
Noa
www.noasmusic.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsflPG3_C78
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Thank you so so so much for your visit to Spain, specially to my small city, Pamplona!!! I have the great honour to meet you and you're a great person and you have a fantastic heart. Thank you again for your wonderful concers in Spain and your amazing voice. I hope to see you again in this lands of the north of Spain.
ReplyDeleteBig hug and kiss.
Iñigo
ioderiz@hotmail.com
At the first time when I’ve read your message I thought i couldn’t give you an answer because I’m not Palestinian and I’m not Israeli. I can’t take the liberty of do it because I’m sure that there is a lot of things that I can’t know and understand. For me this conflict is like this game of skill that is called in French “Mikado”. “Patience and manual skill are precious trumps to carry off the party”. And of course, I don’t think this is a game and I don’t think that it needs a winner and a loser. Rather “There must be another way”…
ReplyDeleteBut, as I was thinking about a special event which affects me particularly (that is this year 2012 is the “fiftieth anniversary of the end of Algeria war”) this leads me to find similarity with your questioning.
Indeed, as a children of “Algerian-born French”, recently someone ask me to find three key words which lead to put an end of the war of the memories and allow Algeria and French to sign a treaty of lasting friendship. Quickly, two words come to my mind which are SHARE and RECOGNIZE. But I have a big difficulty to find a third word because for me APOLOGIZE can’t be accurate. I think it’s not possible for both side to do apologize because I think there are horrible act commit during the war, atrocities which couldn’t never be justified. And it’s because this kind of acts can’t be justified that I think it’s not possible to ask to apologize for that. You can recognize and condemned them but not apologize.
Maybe the third word could be ACCEPT. That is to accept that each one on the both size is not guilty of what is happened before. They are here, they live here and so you must to accept them here in this country and you must to accept that each one of them want to find a resolution. This is legitimate.
It’s a little bit naïve maybe but this is my feeling.
Maybe that’s why your interlocutor doesn’t want to give you a reply.
In a different way, maybe there is no reply simply because you are a poet! And like Madeleine Peyroux says in her song called “DON'T PICK A FIGHT WITH A POET”:
'When you're walking on the street,
and the people that you meet,
make you want to start a big fight,
'cause they talk as if they're so right.
There is one thing to remember,
in case you haven't heard:
You can kill a mighty emperor,
but you cannot smite a word.
So, don't pick a fight with a poet.
Don't raise your hand on a whim.
Whether it's wrong or it's right,
there's a lesson in life,
and to learn it, you have to give in,
cause the poet knows you can't win.
When you're twitching at the bar,
No one knows who you are,
and you want to prove them all wrong,
you think you are so strong.
You can try to make them listen.
You can try to be the boss,
but the storyteller is the one
who calls the toss.
So, don't pick a fight with a poet.
Don't raise your hand on a whim.
Whether it is wrong or it's right,
Whether it's wrong or it's right
there'll be a lesson tonight,
and to learn it you'll have to give in,
'cause a poet knows you can't win.
Over there in the corner with a Cheshire grin
making rhyme out of broken hearts
cryin' the hymn.
And two tokes from a good time,
a toast away from fist flying,
congregating the world
with a paper and pen.
Don't pick a fight with a poet.
Don't raise your hand on a whim.
Whether it's wrong or right,
there's a lesson in life,
and to learn it, you'll have to give in,
cause a poet knows, you can't win.'
Dear Noa:
ReplyDeleteI was between the public at your concert in Valladolid. No need to say that Gil Dor, Gil Zohar and you are all incredible musicians. We enjoyed a lot.
Before the doors opened, my wife and I were waiting in the Plaza del Milenio, where a group of people were doing a demonstration, as you surely know.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing or, worse, what I was hearing, so I tried to talk to them.
I asked if they really knew about your opinions,this blog, your long compromise with peace, your lyrics... But they only told me about you justifying the death of 1,500 palestinians (which I knew it couldn't be true; later I confirmed I was right), and didn't listen to me at all.
Those people you wrote this letter to... they won't listen because they are fanatics. Or, if they are not, maybe they are led by fanatics. I realized it in Valladolid: no one can be so intentionally deaf and blind.
Don't let them dishearten you. Hope you come to Spain many more times!
Best regards.
agree !! lets all never forget that we all have only one planet to live on.
ReplyDelete