- JERUSALEM (AP) -- Conductor
Daniel Barenboim angered Israeli officials Sunday when he criticized the
country's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as he accepted a prestigious
Israeli award.
-
- In his acceptance speech for the Wolf Prize at Israel's
parliament, Barenboim said Israel's policy toward the Palestinians contradicted
the humanist values on which the state was founded in 1948.
-
- "Can a situation of occupation and control of another
people be reconciled with (Israel's) declaration of independence,"
he said. "Is there logic to the independence of one people at the
cost of a blow to the basic human rights of another people?"
-
- Education Minister Limor Livnat responded, to a round
of applause from the audience: "I want to express my regret that Mr.
Barenboim chose to use this stage to attack the state of Israel."
-
- Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the
1967 Mideast war. Peace talks with the Palestinians stalled with the September
2000 outbreak of the current Palestinian uprising.
-
- President Moshe Katsav recalled the conductor's decision
in 2001 to break Israel's informal ban on performing the works of Richard
Wagner, Adolf Hitler's favorite composer.
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- Barenboim, who was born in Argentina and raised in Israel,
is music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and general music director
of the Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra.
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- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/200
4/05/09/international2250EDT0569.DTL
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