Entertainment > Israeli Minister Denounces Barenboim

Israeli Education Minister Denounces Conductor Daniel Barenboim As `real Anti-Semite'

Conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, 61, smiles during a press conference upon his arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel in this May 5, 2004, file photo. Israel's education minister, Limor Livnat, denounced Friday famed co

The Jewish conductor was approached Thursday by reporter Dafna Arad during a promotional event for a book he wrote with the late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said.

Barenboim's snub outraged Education Minister Limor Livnat, who denounced the conductor as "a real Jew-hater, a real anti-Semite."

Barenboim, who was born in Argentina and raised in Israel, has had frequent spats with Israel's government. Last year, he angered officials when he criticized the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as he accepted the prestigious Wolf Prize in a speech to Israel's parliament.

Last month, Barenboim brought his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, comprised of musicians from Israel, the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries to the West Bank city of Ramallah for a concert in memory of Said.

On Thursday, Arad tried to interview Barenboim at the book launch in a hotel in the Jewish neighborhood of Yemin Moshe in western Jerusalem. Arad was wearing her uniform, as is the custom for Army Radio reporters still serving their mandatory military service.

"I wanted to interview Barenboim very much and to ask him about the concert he conducted in Ramallah last week, about his musical vision and more. But he wouldn't agree to talk to me, and started signing the book. I insisted. Then he said he refused to be interviewed by a soldier in a uniform and that he will agree to talk to me only if I come to him in civilian clothes," Arad said on Army Radio.

She said when she protested that she had no choice but to wear the uniform, Barenboim pulled on her epaulets and yelled at her.

Arad did not play tape of Barenboim's snub, but the conductor, in a telephone interview with Army Radio on Friday, did not deny the incident and defended his actions.

"Anti-Semitic? What is anti-Semitic about it? When I say that a uniform should be worn to the right places and not to the wrong ones, there is nothing anti-Semitic about it, there is no logic to this claim," Barenboim said.

"I just thought that in this place, discussing a book written together with a Palestinian, it shows lack of sensitivity."

Yuval Steinitz, chairman of parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, accused Barenboim of being ungrateful, saying Israel "exists thanks to those who wear uniforms."

In 2001, Barenboim angered some Israelis by breaking an informal ban in Israel on performing the works of Richard Wagner, Hitler's favorite composer.

Barenboim is music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and general music director of the Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra.

2005-09-03