Barenboim's attack on Israel angers Katsav, Livnat By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent
Conductor Daniel Barenboim elicited angry responses Sunday night from President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Limor Livnat after he sharply criticized Israel's policies toward the Palestinians.
Barenboim, speaking at the Knesset where he received the Wolf Foundation Prize, said "With pain in my heart, I ask today whether a situation of conquest and control can be reconciled with Israel's Declaration of Independence? Is there logic to the independence of one people if the cost is a blow to the fundamental rights of another people? Can the Jewish people, whose history is full of suffering and persecution, allow itself to be apathetic about the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the state of Israel allow itself to indulge an unrealistic dream whose meaning is an ambition to bring an ideological resolution to the dispute, rather than the aim of attaining a pragmatic, humanitarian solution, based on social justice?"
Barenboim's remarks angered Livnat, who rejected his criticism of the state. "Israel was founded, first and foremost, as the home of the Jewish people, and it respects the minorities who dwell in it," she said.
President Katsav also expressed reservations about the conductor's remarks. "Barenboim deserves criticism, not only for these remarks [at the Knesset], but also for refusing to apologize to Holocaust survivors who were offended when he performed works by Wagner," Katsav stated.
"We must be careful not to lose our feelings of compassion, our sense of human responsibility...In the Jewish state, where Holocaust survivors live, the feelings of these victims must be respected, and the pretext of free speech should not be used to warrant an attack on their feelings."
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin boycotted the awards ceremony, claiming that Barenboim "desecrated the memory of Holocaust victims when he conducted Wagner's work."