Facing The Music

Mariam Said, Edward Said’s widow, takes issue with Maureen Clare Murphy’s report about the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s performance in Ramallah last Friday.

Murphy criticized the poor organization of the event, the fact that it was invitation-only, and even the cooperative aspect between Israelis and Palestinians. Mariam Said, for her part, emphasized the history of the project, the desire to bring together musicians of different nationalities together, and the amount of good will that it took to found the orchestra and keep it performing.

In other news, the orchestra’s conductor, Daniel Barenboim, is being called an “anti-Semite” because he refused an interview to an Israeli Army radio.