Tag: Yuval Ron

  • Which Turks hate Israel most

    Which Turks hate Israel most

    There was an interesting story in the Daily News last week, about the cancelling of a Yuval Ron concert in Istanbul. Mr. Ron, an award-wining Israeli musician, was supposed to play his tunes in a Sultanahmet hall, but the event was cancelled at the last minute due to protests, and, allegedly, some “threats.” The organization holding the protest – but denied any threat – was the famous Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or İHH, that organized last year’s controversial Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, which was lethally raided by Israeli commandos.

    The İHH, of course, is an Islamic-minded organization. Therefore, I received a few emails from Western friends complaining how Islam and its ascendant role in public life are making Turks fanatically anti-Semitic. If Turkey had been dominated by more-secular minded Turks, these friends added, it would have been a tolerant and loving, and particularly Israel-loving, society.

    The missing piece

    But there was an interesting detail in the Yuval Ron story that my Islamo-sceptic friends, and probably most others, were missing: The organization that helped organize the concert of the Israeli musician was quite Islamic-minded as well. It was the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, founded by none other than the followers of Fethullah Gülen, Turkey’s most influential Muslim religious leader.

    In fact, the Gülen Movement, as it is called, has probably been the most active force against anti-Semitism in Turkey in the past two decades. Until his departure from Turkey in 1998, one of Gülen’s best friends was Turkey’s chief rabbi and the two men routinely appeared in front cameras for joint “Abrahamic” prayers. To date, Gülen’s followers have held dozens of interfaith meetings in Turkey and elsewhere, and their media outlets have persistently promoted understanding between Muslims and Jews.

    Even on the flotilla incident, Gülen took a different line than that of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government he supports, and said it would have been better if the flotilla sought a deal with Israeli authorities to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza.

    Of course, there are also anti-Semitic strains in the Islamic camp. The daily Vakit, and the marginal Saadet Party, which got one percent of the votes in last weekend’s elections, are unabashedly anti-Israel and use rhetoric that often turns outright anti-Jewish. But similar rhetoric exists also among Atatürk-venerating secular nationalists “ulusalcılar,” who believe in crazy conspiracy theories about how Jews are supposedly buying Turkish land in the southeast to incorporate into “greater Israel.” One of these lunatics even wrote a bestselling book in 2007, which argued that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was a crypto-Jew who was “selling” Turkey to “Jewish capitalists.”

    Grey area

    The Turkish picture about Israel, in other words, is not black-and-white. We are not divided between Israel-hating Islamics and Israel-loving seculars.

    Erdoğan’s party, for that matter, is somewhere between the Saadet and the Gülen Movement, if we put these in a spectrum and closer to the latter rather than the former. Most Israelis, who really are not in a love affair with Erdoğan, might find that hard to believe, but they should recall that the AKP leader had pretty good relations with the Jewish State until the end of 2008, when “Operation Cast Lead” began killing hundreds of innocents in Gaza. Erdoğan and his team passionately care for their Muslim brethren in Palestine, just like many American Jews care for theirs in Israel. Besides, they can not just sleep over the killing of nine Turks in international waters by Israeli soldiers, which has become a matter of national pride. But they ultimately support a two-state solution, and can be quite helpful in building it.

    So, here is a friendly advice to Israeli policy makers and their advisors: Stop dreaming about the days when Turkey will become hyper-secular again. Those days are gone and Turkey’s Muslim identity is here to stay. But it might not be as bad as you fear, especially if you try to build bridges and reconsider some of your hawkish and intimidating policies.

    via Which Turks hate Israel most – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review. 

    mustafa akyol

     

  • Oscar-winning musician calls for peace at Istanbul concert

    Oscar-winning musician calls for peace at Istanbul concert

    VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

    ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

    World-renowned musician Yuval Ron and his ensemble will call for peace in the world at a concert in Istanbul. ‘Teach your children the teaching of Musa [Moses], which is [love your fellow man as yourself] and remember the teaching of Jesus Christ [to love your enemy],’ says the Israeli-born winner of Oscar and Grammy awards

    Award-winning Israeli musician Yuval Ron, the leader of an ensemble of Arabic, Jewish and Christian artists, will call for peace in the world at his concert Thursday night in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet neighborhood.

    “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a wound I carry with me every day. It is a family fight because Arab and Jews, we are a family. You may say we are cousins but we are actually half-brothers, we have the same father,” the Israeli-born, U.S.-based musician told the Hürriyet Daily News after arriving in Turkey for the concert.

    “When Abraham died, both his sons came together to bury him. They came together out of respect and love for their father, even though they were not on friendly terms during their lives and their mothers were in conflict,” Ron said. The leader of the Yuval Ron Ensemble, he has won a Grammy and many other awards, including an Oscar for the short musical film “West Bank Story,” to which he wrote the score.

    Speaking about last year’s deadly attack by Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara, a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, Ron said: “It was a very unfortunate event of violence; unnecessary violence saddens me very much.”

    Nine Turkish activists were killed onboard the vessel, souring relations between Turkey and Israel.

    “It is important Turkey becomes a trusted leader of peace in the Middle East and is able to gain the friendship of both sides in the conflict,” Ron said.

    The Mavi Marmara is to set sail to Gaza again in late June as part of an international group of 15 ships. According to convoy organizers with the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or İHH, 500,000 people applied to join the second flotilla, which will carry approximately 1,500 activists from about 100 countries, as well as humanitarian aid and medical, school and construction materials.

    Three Abrahamic traditions

    Ron’s Istanbul concert will be held at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Amphi Theater in Sultanahmet Square. During the performance, three religious figures – a muezzin, who leads the call to prayer at a mosque, a cantor, or chief singer in a church choir, and a hazan, who sings or chants prayers in a synagogue – will take the stage to represent the three faiths.

    “We will bring sacred music and singers from the three Abrahamic traditions, who will sing together to show people the beauty and harmony of all of us,” Ron said. “We will have a whirling dervish from the Mevlevi order and a Sufi master singer from Pakistan with us, as well as a singer from Yemen, a singer from Morocco and great masters of various musical instruments of the Middle East.”

    The musician called for Istanbul to be “the leader of peace in the Middle East and a leader in peace between the East and West.”

    “Istanbul is the meeting point of Asia and Europe, of East and West. Istanbul is the middle, and according to the mystical teaching of Judaism, Sufism and Buddhism, the ‘middle’ is the place of wisdom,” he added.

    “Teach your children the teaching of Musa [Moses], which is to ‘love your fellow man as yourself’; remember the teaching of Jesus Christ to ‘love your enemy.’ Answer hate with love,” Ron said.

    Ron’s concert is Istanbul is being organized in collaboration with the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, or KADIP, Kültür A.Ş. and the Koza Foundation. Admission to the concert is free but reservations must be made by emailing a ticket request to: sevdearpaci@gmail.com.

    via Oscar-winning musician calls for peace at Istanbul concert – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.