UNITED NATIONS (OSV News): At the United Nations headquarters in New York, international diplomats debated ways of peacefully resolving the intensifying Palestinian-Israeli conflict thousands of kilometres away.
As they did so, an orchestra made up of eight musicians from either side of that Middle Eastern divide were in the same building on February 23, performing a classical musical concert for a selected audience.
The octet was part of the larger West-Eastern Divan Orchestra composed of young musicians from Israel, Palestine and other Arab countries that was founded in 1999 by renowned Israeli musician, Daniel Barenboim, and late Palestinian scholar, Edward Said, as an alternative way to address the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli divide.
“This is a great opportunity to have them visit the United Nations, perform and talk about their work and the work of the orchestra,” explained Maher Nasser, of the UN’s Department of Global Communications, when asked about why the group was invited to play that day at the UN, where ways of ending the world’s various other conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, were at the centre of debate as well.
“The United Nations was created as an organisation that brings people together to promote the ideals of peace, human rights, development, and that we can overcome the differences by engaging with each other, not by fighting with one another,” said Nasser, speaking on the sidelines of the concert, held in a UN chamber hall that was only about half full.
This is a great opportunity to have them visit the United Nations, perform and talk about their work and the work of the orchestra
Maher Nasser
“And it is an opportune moment to also reflect on the role of culture, the role of music in bringing people together, bringing what unites us,” Nasser said.
The orchestra played several works by the 19th-century German composer Felix Mendelssohn under the close supervision of the orchestra’s manager, Tabaré Perlas.
Though this was the first time the orchestra had ever performed at the UN headquarters in New York, Perlas said that the musicians had played at other famous world venues before, including Castel Gandolfo in 2012, upon a personal invitation from Pope Benedict XVI, who “was very happy to receive the orchestra there, and for the orchestra it was very special.”
The goal of the ethnically diverse West-Eastern Divan Orchestra then and now is “to bring a message to the world,” Perlas noted.
“Of course, the conflict in the Middle East will not be solved by an orchestra playing together but we are just a model and an example. That is what we try to be,” he said.
An Israeli member of the orchestra who played the viola at the UN concert, Miriam Manasherov, agreed, saying, “I think we set an example for ourselves as human beings.”
She said, “I think the idea is … we are all equal, we are equal in music, we are equal in life, and the fact that we can manage on a daily basis and actually become very good friends as well, for us it’s a victory.”
Her fellow musician and orchestra member, Palestinian violinist Samir Obaido, stood nearby.
“Sometimes we get into this hopeless state where we think nothing can be done, so as an individual you feel like you have little effect on society,” Obaido, a violin player said.
But he quickly added, “Music for me is definitely one of the last resorts that we can kind of go to in our world at the moment if we want more kindness and goodness.”
