Is Jenin a Hotbed of “Moderates”?

Phyllis Chesler
Pajamas Media | 3/31/2009

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They had not engaged in any rock or bomb throwing nor had they marched with ominously covered faces chanting “Death to the Jews, Death to America.” Instead, some time last week, thirteen young Palestinians, ages 11-18, members of the “Strings of Freedom” orchestra, conducted by Wafa Younis, played music for elderly Jewish Holocaust survivors in Holon. They came armed, not with guns, but with musical instruments. By yesterday, Palestinian authorities on the allegedly “moderate” West Bank, in the Jenin Refugee camp, had disbanded the orchestra and accused Wafa Younis of inappropriately involving the children in a dangerous “political issue.”

Younis is an Israeli Arab. This means that she is also a “Palestinian,” but, like 1. 2 million other such “Palestinians,” she is an Israeli citizen who is not voluntarily leaving Israel for either the West Bank or Gaza. For her “crime,” Younis was barred from the refugee camp. The apartment where she conducted her little orchestra is now boarded up.

Younis had not held the children hostage at gunpoint nor had she used them as human shields in the midst of a battle. She had not taught them that Israelis are “Nazis,” who are wantonly massacring the Palestinians. However, by allowing them to play for elderly Jewish Holocaust survivors she taught the musicians that the Holocaust did happen to Jews and that Jews, even Israeli Jews, are human beings, worthy of listening to music. Worse: Younis had allowed her charges to participate in a “Good Deeds Day,” an event which involved Jews and which had been funded by Israelis.

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Dr. Phyllis Chesler is the well known author of classic works, including the bestseller Women and Madness (1972) The New Anti-Semitism (2003) and The Death of Feminism: What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom (2005). She is about to publish a new edition of Woman's Inhumanity to Woman (2009). She is an Emerita Professor of psychology and women's studies, the co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969) and the National Women's Health Network (1976). Her website is www.phyllis-chesler.com.