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| tdny... |
 Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:52 pm |
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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126445.html
Pete Seeger's role in ending Israeli house demolitions
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel news, Pete Seeger
Anyone who owns a radio probably knows the song
"Turn, Turn, Turn" (To everything there is a season)
very well.
A number of versions of this song have
become permanent fixtures on the play
lists of most popular music radio stations.
Here's what the listeners don't know:
every time this song is played,
the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions receives a few dollars,
which accumulate to a
"several thousand dollars every year,"
according to the committee's co-founder and coordinator.
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
is a non-profit organization that uses non-violent means
to oppose Israeli demolition of homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Seeger has been donating some of the
song's royalties to ICAHD for ten years.
The banjo-playing Seeger, 90,
is considered one of the pioneers
of American folk music.
He is known for his political activism
no less than for his musical achievements.
In the 1930s he was involved in the
establishment of worker unions,
in the 1940s he opposed the war
against Germany and in the 1950s
he was interrogated by Senator
Joe McCarthy over suspicions
of belonging to the Communist Party.
In recent years Seeger has been involved
in efforts to clean up the Hudson River in
New York and performed at U.S. President
Barack Obama's inauguration celebration.
The lyrics of the song
"Turn, Turn, Turn"
are the words of King Solomon
from the book of Ecclesiastes.
"All around the world,
songs are being written that use
old public domain material,
and I think it's only fair that
some of the money from the songs
go to the country or place of origin,
even though the composer may
be long dead or unknown,"
Seeger said in an interview
with Acoustic Guitar magazine in 2002.
"With 'Turn, Turn, Turn'
I wanted to send 45 percent,
because [in addition to the music]
I did write six words and one more
word repeated three times,
so I figured I'd keep five
percent of the royalties for
the words.
I was going to send it to London,
where I am sure the committee that
oversees the use of the King James
version exists,
and they probably could use a little cash.
But then I realized,
why not send it to where
the words were originally written?"
ICAHD's Halper met with Seeger in New York last
week and remarked that "he said he thought it was
appropriate that the biblical part of the song make
its way to Israel ? he doesn't want to take credit for it."
Halper brought another message from Seeger to the Israelis:
"He said that artists and cooks ? it was
important for him to include cooks ? must
stand up and demand a just peace.
That is the duty of artists and cooks."
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