This is what could be called a triumph of substance over style:
In this photo, American folk singer Pete Seegar and Jeff Halper, American-Israeli head of the Israeli Coalition Against House Demolitions (ICHAD) wear identical ICAHD t-shirts (photo by Elyse Crystal)
Haaretz today published the photo, along with an article by its correspondent Nir Hasson, reporting that Seeger, 90 years old, has been donating some of the royalties of his song Turn, Turn, Turn to support ICAHD’s work for the past 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?’ ” This Haaretz article is posted
here.
Halper is the author of several important pieces of analysis concerning the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, including “The Matrix of Control” and more recently “Warehousing the Palestinians”. He was the first Israeli to sail on a Free Gaza ship with the aim of “breaking the siege” that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip, and tightened severely since an Israeli government decision in September 2007 to label Gaza an “enemy entity” or “hostile territory”, following the Hamas rout of Fatah/Palestinian Preventive Security Forces there in mid-June 2007. Halper was arrested upon his reentry from Gaza to Israel via the Israeli-controlled Erez Crossing. He was jailed overnight, posted bail, but has apparently not been charged in court…