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It sounds better in English
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| By Sarah Bronson |
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In an attempt to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer together, the
Jerusalem-based All For Peace radio station has added English-language
programs to its schedule. |
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The
founders of All For Peace, a new radio station that brings together
Israeli and Palestinian staff members, originally conceived of a
program schedule that would alternate between Hebrew and Arabic
broadcasts, blending a few talk or news hours into a diverse blend of
music shows. The goal was to promote intercultural awareness between
Arabs and Jews in their own languages, and to reinstill hope for the
future of the region.
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But when Mike Brand, a London native living just
outside Kfar Sava, brought them a demo tape three months ago, they
realized that they should add English to the mix. "English is a
language that both sides understand," explained Maysa Baransi-Siniora,
the Palestinian co-director of All For Peace. "By having some English
shows, we're increasing the percentage of broadcast time that both
sides can enjoy."
The station now has three English-language
shows: one, a youth program called "Crossing Borders," is produced by
native Israelis. Brand is airing his interview show, "Rainbow," every
Sunday and Thursday, and within a few weeks All For Peace will
introduce a music program by Dan Sieradski, a student in Israel for the
year who spins records in his native New York under the pseudonym
"Mobius."
Brand, 46, started his radio career as a teenager,
when he got a job as a junior clerk and then as a researcher at the
BBC. At the same time, he got his first DJ-ing experience at the
internal radio station of one of London's hospitals. Since moving to
Israel in 1976, he has written trade journalism about off-shore radio
for British and European publications including Radio Magazine and
Offshore Echos, as well as for his own Web site about off-shore radio.
Today,
Brand holds a day job as a purchaser for a high-tech company, but says
that radio is his real love. His one-hour show on All For Peace
features interviews with peace activists, "to give a stage to
humanitarian organizations that bring together Israelis and
Palestinians."
"There are so many groups out there working to
bring people together, it's incredible," he told Anglo File. "The
program shows the positive side of what is going on here. There are so
many people in Israel and the Palestinian Authority who are looking for
dialogue. The other side is not as scary as the official media make
them out to be. I want people to know that someone on the other side is
listening. Maybe some people will say `I want to help, too,' and the
organizations can swell their ranks."
He added that in the
future, he might feature organizations that promote peace between
different populations of Israelis. "I will interview anyone if it means
bringing two different people together," he said.
In contrast to
"Rainbow," Dan Sieradski's show "The Mobious Mixdown" is almost all
music. Through his show, he plans to introduce Israelis and
Palestinians to his favorite hip-hop and indie-rock selections, as well
as some reggae and club music. His goal, he says, is simply to "bring
good music to the people of Israel and the Palestinian territories."
Sieradski
arrived in Israel just a few weeks ago; he is studying Bible and Talmud
at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem as a Dorot Fellow. The Dorot
Fellowship aims to produce future Jewish leaders, but chances are slim
Sieradski will do anything "mainstream" in the future. The 25-year-old
yeshiva and college dropout thrives on pushing cultural envelopes. He
is the founder of the fringe Jewish news weblog Jewschool, an
experienced DJ, graphic artist, party promoter and music journalist and
writer of the internet site OrthodoxAnarchist.com. He is also the
director of the Open Source Judaism Project founded by controversial
"Nothing Sacred" author Douglas Rushkoff.
The duality of
Sieradski's rebelliousness and religiosity is embodied in his
pseudonym. "A mobius strip seems to have two sides," he explained, "but
really has one. I have an obsession with paradoxes. I'm amused by them."
Working
for All For Peace is the perfect opportunity, Sieradski said, to
combine Dorot's volunteerism requirement with his call to spin records
and his political worldviews. "I come across as right-wing to my
left-wing friends, but to my right-wing friends I'm the most vehement
lefty there is," he says.
Currently, All For Peace, generated
from Jerusalem, is broadcast exclusively over the Internet, at
www.allforpeace.org. The organization, funded mostly by the European
Union and run as a joint project of Biladi, The Jerusalem Times and The
Jewish-Arab Centre for Peace, has been given rights to one of the
Palestinian Authority's radio frequencies, and owns a radio
transmitter, but due to bureaucratic problems the transmitter has been
sitting in a Tel Aviv customs office for several months.
Israeli
customs officials may not release radio equipment, Baransi-Siniora
explained, until the owner has provided proof that they have rights to
an approved radio frequency. Since peace negotiations have stopped, she
says, obtaining acceptable paperwork from the Palestinian Authority
that would verify the station's use of a PA frequency has become a
time-consuming and frustrating task. Siniora added that the All For
Peace programs would be on the air as soon as she can arrange for their
transmitter to reach its intended home in Ramallah.
"I believe
in this station, because it's broadcasting to the people who matter, to
the masses," Brand said, "But right now we're being accessed mainly by
Israelis and by people around the world. I don't know how many
Palestinians have internet access. That's why it's imperative that we
get on FM as soon as possible."
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| Dan Sieradski, left, and Mike Brand. "There are so
many groups out there working to bring people together, it's
incredible." (Lior Mizrahi / Bau Bau) |
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