Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Daniel Barenboim Given Honorary Palestinian Citizenship

The full article is available here.

Lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti said he lobbied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to make Barenboim a citizen.

Barenboim deserved a Palestinian passport, Barghouti said, because the conductor had shown "solidarity with Palestinians under the most difficult circumstances."

"It was a nice gesture," Barenboim said in a telephone interview from Berlin.

At least one Israeli lawmaker wanted action taken against barenboim for his acceptance of the honor. "'It's a disgrace to the state of Israel that a man like Barenboim holds Israeli citizenship, and it would be fitting for it to be revoked,' Yakov Margi of the Shas party told the Maariv daily newspaper's Web site."

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