An Israeli army investigation has concluded that a Palestinian filmed playing his violin at an army checkpoint, prompting outrage among Israelis who said it diminished the Holocaust, was not forced to do so by soldiers.
But the violinist, Wissam Tayem, on Tuesday night disputed the army’s assertion that he started playing of his own accord, and a group of Israeli peace activists who captured the incident on video rejected the military’s claim that they backed the soldiers’ version of events.
”Do they think I just got out my violin and started to play at a checkpoint?” said Mr Tayem.
After the incident came to light last week, the army initially said that troops at a checkpoint near Nablus asked Tayem to play in order to prove his violin did not contain explosives. It criticised the soldiers for showing ”insensitivity”.
The incident prompted outraged denunciations from Israelis who said it diminished the Holocaust because accounts of musicians forced to play in concentration camps was one of the abiding images of Jewish suffering.
But a statement by the military on Tuesday shifted ground.
”The Palestinian opened the case and started to play the violin of his own volition. Several moments later, the Palestinian was asked by the liaison officer to stop playing,” it said.
Tayem rejected the army’s account: ”They told me to play, to play something sad to match their mood. It doesn’t make sense to think I would stand at a checkpoint and play my violin. That would just cause trouble for me.”
The military said a letter from the women peace activists of Machsom Watch, who filmed the incident, ”confirms the soldiers’ version of events”.
But on Tuesday night, one of the group’s leaders, Adi Dagan, said Machsom Watch had merely said its volunteers did not hear the soldier give an order to play. – Guardian Unlimited Â