Jerusalem quartet and anti-Israeli protests

I attended a remarkable concert this morning given by the Jerusalem Quartet at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh which was repeatedly interrupted by anti-Israeli protesters shouting slogans like 'Israeli army musicians'. It seemed for a while that the concert might have to be abandoned, for each time a protester was ejected and the concert continued, another would shout out within a few minutes. The festival director, Jonathan Mills, made a very astute announcement after the 3rd or 4th interruption - 'The quartet and I are betting that there are more movements left in the concert than protestors'. This established a sense of optimism in the audience, and it also turned out to be true: the 2nd half proceeded without incident. During the interval, I talked to one of those protesting outside to try and work out why he thought it was appropriate to blame civilians for the actions of their government. 'They were in the army' was one justification, this despite his knowing there is conscription in Israel. 'They haven't publicly condemned their governments' actions' was another. I pointed out that I haven't publicly condemned the Iraq invasion which he thought was illegal, yet he wasn't picketing outside my concert yesterday. In the end his justification was this - 'the disruption is a small price to pay for liberating Palestine'. He believed his groups' actions were building support for his cause; clearly he couldn't see the audience reaction inside the hall. What I find most strange about this attitude is that it is following just the kind of thinking which leads to the events he condemns: it dehumanises some to further the cause of others. By definition, civilian casualities must be a 'price worth paying' for both the Israeli army and the Palestinian suicide bombers or they would change tactics. I don't want to discuss the politics of this - I'm too uninformed and besides know that feelings run so extremely high on both sides of this debate. But I'm reminded of a passage in Shostakovich's memoir Testimony. He reflects on the way in which socialisms' ideals of caring for all men equally resulted in such a disfunctional Russian society and writes something like, 'You should never talk about loving the world. Try loving one person first. It's incredibly difficult, it's almost impossible to love one person without hurting someone else.' These protestors think they care about the Palestinians but if they care nothing for the feelings of 4 musicians and 900 audience members right next to them, how can they care about those thousands of miles away? I suspect, rather, that they hate the symbol of oppression that Israel is to them, and the Palestinians are bit-players in that internal drama.

All of which is to frame what a remarkable group the Jerusalem quartet are - they continued to play in the most engaged and creative fashion despite these frequent interruptions. For me, they represent chamber music at its best - all four are fantastic instrumentalists, capable of both playing utterly soloistically and also blending wonderfully. They have a fabulous range of colour, keen structural instincts, wit, seriousness, spontaneity, and enormous depth of feeling. I've played a few concerts with them, all of which were marvellous experiences, but hearing them from the audience's point of view gave me even greater respect for them. How many better quartets in the world can there be?