Friday, June 03, 2005

Basque Lullaby Redux

The upheaval created by the disclosure by Naomi Shemer that she had indeed lifted the tune for "Jerusalem of Gold" from the Basque lullaby "Pello Joxepe" gets a new perspective from the news outlet The Jewish Week.

The article goes into a few more tidibits about the story behind the song and how it became Israel's second national antem. Then it takes Uri Avnery to task for a piece I posted here with the title "Death of a Myth".

Finally, it mentions both Luistxo's blog "The English Cemetary" and this here blog "Ingeleraz":
A Basque blogger “Ingeleraz,” posted: “Now, let’s think about it, we are talking 1962, at that time Israel was still trying to consolidate itself, and the Basques were being oppressed by Franco and his Falangists. ... It is just natural that one of the songs would leave a mark on those who had the chance to go to the concert. ... Hopefully, the Israelis will learn a lesson from all this situation, and maybe they will come to accept the Basques for what we are.”

Another Basque blogger, Luistxo Fernandez, adds, “Nobody’s angry, here at the Basque country. We are such a little nation, we feel proud anytime anyone notices us for something good, a nice tune, for instance.”

That “nice tune” can be heard at www.eibar.org/blogak/luistxo, or at http://mp3enema.org/files/achi/joxepe.mp3. n
Luistxo already posted something regarding the note at The Jewish Week, but it was Blog in DM who pointed out that the media outlet did not post the url's for neither one of the blogs.

If you ask me, I find it amusing that Jonathan Mark did not attempt to contact the Eusko Etxea of New York for more info, or even one of the news outlets from Euskal Herria to get more opinions and instead quotes a couple of blogs.

Which is an honor, don't get me wrong. It comes to show that blogs are becoming an alternate way to gauge the average Joe's opinion on any given issue.

Shalom!

Bakea!

* You can also read the whole article at Artxiboak.

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