Israeli conductor Barenboim's surprise: a spare passport from the Palestinians

The high profile Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim now carries two passports: both Israeli and Palestinian. The controversial Argentine-born maestro has been branded anti-Semitic more often for conducting Richard Wagner than for embracing Palestinian humanitarian causes, but how he conducts himself is what puts him in the limelight. The Guardian reports:

The Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has been granted Palestinian citizenship for his work in promoting cultural exchange between young people in Israel and the Arab world.
The Argentine-born musician is believed to be the first person in the world to possess both Israeli and Palestinian passports after receiving his new documentation at the end of a piano recital in Ramallah in the West Bank at the weekend.

"Under the most difficult circumstances he has shown solidarity with the Palestinian people," Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian MP and presidential candidate, said at the recital held to raise money for medical aid for children in the Gaza Strip.

Barenboim, 65, who is musical director of the Staatsoper in Berlin and Milan's La Scala opera house, established his West-Eastern Divan orchestra with the American-Palestinian intellectual Edward Said in 1999 following a workshop in Germany. The orchestra's aim is to bring together musicians from Israel and Arabic countries to exchange ideas and perform together.
Barenboim, a regular and lively commentator on the Middle East conflict, said he was "moved and very, very happy", adding that he accepted it because it "symbolises the everlasting bond between the Israeli and Palestinian people".

In a pointed reference to US President George Bush's recent comments on the Middle East conflict in which he talked of Israel's "occupation" of the West Bank, Barenboim added: "Now even not very intelligent people are saying that the occupation has to be stopped."

Barenboim is a controversial figure to many in Israel, but less for the sympathy he openly shows towards the Palestinians than for his promotion of the music of the 19th-century antisemitic German composer Richard Wagner, which he has conducted in Jerusalem.

He criticised the Israeli government when he was forced to cancel a concert in Ramallah after Israel said it could not guarantee his safety. More recently, he held a press conference to protest at Israel's refusal to allow musicians from his Divan orchestra to enter Ramallah.