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Beethoven to the rescue
Northern residents upset at loud Arab music from nearby village respond with classical tunes
Mirit Kushnir-Stromatza
Published: 07.25.09, 20:24 / Israel News
Officials at a northern Israel community found an original way to protest the unbearable noises coming from weddings in a nearby Arab village: "Bombarding" their Arab neighbors with classical music.
If you happened to be in the Kfar Vradim area Thursday night you would have been able to enjoy Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Mozart's Requiem and Puccini's opera Tosca. The pieces were played at high volume in Kfar Vradim and were heard miles away.
Kfar Vradim (Photo: Elad Gershgoren)
By now, Kfar Vradim residents are intimately familiar with a recurring annoyance: Every summer, once wedding season is underway in nearby Arab villages, Jewish residents complain of Arab music being played at a loud volume until the wee hours of the night. The weddings are routinely followed by angry calls to police. In some cases, the music is turned down for a short while, only to resume shortly after
police officers leave the scene.
"I've lost all patience" said one Kfar Vradim resident. "At 11:01 pm I call the police in order to complain. I'm one of the regular callers. Our bedroom faces Tarshiha and it is just impossible to sleep with this noise. Some days you can't sit in the backyard. The level of disturbance changes in line with the wind direction; sometimes it feels as though the band is literally in our backyard. The noise is just awful."
Complaints are received from within the Arab village too. One Tahrshiha resident said this week: "We hear weddings from all directions. It's very disturbing. Christians hold their weddings at banquet halls, but Bedouins celebrate in their own yards, and the noise is a nuisance not just to their neighborhood but to the entire area."
"With all due respect to weddings, people have to get up for work in the morning," she said.
Kfar Vradim's musical reaction followed numerous failed attempts to engage in dialogue with Tarshiha residents. Finally, a decision was made to set up powerful loud speakers playing classical music for several hours.
A source affiliated with the council head explained why local official chose the unusual response: "We just felt we had no other choice; all of our attempts to explain that the loud music is undermining our quality of life have failed. But we have yet to despair; this week the council head scheduled a meeting with the village's dignitaries. He intends to explain to them again what his representatives have tried to explain in previous meetings: That residents of Kfar Vradim respect their neighbors' right to celebrate."
"On the other hand we have a reasonably sized population here that should not be forced to become an active participant in these celebrations. It's very disturbing, even in the early evening hours," the source said, adding that local officials have not been approached by their Arab neighbors following the classic music "performance."
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"It wasn't necessarily a one-time event, but we won't necessarily do it again. Everything will depend on developments. We are taking a series of actions, including purchasing a seismograph in order to render matters clear and not up for discussion or interpretation," he said.
"It's a long process which we hope to conclude successfully. However, if we are forced to play the music again we shall put the speakers closer to the neighbors' houses."
Topic: Jews in Jewish towns blare Beethoven to stop arab town playing muzzie music (Read 953 times)