Mikis theodorakis’ response to his slanderers

 
I am Greek and therefore proud because we are the only people in Europe that during the German occupation (1941-44) not only did we not persecute the Jews but rather we protected their lives by all means possible.

Personally, partisan of the Greek Popular Liberation Army (ELAS) at that time, I remember that we had under our protection several families of Greek Jews, we fought the SS to save them and that is why we had many victims.

Later, I composed the “Mauthausen” Cycle which especially in Israel is considered as a kind of national anthem. And among the greatest thrills of my life is the time when many years later, in the 80s, I was honored to direct in that same Mauthausen concentration camp that work, sung in Greek by its first interpreter, Maria Farantouri, in German by Gisela May and in Hebrew by Israeli singer Elinoar Moav. Since then I directed it once more inside the camp, while the work is constantly heard in that place.

In 1972 I broke the boycott of the Europeans and gave tens of concerts in Israel that were written in history because of the great love, mutual for both parties.

At that time, the Vice President of the Israeli government Alon, assigned me the first mission, which was to carry a message of Peace on behalf of the Government to Arafat. I met Arafat for that purpose in Beirut and in fact before the meeting I gave a press-conference. A Palestinian fundamentalist group had decided to kill me at the time of the press-conference, because they considered me a man of the Jews. Arafat himself told me of it the following day, along with ... the group of potential assassins. What was it that saved me? My true love for the two martyr - people: Jews and Palestinians.

"When we heard you in the press-conference», they told me, "we realized that we were wrong." What did I say? "Your disagreement isn’t going to be solved with guns but with understanding. On the other hand, there are people like you, simple, ordinary, hard working, loving, who love their family and their place like you do. It is them you have to search for, because with them you’ll be able to live peacefully. "

Arafat said to me: "You sang for the Jews and you did well because they too are a people tormented. Like we are. So please, write a song for us, too ... ". So I wrote a song for the Palestinian people as well, who named it their National anthem.

When much later in Oslo the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Rabin (Israel) and Arafat (Palestine), the Oslo symphonic orchestra with the Finnish singer Arja Saionmaa as soloist, played the «Mauthausen» in honor of Israel and the song that I composed as an Anthem for the Palestinians, in honor of the Palestinian people. This symbolism alone is enough to show my position in the thoughts and hearts of both peoples.
I have gone many times to Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, with my thoughts always on peace, friendship, coexistence and cooperation between these two tormented peoples. As a Greek, I feel close to them as if we belong to the same family. But for some, the fanatics of both sides, I became the red rag. Why? Because I have the honesty and the courage to speak the truth even in the lion’s den. So when I am in Palestine I speak openly and publicly against the fanatics of the country who hate me and when I'm in Israel I act the same, openly and publicly against the fanatics, who have the possibility due to dispersion of the Jews in all countries of the world, to turn their hatred into poison and grotesque lies.

In my opera "The Metamorphoses of Dionysus" (in which I wrote the libretto besides the music) there is a scene in which Jews were carried by the SS to extermination camps. It is a prime moment, throughout the whole play, for condemning Nazism, during which my spiritual and mental crash by the suffering of the Jews is unfolded in the most humane way possible.

Besides, these feelings of condemnation of racism and defense of its victims, have guided the decisions and actions throughout my whole life, have resulted in my constant persecution and have often brought me on the brink of death.

But ultimately the explanation is simple: I have many Jews friends that fully agree with me. Some of them even agree with me despite the fact that they live in Israel; that is, right in the daily maelstrom of events. Therefore, if the ordinary men of the people of Israel listen to my views as they truly are there exists the "risk" (for my enemies, of course) that they agree with me on the fact that the solution to the problem is not violence and weapons, but coexistence and Peace. But my enemies do not like that.

Because, naturally, I have on too many occasions completely disagreed with the policy followed by the state of Israel and I have expressed my disagreement in the strongest and most firm way (as I always do). In order to avoid the risk of them agreeing with me, they must not hear my views.

And what is the best and safest way to achieve that? Their standard method: Sticking the "sign" of anti-Semite on me, so that no Jew anywhere in the world will want to hear not only my views but not even my name.

Nowadays, especially in France where they suddenly "remembered" the specific interview given almost one year and a half ago, they certainly have another reason to do it: deliver a blow to the Left. The alleged "argument" (which in addition is false) is that the leader of the left wing party, Mr. Melenchon, knows me, therefore ... has anti-Semite friends! But unfortunately for them the truth is crystal clear and I believe that every basically benevolent person realizes it.

So, if after all this, some people still insist on making me appear as someone I have never been in my whole life and certainly am not now, there should be no doubt to anyone that they are doing so from mere cunning, because they are annoyed by my steel belief in Peace and in the coexistence of the two martyr - people.

Athens,15.6.2012