Some 250 children from Jish church's summer camp leave country club in northern city of Katzrin, after club's manager refused to allow the counselors to play Arabic music. 'We can't have every sector coming to the pool and playing whatever music they want,' manager explains http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3759993,00.html<
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"Some 250 children of an Arab village's summer camp left a country club in the northern city of Katzrin in tears on Thursday, after the club's manager refused to allow the counselors to play Arabic music.
The Jish church summer camp director, Jadi Sliman, said the country club manager's conduct was "insulting and racist". The manager, Shemi Namimi said in his defense, "We can't have every sector coming to the pool and playing whatever music they want."
Children from northern Israel, as well as from abroad, take part in the Jish church summer camp every year, and according to Sliman, "It is considered the most successful summer camp among the Christian community in Israel."
This year, as always, the camp planned a day of recreational activities at the Katzirn country club's swimming pool. Sliman and Namimi worked out the details and the cost, and signed a contract for Thursday."
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"The moment we got there I realized something was wrong," says Sliman. "I asked them where I could find an electricity connection and the workers kept sending me around. We eventually connected the stereo system and I put on music of a church prater, in Arabic."
Sliman says he went to fill a pitcher of water, and was surprised to discover when he returned that the music had stopped.
"The Instructors told me that the workers had come and given them a Hebrew music CD. I turned the system on again, and then Shemi approached the system and turned down the volume to the very end. I asked him, 'Excuse me, what are you doing? If you want something, talk. This system belongs to me.' So he immediately replied, 'I am the one making decisions here.' I asked him, 'What's the problem?' And he said, 'Don't put music in Arabic. If you want, you can put music in Hebrew."
Sliman says he explained to the manager that Arabic was the summer camp children's mother tongue, "but he refused to listen and said, 'l am the manager here and I decided. There will be no music in Arabic here.'"