Who originally wrote the melody to "Turn Turn Turn," the 60s hit single by the Byrds based on the third chapter of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) (King James version)? According to Wikipedia, it was Pete Seeger. Well, fine and dandy, that was all I was looking for. I really, really didn't need to know this.
45% of the royalties for this song ("because [in addition to the music] I did write six words") are donated to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.Then again, maybe I did. Here is one of CAMERA's (early) analyses of the activities of the ICAHD.
A poisonous anti-Israel road show is making its way across America for a second year, this winter landing in eighteen cities between January 16th and February 12th. Jeff Halper, coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and Salim Shawamreh, a Palestinian whose house has been torn down by Israel because of zoning violations, have brought accusations of Israeli apartheid, Nazism and racism to universities, churches, community groups and even the occasional synagogue and Hillel. Newspapers and radio talk-shows too have been enlisted to reach the public.
And here is another, more recent.
In its relentless quest to demonize the Jewish state, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a virulently anti-Israel activist organization headed by Jeff Halper (and funded by the European Union), has in effect rewritten the Fourth Geneva Convention, ...
Yet more here, courtesty of NGO Monitor.
Summary: The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) claims to be "a non-violent, direct-action group ... to oppose and resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories." A recipient of EU funding, ICAHD partners with radical NGOs such as Sabeel, Christian Aid, and LAW to campaign against the two-state solution, promote the "Durban Strategy" of boycotts and demonizing Israel, using terms such as "apartheid", and grossly distorting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
So every time you hear "Turn Turn Turn" on the radio (or elsewhere), be aware that a bunch of bucks are going to fund the nefarious antics of yet another anti-Israel-posing-as-pro-"peace" hate group. A few months ago, Ha'aretz published this report, in which a quote from a 2002 interview with Seeger reveals the utter cluelessness that often attends such celebrity posing.
Ironically, Pete Seeger's mythical "role in ending Israeli house demolitions" appears to be his one and only connection to the Jewish State. It's sad, really. To everything there is, indeed, a season. A time to keep silence (v. 7), especially when you don't know what you're talking about. And a time to take heed that, again in the immortal words of Kohelet (v.2),"With 'Turn, Turn, Turn' I wanted to send 45 percent, because [in addition to the music] I did write six words and one more word repeated three times, so I figured I'd keep five percent of the royalties for the words. I was going to send it to London, where I am sure the committee that oversees the use of the King James version exists, and they probably could use a little cash. But then I realized, why not send it to where the words were originally written?"
ICAHD's Halper met with Seeger in New York last week and remarked that "he said he thought it was appropriate that the biblical part of the song make its way to Israel, he doesn't want to take credit for it."
Havel havalim hakol havel. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.Powerline on Pete Seeger.
