AFP Asia Business

The pipes of a medieval organ, buried for centuries and discovered near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, are once more filling a Jerusalem monastery with ancient melodies.”This is a window into the past… we have the opportunity for the first time in modern history of listening to a medieval sound which is a thousand years old,” said David Catalunya, a Spanish researcher who has worked for more than five years to bring the 11th-century instrument back to life.”And it’s not through a recreation or a hypothetical reconstruction, but it’s really the original sound: the same vibration that the Crusaders heard at the Nativity Church,” he told AFP.Dating nearly as far back as the invention of the instrument itself, it was discovered in 1906 at the Biblical birthplace of Jesus Christ.Catalunya pulls on small tabs to play the organ — which he fondly refers to as a “miracle” — expelling a formidable ringing from the otherwise modest wooden instrument.Currently housed in the Monastery of Saint Saviour in Jerusalem’s Old City, the instrument is set to be displayed in a museum of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.”It’s like finding a living dinosaur, because it’s something we knew existed but we only know from fossils, so there’s very limited evidence,” said Alvaro Torrente, a musicologist who participated in the restoration project.”This is not a fossil, this is the real object and the real sound,” he told AFP.- Chance discovery -It was discovered “almost by chance”, according to Father Eugenio Alliata, a Franciscan archaeologist attached to the mission in charge of several holy sites, including the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.During construction of a pilgrim hostel, a set of 222 copper pipes and a bell carillon were unearthed near the site.It was seemingly buried with “utmost care”, according to Catalunya, meaning researchers were able to reconstruct the instrument with painstaking care.Koos van de Linde, one of the world’s leading organ specialists who also consulted on the project, said that “the hope the Crusaders who buried these pieces had, that one day they would resound again, was not in vain.”It was an immense honour to witness and participate in their resurrection,” he continued.To the experts, the instrument is unique not just for its complexity — 18 pipes producing a single note — or what Catalunya says is an “incredible state of preservation”, but also its antiquity.While the oldest organs studied by historians are from the 15th century, this one was built in the 11th century in France before being transported to Bethlehem by Crusaders in the 12th century, Catalunya said.”The Christians of Europe brought to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem the most avant-garde musical instrument used at the time in liturgy: the organ, an instrument designed to become the emblem of sacred music,” Torrente told AFP.He hopes the discovery will spark more interest in what the research team simply calls the “Bethlehem organ”, which Torrente says has not yet sung all its tunes.

A documentary about an Israeli ex-soldier’s efforts to rescue his family from the October 7 Hamas attacks premiered under heavy police presence on Wednesday, after initially being cut from the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) lineup. Groups supporting Israel and the Palestinians faced off outside the venue before the screening of “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” which charts how retired Israeli general Noam Tibon saved his family and others during the 2023 Hamas attack.There were no reported incidents of violence during the protests.  The Canadian-produced film drew significant attention ahead of TIFF, after it was briefly withdrawn from the festival. Organizers cited a lack of “legal clearance” for certain footage used, triggering protests from more than 1,000 entertainment industry figures including Amy Schumer and Debra Messing, who signed a petition accusing TIFF of silencing Jewish voices. TIFF chief executive Cameron Bailey denied reports that director Barry Avrich was asked to secure rights to use actual Hamas bodycam footage of the attacks.”At no point did we ask the filmmakers to seek approval or clearance from Hamas, a terrorist organization,” Bailey told the Globe and Mail newspaper this week. “That is, of course, something that we wouldn’t do.”Before introducing the film on Wednesday, Bailey conceded TIFF mishandled the film’s submission process. “I want to apologize, especially to the Jewish community, for mistakes I made in the lead up to this day,” he told a packed 2,000-seat venue in downtown Toronto. – ‘Flag of a family’ -The film recounts Tibon’s journey from Tel Aviv to Nahal Oz, a kibbutz on the border with Gaza, where his son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters were hiding in a safe room after Hamas fighters entered the community. Avrich said he was drawn to the story as a father, and that it does not have a political message. “This film is wrapped in the flag of a family,” he told the premiere audience. Protesting outside the venue, Palestinian-Canadian Bassem Ramli told AFP he was not objecting to the contents of the film specifically, but opposed TIFF’s decision to allow the former Israeli army general on its red carpet.  “This person does not deserve to be celebrated as a hero, let alone at this time,” the 39-year-old said. “Would it be OK to have, say, a senior Russian general being right now celebrated as a hero? I don’t think this is something that would be really accepted,” he added. Waving an Israeli flag outside the theatre, Jeffrey Raphael teared up when asked about the anger surrounding the film. “I understand there is perspective from Palestinians in the film festival, so why can’t we hear other perspectives?” the 55-year-old said. The Hamas attacks resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,656 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.During the post-premiere Q&A, when the moderator mentioned the Palestinian toll from the Israeli offensive, substantial numbers of the apparently pro-Israeli audience booed and jeered.