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Yankele Rotblit: "Soon the masses will leave Israel. What is to be done here?"

Angry at the media ("Recruited for the regime"), angry at the government's treatment of culture ("It does not matter to them. I have never seen Bibi in the theater"): songwriter Yankele Rotblit puts out a protest song with "The Backyard" about the submarine affair and reveals that it was rejected Request to appropriate the "Song of Peace" agreement with the Emirates.

Interview

Tags

• The backyard

• Yankele Rotblit

• Benjamin Netanyahu

• a song for peace

Sagi Ben Nun

Sunday, 03 January 2021, 09:00

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The song "The Ninth Submarine" by the band "The Backyard" (Lyrics: Yankele Rotblit, Composer: Itamar Ziegler, Production Adaptation and Performance: The Backyard, Stills: Shlomit Carmeli, Design: Nadav Barkan)

Twenty-five years after Rabin's assassination at a rally that culminated in a "song for peace," songwriter Yankele Rotblit refused to allow the song to be appropriated for normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

"I was approached by the creators of a documentary about the signing of the 'Abraham Agreements', who wanted to put 'A Song of Peace' in the background. I said no, thank you," Rotblit reveals in an interview with Walla!

culture.

"Shir LaShalom is associated with Rabin's assassination, and I do not agree that the Netanyahu government, after all the years of incitement, will wave 'Shir LaShalom' and say that it is theirs. I refused this appropriation. These agreements are in their place but they do not belong to Shir LaShalom." That someone else will write a song about them. "

So there is no chance that you will write a new version called "A Song for Normalization"?

"Any agreement signed better than secret, and anything done in the light of the sun is welcome. It is clear that this does not obviate the question of the Palestinians, which must be dealt with because it is the main and real question."

Rotblit's sincerity and determination in expressing his feelings and political views is also reflected in "The Ninth Submarine," the second single from his backyard album's third album, which features Tomer Yosef, Itamar Ziegler and Gadi Ronen, who are 30 years younger than him.

The song, written by Rotblit and composed by Ziegler, expresses a sharp critique of the submarine affair.

"I wish I did not have to write such songs. The submarine affair is portrayed as the biggest corruption in the history of the defense establishment, and it must be investigated, before it becomes a possibility. A lot of people fight about it on the street, day and night. "Maybe he does not want to incriminate himself. It must be on the agenda of everyone who is in the political game, a commission of inquiry should be set up" (listen to the song above).

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Members of the "Backyard" - Yankele Rotblit, Gadi Ronen, Tomer Yosef and Itamar Ziegler (Photo: Shlomit Carmeli)

Do you think the media, many of which flatter Balfour, would be brave to give a proper stage to a song about submarine corruption?

"It would be very nice if they played the song, but there is media recruited here on behalf, media of the regime. I do not watch TV, do not listen to the media, do not feed on it and do not believe a word of it. The media just wants to scare us and do personality worship."

What did you learn from your backyard friends, the talented musicians Joseph, Ziegler and Ronen, and what did they learn from you?

"What did they learn from me? Ask them. I learned from them to be a little more patient. I always say 'come on, guys it's over', and they are more patient and want everything to be meticulous and accurate. My friends are as talented as demons, and the production is ingenious. The wisdom is To take a song with protest words but not to give it inside but to sing it softly. "

The previous single from the backyard, "Stop the Music", was also a protest song against Netanyahu, his lyrics supported demonstrations against him including the powerful line "The Naked King Rides the Virus".

In the year of the Corona, although protest songs multiplied by Shalom Hanoch and Tuna, Hadag Nachash, Yuval Banai, Shlomi Bracha, Rivka Michaeli, Tipex and others, the number of protesters increased, and yet most artists are afraid to express their political opinion, I tell Rotblit.

"Not everyone is interested in these issues. Whoever cares is speaking out and recording. People are scared against the background of general horror. We are all terrified of the coronation campaign that has been going on for a whole year."

Yankele Rotblit in the "Backyard" band (Photo: Shlomit Carmeli)

How did the corona year go for you and what did you think about the government's harm to culture?

"Every regime has its own priorities, and in this regime the last culture is a priority, it does not matter to him and does not interest him. I have never seen Mr. and Mrs. Netanyahu in a concert hall or in a theater hall. Other prime ministers would occasionally come there. For them it could be Close forever. This situation is horrible. I'm 76 soon, I have savings I can somehow float on for another year, but I'll also fall if they continue the pressure for another year or two. The backyard staff, including Lighting, soundman and driver, are off for almost a year. "The economic catastrophe is still upon us. Now we still receive money from the state and are happy with the vaccines for which the state pays exorbitant prices. One day we will have to pay - me, you, our children and our grandchildren."

Can you understand people who want to leave the country?

"On the day the sky opens, you will see how many planes will take off without coming back, I promise you. Look around at the sad, desolate cities, the swords. People without a smile. Whoever has a livelihood and lives in a more liberal and democratic place, what does he have to do in this place? People collapse "Losing everything they have, committing suicide. And there are those who kiss the dust of the king's feet. Lots of Israelis with Portuguese passports, do not believe in the future of the State of Israel, and if they are young enough and believe in their ability to establish life elsewhere, they will get up and go."

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Arik Einstein (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Matti Caspi, who also wrote some beautiful songs for him, took a "time-out from all the chaos" in Israel and moved to Italy.

"When did he not leave the country. What does it have to do when he leaves at 70? So he will sit there for a year in Florence, where he takes the disease in a more considered, less hysterical way and does not ruin the lives of the whole population because of several hundred critically ill. He will write music, and return when he is. A little quiet, when he can show up here, when they won't bother him with closures, intimidation and threats. "

Rotblit, 76 years old next month, has been a major figure in Israeli music since the late 1960s.

He has created hundreds of songs, including big hits such as "A Song for Peace", "Through Us", "Turkish Coffee", "A Ballad for Leaving a Kibbutz", "Everything's fine with me", "A contract for you ran away", "How good you came home", "Coming from love "," After twenty years, "and" Things I wanted to say. "

He also released solo albums, and two highly acclaimed backyard albums, which included protest songs about the social and political situation.

Today marks the 82nd anniversary of the birth of Arik Einstein, and you are one of the prominent creators who have worked with him.

And this year will mark the 50th anniversary of the album "In Avigdor's Lawn" where you wrote most of the songs.

How do you look at the album in the perspective of Yuval Shanim?

"It's already synthetic grass. In the backyard shows, when we sing the cover version of 'Whistle in the Dark,' I say Avigdor is already under the grass, Mickey (Gabrielov) and I are above the grass, trying to stay there. Eric was a friend, colleague, co-worker from time to time. "I loved him very much, there was a mutual appreciation I imagine. I am sad about Eric every day and every hour. Also about Shmulik and many of my friends."

The words "Song of Peace" written by Yankele Rotblit are stained with the blood of Yitzhak Rabin (Photo: Government Press Office)

Last month Poliker celebrated 70. He performed his marvelous song "Things I Wanted to Say", which includes the lines: "Not in all the ways I wanted to go I went / In the ways I went I must have been wrong more than once".

What do you regret?

"Congratulations Yehuda, Yasu! You ask what I regret? (Laughs) What, you want me now to look at 76 years of my life and say 'Wow, you know what, I could marry Shula', 'I should not have bought the car That ',' what tragedy is it to live in her room 'or' all my life is a sequence of mistakes'? Well, really. "

Maybe you regret writing the song "I see her on the way to the gymnasium", in which a man refers sexually to a girl, a song that would not have passed during the MeToo era?

"What have I got to regret about it? I just saw her on the way to the gymnasium, I did not rape her. That I will regret it now? I have nothing to regret, I have nothing to regret. Everything is fine. Up to 120, tap tap tap."

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Members of the "Backyard" - Yankele Rotblit, Gadi Ronen, Tomer Yosef and Itamar Ziegler (Photo: Shlomit Carmeli)

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