Conductor Barenboim calls for Gaza "Marshall Plan"

Feb 3, 2009, 20:02 GMT

Berlin - Daniel Barenboim, the Argentinian-born conductor, called Tuesday for a new 'Marshall plan' under German leadership to rebuild the smashed infrastructure of the Gaza Strip.

The call came in remarks prepared for delivery at a Berlin prize-giving.

He said Germany should learn to 'cope with its feelings of guilt' about the Holocaust in a new way, and offer in reparation 'to help the Jewish people to come to terms with the Palestinians.'

The only solution to the Middle East conflict was mutual acceptance, he said.

'That means the end of the Israeli occupation, demolishing illegal settlements on Palestinian land and the end of all violence.'

Barenboim, who lives in Berlin and also has Israeli citizenship, has been a longtime campaigner for reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. He leads an orchestra in which young musicians from both sides of the conflict make friends through music.

The Marshall Plan was a US financial aid scheme after the Second World War that enabled war-battered western Europe to rebuild.

On Tuesday Barenboim was handed the Moses Mendelssohn Medal. It is named after a German Jewish philosopher who lived from 1729 to 1786 and is awarded by the University of Potsdam's Moses Mendelssohn Centre to people who campaign for peace and tolerance.