Miri Aloni on the 27-year estrangement: "There isn't a day I don't think about my son" | Dudi Patimer
On the occasion of the new show by the soloists of the military bands, Miri Aloni returns to the beautiful and difficult moments, explains why she stopped singing "Shir LaShalom" after October 7, talks about the estrangement from her eldest son, and clarifies: "If the vocal cords work - I am here."
"I am connected to the news 24 hours a day, my dear. I am not an ostrich. It is not easy to hear news in Israel all the time, but I must be involved and politically aware, in the social sense of the word - to know exactly what is happening, even though what is happening is atrocities," says Miri Aloni at the beginning of our conversation, a moment before she lowers the volume of the television.
She who in 1969, as the undisputed soloist of the Nahal Band, sang with a shout "Shir LaShalom" (Song for Peace), by Yaakov Rotblit (lyrics) and Yair Rosenblum (music), which has since become the unofficial anthem of the Israeli peace movements, still believes that peace will come: "We must not lose hope that in one of the future generations there will be peace with the Palestinian people as well. We will have to reach an agreement with them and give them the rights they deserve, because we will not be able to live here for years as rulers, as some of our people see and speak. People cannot live like that. The government and its supporters do not understand that all the terror we suffer from was born in the refugee camps. Since the War of Independence, a third and fourth generation has already grown up there in such a miserable way, which sucks the hatred and frustration from its parents. When they grew up, they became what we call 'terrorists'. Their dreams of returning here will not come true, of course, but this frustration and this problem must be solved in a way that people can live with dignity as human beings. Otherwise, for our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, and all future generations, it simply won't be good here. Will we live by the sword forever? In every body and every living organism, there is a defense system."
Explain. "Defense must always be ours, but at the same time, we must strive for life here to be normal. Meanwhile, there are politicians who encourage and enjoy this terrible polarization between us. But in the end, the reality here proves that there is no real polarization between us - we all know that we all share the same fate."
Isn't it naive to talk about peace after October 7? "Peace is an ultimate condition for life. Peace equals life. But I admit, after October 7, I was so shocked and overwhelmed with feelings of revenge that I was ready to go myself and execute all the Nukhba terrorists who were arrested. I told myself that I was not capable of singing this song, and for a year and a half, I did not sing 'Shir LaShalom'. A whole year and a half, after I had ended every performance with it all my life. Even when they asked me to perform it during that period, I refused and said: 'Friends, I am not singing this song.' I could not lie to myself, feel what I felt, and sing about peace. I am not a person who sugarcoats things."
And then you went back to singing it. "After a year and a half, while watching the news, I saw a bereaved family at some family event. They were singing songs, and suddenly I saw them singing 'Shir LaShalom' of all things. I said to myself: 'My God. They, after everything they went through, are singing "Shir LaShalom"?'. That was the sign for me that I should continue to sing it. A sign that we must continue to carry the flag of hope, because we are a people whose anthem is 'Hatikvah' (The Hope). I believe that someday, sometime, there will be peace here. Recently, I sang it at a rally in memory of Yitzhak Rabin, on the 30th anniversary of his assassination, and it was chilling. They put me at the top of that staircase. When I got there, they didn't tell me in advance where I would sing from, and when I discovered that it was right at the top of the staircase that leads to the murder spot, I thought to myself: 'My God, I hope I don't choke on tears.' To my delight, I managed to sing. The audience was simply beside themselves, it was extraordinarily moving."
Has the meaning of the song changed for you over the years? "In the first 20 years after 'Shir LaShalom' came out, it was the second anthem in the country. I sang it, even after I was discharged from the military band, at every performance. It is a song that I identified with every word of from the first moment, and therefore I continued to sing it as a civilian, until November 4, 1995. Throughout that year, my husband Shmulik and I saw how they were abusing and humiliating Rabin, how they were persecuting him and comparing him to a Nazi. He was a leader I admired - a brave military man, a straight shooter, a model man. What happened throughout the year was simply horrific. Shmulik, who was the newspaper reader among us, told me that a rally was being organized at Kings of Israel Square for 'Yes to peace, no to violence', and suggested that I sing 'Shir LaShalom' there. I answered him: 'Sure, what a question?'. I turned to two Arab-Israeli musicians who lived in Jaffa and asked them to perform with me at the rally. At first, they refused, because the Jaffa Arabs were not used to coming to such events, but I pleaded with them very much, and since they knew and respected me, they agreed. We performed the song and, of course, Rabin and Shimon Peres also joined me. At the end of the rally, we heard the shots. Rabin was murdered. 'Shir LaShalom' is one of the greatest songs written here, if not the greatest among them. It was written by Yankale Rotblit, who lost a leg in the Six-Day War as a young officer in the battles for Jerusalem - and I always say that he wrote this song of peace with the blood of his body. There is a call and an unequivocal demand in this song: make peace. Do not cry over my leg, do not cry over the fallen, and do not go out to more wars in the name of the fallen - make peace. I identify with this message to this day. The fact is that over the years, peace was signed with Egypt and then with Jordan, and how precious and important this peace is to us today."
