Posted on November 9, 2009, by & filed under ICAHD in the News, News.


Photo credit: Elyse Crystal

ICAHD Director Jeff Halper spent time with Pete Seeger, the 90 year old musician, songwriter and political activist since the 1930s in New York recently, it was reported by Haaretz.

Seeger is donating a percentage of his royalties from his song “Turn, Turn, Turn” to ICAHD’s work. The lyrics of the song are from the book of Ecclesiastes. A book of the Sacred Writings, it is one of the books of the Tanach (Holy Scriptures, the Written Law). In Hebrew it is called Kohelet. By tradition, King Solomon was the author. “All around the world, songs are being written that use old public domain material, and I think it’s only fair that some of the money from the songs go to the country or place of origin, even though the composer may be long dead or unknown,” Seeger said in an interview with Acoustic Guitar magazine in 2002.

Jeff Halper is used to being around people with songs of freedom in their souls. He was brought up in the same Jewish community in a mining town in Minnesota as Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan.

Full Haaretz story here

For a brief autobiographical account of Jeff’s journey from small town Minnesota to leading Israeli peace activist, see his book An Israeli in Palestine