AFP - Israeli-Argentinian Conductor Daniel Barenboim on Wednesday called on Arabs to visit Israel, urging them not to put all Israelis "in one basket".
   
"If I can be allowed one small word of criticism, in general, about the Arab world, is that (the tendency) is to put all Israelis in one basket and say, we boycott, we don't want anything to do with them, anybody who goes there is an enemy," he said in Cairo.
   
"It would be much better that Egyptians, and Syrians, and Palestinians, and Jordanians, and Lebanese, will go to Tel-Aviv, and explain their point of view, and express their point of view," he told a news conference a day before his orchestra is due to perform in the Arab world's most populous country.
   
Barenboim, who holds an honourary Palestinian Authority passport, founded a joint Arab and Israeli orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, to promote goodwill in the region.
   
Many Egyptian artists have welcomed Barenboim, who has been critical of Israel's policy toward Palestinians, but some have argued against hosting an Israeli musician.
   
Although Egypt signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979, the Egyptian public has not warmed to Israel, largely because of its policy toward Palestinians.
   
Barenboim urged Arabs to visit Israel "not only to know the Israeli society better, it's to be able to make their point clear to Israeli society (...), what they feel".
   
He also criticised Israel's policies, saying "there is no military solution.
   
"The different Israeli governments ... have not really understood that the real security of Israel which they talk so much about, can only come through the acceptance of all the neighbours of Israel, starting with the Palestinian people," he said.
   
Barenboim was invited to perform in Egypt by the Austrian embassy.