theodore bikel died tuesday at the age of 91. i interviewed him last year and , today we spend the hour featuring our conversation. i began by asking bikel why this issue of bedouin displacement was so important to him. >> there is a human equation here, and it has to do with the basic humanity of human beings who are nominally free to pursue whatever it is that they want to do. people who lived on the land for centuries, long before the receive in a state of israel, who all of the sudden are being told to get out, to be relocated , an agrarian society that is forced into sometimes urban ghettos. it seems less than just. the point is, these are not simple questions. and complicated questions very often ask for conjugated answers. but one thing that is absolutely clear in my mind is that human beings cannot be treated like cattle. human beings must be given the dignity and respect that all human beings deserve especially by a people who themselves, jews have experienced such deprivation in the past. so when i say that the very peop

the renowned actor, musician composer, and activist theodore bikel has died at the age of 91. bikel was known for creating the role of baron von trapp in, "the sound of music," on broadway and for the role of tevye in "fiddler on the roof," which he played more than 2000 times. he was a folk singer who cofounded the newport folk festival with pete seeger, and also an outspoken critic of israeli policy, including plans to forcibly relocate 40,000 bedouin arabs from their ancestral lands. which he denounced on democracy now! >> one thing that is absolutely clear in my mind is that human beings cannot be treated like cattle. human beings must be given the dignity and the respect that all human beings deserve, especially by a people who themselves choose -- jews, have experienced such deprivation in the past. when i say the very people who were told to get out in the fictional village of "fiddler on the roof," the descendents of those very people are now telling others, strangers in their midst, that they must get out of their homes, seems fundamentally wrong. and a wrong cannot b