Gilad Atzmon is a jazz & world music artist, a novelist and an author focusing on ID politics.
Welcome to Gilad Atzmon's webpage. This site provides information about Gilad's musical and intellectual activity.
7:00 Wed., Oakland book signing, live jazz
All proceeds go to a summer camp come true for Palestinian children in al-Masara village. If you can't come, please send tax-exempt donations to
Palestine Children's Welfare Fund
“Dennis Bernstein in conversation with Gilad Atzmon” event at Uptown Body Shop 401 26th St. Oakland 19th St. BART, Oaklnd, CA
BY Gilad Atzmon
Cafe Palestine Freiburg won a landmark victory against Freiburg University in the German administrative court last Friday.
Six months ago Café Palestine filed a complaint against the University in the Administrative Court following the University´s refusal to let the Palestinian solidarity group use a space for a lecture by Paris University professor Christophe Oberlin.
On Friday, the Administrative Court of Freiburg made of five judges found that the University acted illegally.
Freiburg University together with Dr. Heinrich Schwendemann, who was the main actor against the Café, were highly criticized by the court. Schwendemann is one of the founders of the German Holocaust memorial site shoa.de.
As far as I am aware the University will have to pay all costs involve in the legal proceedings. I guess that Dr. Schwendemann may need to consult with a legal expert soon. Apparently the Shoa expert was lying in court and he may face a further legal humiliation soon.
To read more: http://othersite.org/press-release-cafe-palestine%C2%B4s-victory-against-the-university-of-freiburg-3/
Radio host Dennis Bernstein interviewed renowned jazz saxophonist and author Gilad Atzmon on KPFA's Flashpoints on May 13, 2013.
Tomorrow night “Dennis Bernstein in conversation with Gilad Atzmon” event at Uptown Body Shop 401 26th St. Oakland 19th St. BART, Okalnd CA
A Documentary Film exploring the Western misconceptions about the Middle East through are Main Stream Media outlets (Movies,News and TV) and how important it is to re examine are support for Israel. To be reasonable about this clip. I have not seen this film. But I have read the reviews and I agree with personalities portrayed on this clip. There for felt it was important enough to add to my channel.
Berkeley, CA
Portland, OR
Oakland, CA
San Diego, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Santa Barbara, CA
Denver, CO
Madison, WI
Chicago, IL
Toledo, OH
Ann Arbor, MI
NYC, NY
Washington, DC
Jewish supremacy - they see it, they know it, they laugh about it but the rest of us are not even allowed to mention it...
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| Gilad Atzmon جيلاد أتزمون گيلاد آتزمون |
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My piece “In Bed With Bibi” was published in English a few days ago. It was circulated and posted by a vast majority of Western dissent, online magazines. It has been praised by many and, as far as I am aware of, no one took the trouble to criticise or deconstruct the article.
Interestingly enough, two days ago, the Spanish translation of “In Bed With Bibi” was published online by Tlaxcala and reproduced by the Rebelión website. Within a few hours, all hell broke loose: Salvador López Arnal and Santiago Alba Rico were remarkably quick to criticize the piece. On the face of it, the meaning of it to me seems simple and positive. The Spanish-speaking left is still engaged in an intellectual and ideological debate.
I have now read both López Arnal and Alba Rico’s papers, and my response will be short and to the point. I am afraid that both Salvador and Santiago failed categorically in understanding my article.
To start with, in my piece, I refrain from taking either side of the debate. I am neither pro-Assad nor pro the ‘rebels’. I am not taking either side for two reasons.
First, I question the notion of ‘moral intervention’ and I ask, what would create an ethical ground for any form of intervention whatsoever? When is it right and when is it wrong to intervene? What is it that makes it right for ‘person A’, who lives in ‘place B’, to interfere with the reality of ‘person C’, who lives in ‘place D’? And if intervention can be justified ethically how do we distinguish between a Neocon’s call and a ‘righteous progressive’ one?
Second, I feel that the war we are witnessing in Syria is extraordinarily complicated. We should all remember that, in it’s early phase, it was led by non-violent Syrian protesters who were faced with the regime’s brutality. However, I believe that the situation on the ground has changed radically, and it is not the Syrian people or their interests that shape this conflict anymore. I think we are witnessing an odd alliance between Qatar, foreign mercenaries, the USA and Israel.
The question I am raising in my piece is simple:
How is it possible that some of our leading political scientists are blind to the devastating probability that their calls for intervention provide Israel with a green light to attack an Arab country?
I also feel that both López Arnal and Alba Rico have failed to answer this question. Instead they criticise my language and the manner in which I choose to deal with the term ‘allies’. In this respect, they are right, and I don’t choose my words to appease any readers. Quite the opposite, I much prefer to intrigue people to think critically, ethically and out of the box.
Introduction by GA: I believe that the following is a very interesting interview. Very intelligent questions. I touch upon multiculturalism, patriotism, nationalism, Jewish Left and Progressive spin. I also refer to future Palestinian solidarity in the light of growing Liberal Zionist intervention.
E&R: Your last album, « Songs of the Metropolis, » seems to be a rejection of multiculturalism, yet you are often seen as a symbol of multiculturalism. Do you agree with the above and if so, how do you experience what could be seen by some as a contradiction?
GA: I totally agree. I am hailed as the victorious emblem of multiculturalism and yet, from my very early days as an artist I have been critical of multiculturalism, which I see as an attempt to flatten differences, creating a fictitious and phantasmic image of equality. I instead believe that differences must be celebrated. It is the variety, the inaccessibility and foreignness that make the human landscape into a cheerful event. Instead of us reacting to different forms of self-censorship á la political correctness, we better delve into the real meaning of being in the world, ethical thinking and true tolerance, while celebrating differences
E&R: When you decided to leave Israel for good, as a jazz artist, I guess the first destinations of your choice were probably New York, London or maybe even Paris; what made you choose London over the others?
GA: At the time I decided actually to take a break from music. I was determined to spend some quality time reading philosophy. I had to choose between Chicago, London and Berlin. Chicago was windy, Berlin was too exciting and London in the early 1990s looked like a decaying extended village. It was calm and friendly. It was a very smart choice to come over.
E&R: How do you manage in your everyday life in London to be one of the most fervent opponent of Jewish power? Do you encounter a lot of troubles?
GA: For sure, I am harassed daily by tribal operators, mainly Jewish ‘anti’ Zionists, i.e., Anti-Zionist Zionists (AZZ). But I learned to love it: the fact that they chase me 24/7 only proves that I touched the raw nerve. In fact, I am probably the only person to touch Jewish identity politics in such a manner since Bernard Lazare. I understand their despair, I formed an anti-racist method to encounter Jewish secular supremacy and Jewish progressive racism in particular.
E&R: What can you tell us about the state of freedom of speech in Britain?
GA: I am pretty troubled by what I see. But rereading Orwell’s "1984" recently helped me to grasp that it is actually the so-called left that is, unfortunately, responsible for the vast deterioration of our most precious liberties. It can be easily explained – the progressive stance is, at large, a form of secular chosenness; it is righteous, yet, it also entails that someone else must be ‘reactionary’. Progressiveness is basically a supremacist discourse, and supremacy is always intolerant.
Shimon Peres' Special Centennial Message to the ADL
This report was produced by If Americans Knew and Pamela Olson in particular
Israel has a population of approximately 7.7 million, or a million fewer than the state of New Jersey. It is among the world's most affluent nations, with a per capita income similar to that of the European Union.[1] Israel's unemployment rate of 6.3% is much better than America's 8.2%,[2] and Israel's net trade, earnings, and payments is ranked 146th in the world while the US sits at a dismal 193rd.[3]
Yet, Israel receives more of America’s foreign aid budget than any other nation.[4] The US has, in fact, given more aid to Israel than it has to all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean combined—which have a total population of over a billion people.[5]
And foreign aid is just one component of the staggering cost of our alliance with Israel.
Given the tremendous costs, it is critical to examine why we lavish so much aid on Israel, and whether it is worth Americans' hard-earned tax dollars. But first, let's take a look at what our alliance with Israel truly costs.
Direct Foreign Aid
According to the Congressional Research Service , the amount of official US aid to Israel since its founding in 1948 tops $115 billion, and in the past few decades it has been on the order of $3 billion per year.[6] (In 2013, for example, this amounted to over $8.5 million every single day.)
But this money is only part of the story. For one thing, Israel gets all of its aid money at the start of each year, rather than in quarterly installments like other countries.[7] This is significant: It means that Israel can start earning interest on the money right away – interest paid by the US since Israel invests these funds in US Treasury notes. In addition, because the US government operates at a deficit, it must borrow money in order to give it to Israel and then pay interest on it all year. Together these cost US taxpayers more than $100 million every year.
Israel is also the only recipient of US military aid that is allowed to use a significant portion annually to purchase products made by Israeli companies instead of US companies. (The costs to Americans caused by this unique perk are discussed below.)
By Gilad Atzmon
Once again we see a familiar pattern: our united 'progressives' -- a veritable synagogue, a collective of great humanists -- lend their support to the oppressed. This time it is the ‘Syrian people’ whom they wish to liberate and their enemy is obviously Bashar Al-Asad.
It is a pattern we know only too well by now. Ahead of the ‘War Against Terror’ we witnessed years of intensive progressive Feminist and Gay’s rights groups campaigns for women’s rights in Afghanistan. The Progressive type also disapproves of the current state of the Iranian revolution. Too often he or she would insist that we must liberate the Iranians. This week, once again, we see a united front made by Tariq Ali, Ilan Pappe, Fredric Jameson, Norman Finkelstein and other very good people. They clearly want us to ‘liberate the Syrians’.
A collaborative project with young people across Gaza to create photostories and hold exhibitions in Palestine and the UK.
This is not simply about getting young people in Gaza to take photos but enabling them to apply multiple layers of meaning to those photographs and thereby their surroundings.
New Routes is a photostory project that will explore the lives of young people across the Gaza Strip. This project will collaborate with young people and enable them to create stories of their everyday routes and endeavors. In other contexts this type of approach has helped highlight undocumented issues, break stereotypes, and reveal new routes forward.
Through a series of workshops young people will generate their own themes, learn composition skills, and write narratives to accompany their photographs. The project aims to work with six diverse groups each containing between ten and fifteen young people. Results from the different workshops will be put together in an exhibition in Gaza and the UK.
I designed this project in response to a ‘knowledge transfer’ initiative launched by a group of Palestinians living in Southampton and civil society groups in Gaza. The creative process is punctuated with the exhibition and in subsequent dialogue generated by the photostories.
A brilliant team of volunteers has already spent many hours advising, creating, and designing material for use in publicity and workshops. The necessary permissions to access Gaza have been granted and we will arrive in June. All that is now required are the funds for equipment and materials.
By Ilan Ziv
As some of you know, my film EXILE, A MYTH UNEARTHED, which examines the myth of the Jewish EXILE and its political impact on both Israeli Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East, was going to be shown on the BBC Thursday April 25th. It was pulled out of the schedule only a few days earlier.
Since than I was flooded by dozens of emails of angry and concerned viewers asking what happened. To be honest I debated whether to tell the story of what I think had happened. I have worked with the BBC in the past on some programs that were deemed controversial and I never had any political censorship. On the contrary I was impressed by the integrity and fairness of the people I dealt with.
So based on my past experience, I was going to wait patiently until the BBC programming executives would solve the internal drama that apparently has begun to brew inside the BBC. “The film is gorgeous, courageous and fresh, “ I was told several times by the programming executives. I was promised that the cancellation was temporary: “Given the short timescale and your workload, we have decided to delay transmission until we’ve had the chance you’ve had the chance to go through it in detail”.
I naively believed and decided to wait quietly. But things have their own momentum and as I learned more, I realized that the story of “EXILE” in the BBC is far more complex.
On Friday, 3 May 2013 at 09:30 a.m. the Administrative Court in the German city of Freiburg will hear Cafe Palestine Freiburg e.V.'s application against Freiburg University. This application has been filed in order to expose the University’s discriminatory action against Cafe Palestine Association. We are going to point at Freiburg University's impartiality, its attitude towards freedom of speech, ethics and the Palestinian plight. We will provide the court with gross evidence of double standards, false accusations and defamation on the University’s part.
We would like to thank all our supporters who wrote protest letters to the University, comments and who posted our case on their websites. Your support gives us hope and strength to continue this battle.
Cafe Palestine Freiburg e. V.
Introduction by GA: The Zionification of Britain is completed. However, the piece below is also a tragic glimpse into UK PSC's impotence.
It is far from being a secret that the PSC has been Zionised. However, Considering PSC colossal failure in representing Palestinian interests within British media, PSC unprecedented success in expelling Palestinians from its ranks is pretty remarkable indeed.
by Amena Saleem / April 28th 2013
http://21stcenturysocialism.com/
Tony Hall, whose role as director-general commenced on 2 April, is a former BBC director of news and can boast a total of nearly 30 years working at the corporation. As such, he is well-versed in the BBC’s values — he knows what the BBC wants.
Soon after his own appointment, Hall named James Harding as the BBC’s new director of news and current affairs. Until December, Harding was editor of The Times, an avowedly right-wing, pro-Israeli paper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International group.
In 2011, Harding spoke at a media event organized by The Jewish Chronicle, telling his audience: “I am pro-Israel. I believe in the State of Israel. I would have had a real problem if I had been coming to a paper [The Times] with a history of being anti-Israel. And, of course, Rupert Murdoch is pro-Israel.”
Glee
The strongly Zionist Jewish Chronicle reprinted those words with glee as news of Harding’s BBC appointment broke. And it also took the opportunity to remind its readers that, during the Israeli massacre in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, when more than 1,400 Palestinians were slaughtered, Harding wrote a Times editorial titled, 'In defense of Israel'.
Now bringing his pro-Israel biases into the top ranks of the BBC, Harding will be in charge of its flagship news and current affairs programs including Today, Newsnight, Panorama and Question Time. He will also be responsible for daily news bulletins on the BBC’s main television channels and radio stations.
According to the Guardian, Harding now holds “arguably the most important editorial job in Britain”.
The news of his appointment to the £340,000 ($518,000) per year post comes just a fortnight after the former Labour Party minister James Purnell took up his new position at the BBC as director of strategy and digital.
Purnell, who was one of Hall’s first appointments, served for two years while in Parliament as chairman of the Westminster lobby group Labour Friends of Israel. Hugely influential, Labour Friends of Israel has drawn support from senior figures within the party, including the former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
I believe this is very important interview. I am talking about the phantasmic nature of the the Jewish past, Shlomo Sand, the Exile, the Holocaust. Yet, one question remains open, why Jews face so many Shaos? I argue that Jewish historians always fail, they look onto particularities but turn blind eye to essentiality and the grand narrative. Time is ripe to deal with true meaning of Jewish identity politics. If Israel is the Jewish State, we must ask what this title entails.
The Wandering Who? A Study Of Jewish Identity Politics and Jewish Left's spin particular Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
