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.
It is almost amusing to hear Philips dismissing Hasbara (Israeli propaganda) in Britain.
It is also very cheering to learn from rabid Zionist Philips that in spite of the Israeli Lobby, David Aaronovitch, Nick Cohen and herself, the Palestinians are winning the hearts and minds of British public.
I guess that it is about time Philips gathers the fact that humanism may win after all.
It took eight days. Eight days since the last innocent was killed. You watch people die here one after another, getting killed one by one, without consequences, without justice, without an outcry in the media. Innocent people who have never done anything wrong in their lives other than try to make a living from something amidst the stifling four year siege. Civilians. Palestinian civilians, whose life doesn’t seem to be worth more than an entry in the statistics. And you feel like your hands are tied. “So that’s what I can do: register it in my notebook. It is registered, and there is an empty line after Shaban’s name. That is for those who they kill tomorrow”, wrote the American writer Max Ajl after the farmer Shaban Karmout was killed. It took eight days, and the place was filled. Amjad ElZaaneen, was 17 years when he was killed today. Too young, too early, too meaningless, too many names in all of our laptops.
Haaretz reported today that Israeli citizen Aleksander Cvetkovic, 42, is suspected of participating in the murder of at least 1,000 Bosnian Muslims at the Branjevo farm near the city of Zvornik.
Cvetkovic, 42, was arrested at the request of the Bosnia-Herzegovina government. He is suspected of participating in the murder of between 1,000 and 1,200 Bosnian Muslims at the Branjevo farm near the city of Zvornik. This was one of a series of mass murders over a 10-day period of the Bosnian War that are collectively known as the Srebrenica Massacre. In 2006, Cvetkovic immigrated to Israel with his Jewish wife and received citizenship.
Death comes quickly at a place like this. On sunny winter days, when the smell of the night’s rain is still in the air, as if it would have brought some hope for the raped, barren land of Gaza, overrun hundreds of times by Israeli tanks and bulldozers. The land between the foothills of the village of Bait Hanoun and the Israeli border, guarded by watchtowers, soldiers, snipers, helicopters and drones. A land in which death is a regular guest.
But despite all that, the 65-year-old Shaban Karmout probably had something like hope when he woke up on that winter morning. His house is in exactly this 300 meter wide strip of land in the so-called buffer zone. He has built his house 40 years ago, in 1971, when Gaza was already occupied by Israel, and yet he had thought to have a future there for himself and his family. Shaban began to plant fruits, his land was full of palms and trees, lemon, orange, clementine and almond trees were growing there. He had a good life.
As someone who is both Jewish and supportive of the Palestinian struggle for a just and sustainable peace, I am often asked about my identity. The harshest critics of my understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict contend that I am a self-hating Jew, which implies that sharp criticism of Israel and Zionism are somehow incompatible with affirming a Jewish identity. Of course, I deny this. For me to be Jewish is, above all, to be preoccupied with overcoming injustice and thirsting for justice in the world, and that means being respectful toward other peoples regardless of their nationality or religion, and empathetic in the face of human suffering whoever and wherever victimization is encountered. With this orientation, I could, but will not, return the insult, and say that those who endorse the cruelties of Israel occupation policies are the real self-hating Jews as they have turned away from the moral clarity of Old Testament prophets, which is the shining light of the Old Testament overcoming the often bloody exploits of the ancient Israelites. So interpreted, the biblical mandate for just behavior extends to all of humanity. As the great Rabbi Hillel teaches, “[T]hat which is hateful to you do not do to another..the rest (of the Torah) is all commentary, now go study.” Not hateful only to another Jew, but clearly meant to encompass every human being.
Look at this new Jewish -cartoon magazine. PDF vesion
It has become pretty obvious that that Israelis and Zionists do not try to disguise their morbidity anymore. Zionism is clearly a threat to humanity and humanism.
Airplanes and tanks, decorated with Jewish symbols, are consigned to spread death and carnage in the name of the Jewish people.
Captain Israel, a kosher superman, is holding a Menorah torch. He is there to set the entire region on fire.
In an article entitled "Weapons of mass deception", I suggested that there has been too much control of the mainstream media by too few people.
The result? Much gets left out, covered up or distorted to suit special interests like those of Rupert Murdoch.
In a subsequent article, I suggested reading writers in the alternative media, a facility that has grown significantly on the internet.
As might be expected, a few knowledgeable commentators suggested that they had better choices of both websites and authors than those I offered. No doubt.
My pick of both writers and venues is based on several criteria: (1) they're honest and reliable, (2) they often provide information unavailable in the mainstream media and (3) they focus on political, social, environmental, aesthetic or educational issues that concern me.
Thus, other readers' different interests will naturally lead to different writers in different places.
In my article “Grains of sand: highlights from the alternative media”, I quoted a number of my favourite authors on a variety of issues coming through my lens: the establishment press, international relations, wars and threats of war, Palestine and Israel, American weaknesses and WikiLeaks.
efore they fall, before they explode with a horrendous bang, that is unmistakable, with a pressure wave that breaks the windows of the houses in the whole surrounding area, and makes the walls shake miles away.
The Jewish state has decided; we let you be a Jew as long as you are willing to kill for us.
The Knesset recently passed a bill allowing the State to approve IDF conversions without the permission of the Chief Rabbinate.
Apparently this law has been approved today by Shas' spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who has decided to legitimize all conversions performed in the Israel Defense Forces in recent years.
I guess that for some, it is much easier to become a Jew riding a Merkava Tank over a Palestinian village than learning Halakha law for seven years.
Yet I am slightly confused. I also learned this week that Rabbi Dov Lior, another genius Talmud scholar, announced that Jewish Law prohibits sterile couples from conceiving using non-Jew's sperm, as it causes adverse traits. According to Rabbi Lior, a baby born through such an insemination will have the "negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews.
Although I'm not a fervent advocate of using technology in every aspect of our lives, I have chosen to open my laptop and type this piece instead of writing it in my notebook first, just for a change, and may be to please my ears with the clicking sound of my fingers striking the keyboard. I guess this shows that I'm in continuous pursuit for change even in the tiny aspects of life. Change; something referred to as being healthy nowadays is, by all means, a vital part of life for all those living in the tremendously stressful life of the 21st Century.
The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) is putting the final touches on its 2nd memorial week and International conference. PRC’s Palestinian Memorial Week will commence on Saturday 15th Jan till 22nd of Jan 2011. Workshops, Galleries, Film screening, discussions and awareness sessions will take place.
To read more:
Muhannad is a Palestinian artist who resides in Alazzeh refugee camp in occupied Palestine. However, he originates from the southern Palestinian village of Biet Jibrin, which has been ethnically cleansed by the Israeli Zionist troops in 1948. “Don’t beautify the Apartheid wall”, a quote by Alazzeh for an interview on the role of Palestinian and international artists and his views on the segregation wall built around the West Bank. Al Azzeh was born in September of 1981 to Othman Alazzeh, an Arabic literature teacher and Amal Alazzeh.
Since he’s shown an interest in Art and painting at the age of 10, his parents got him to participate in ‘Alwan’ (meaning colours in Arabic) workshop in Jerusalem, where he learnt and developed his talent at a young age and then published some of his work at the workshop’s magazine.
Watch video: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/bg-6003896/bomb_it_2_muhnned_alazzh_the_west_bank/
In year 2003 Muhannad started his studies at Abu Dis University in occupied Palestine doing a BA in fine Art. However, before completing his first year, Alazzeh was arrested from his home by Israeli Occupation Forces for allegations of in-campus ‘student activism’. Although this period of his life remains a tough one, yet the experience has not put him down but enriched his artistic talent and made him more determent to express and utilise his ability for the benefit of the people of Palestine.
His most recent participation in an exhibition entitled “Not Politics” was about his 3-year time in Israeli jails. The work, which he referred to as “April the 15th” (the day he was arrested) included some abstract paintings representing life outside the jail as seen from the inside. “A cell’s window was the only hope left, through its bars you could glimpse the ray
A UK exhibition is due in March (5th- 13th, Israeli Apartheid Week) at the Duke of York Picture House, Brighton.
You can contact Muhannad on: muhannad194@gmail.com
http://kenokeefe.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/335/
January 12, 2011 is a day I will never forget, visiting the Samouni family could not possibly be anything but a life-changing event. Words simply cannot describe the devastation wrought upon this family by a marauding band of Israeli psychopaths, otherwise known as the Givati Brigade of the Israeli Defence Forces.
Little Ahmed, shot twice in the chest, died after days without medical care as the Israeli's would not allow it.
Today my team heard from mothers and fathers and children the story of the hell on Earth created by Operation Cast Lead. Forty-eight people were killed in this family, children shot in front of parents, parents shot in front of children, a group of 97 in one home blasted to bits by rockets and mortars. Made to live amongst the mutilated and dead for several days, ambulances were kept away and some died slowly over hours and even days.
A few minutes ago, I came across a press release written by Left Israeli MK Nitzan Horowitz.
Horowitz, a member of Mertz Party, disclosed the new suggestions made by the McCarthyite Knesset Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Organizations.
According to Horowitz, the commission is now considering the following measures:
· New bills and regulations restricting the entry to Israel of anyone who may be affiliated with left activity. This may take place without the need for court.
· Putting an end to foreign citizens status, including parents who are married to Israelis
· Reducing drastically the rights of prisoners and detainees - along with new initiatives of minimum prison terms, increased enforcement, penalties and so forth
· Denial of Israeli citizenship from an increasing numbers of Israelis convicted of various offences
· Stripping Knesset members of their rights.
· Giving judicial powers to administrative proceedings; for example, the establishment of a clerical tribunal for foreigners
· Preventing the entry of Arab communities
· Seize funding to cultural institutions that are promoting ‘leftist materials’
· Eliminating tax exemption on donations to human rights organizations
· Cancellation of contracts with public bodies associated with human rights organizations.
· Allocated assigning posts for civil service volunteers to human right associations will be cancelled.
· Restricting access to the websites of human rights organizations and public institutions
· Preventing the entry of representatives of human rights organizations to educational institutions
I guess that the picture is clear.
Israel turns against itself. Its days are numbered.
Listen to these incredible speakers talkiing on behalf of the Palestinian people:
PhD Nada Haswi -Human Right Activist
Sameh Habeeb – Journalist (The Palestine Telegraph)
Ken O’keefe – Activist
God bless Press TV, Nada, Sameh and Ken
