Gilad Atzmon's Blog, page 13
January 28, 2015
Must Watch: The New Judeo-German Patriot
Israeli export for you..
Government PANIC at thought of Jews leaving UK
By Laura Stuart
Do Muslims have a voice and is anybody listening?
Recently Theresa May said that she never thought she would see the day when Jews would want to leave Britain, her words were based on a survey by the Campaign for Anti-Semitism that found 58% of Jews considered that they had no future in Britain. The survey was very quickly proven to be faulty in its findings and the reality is that 89% of Jews have no intention of leaving the U.K. whilst a poll taken in 2010 found that 4 out of 5 Britons (including Jews) had thought of leaving Britain that year.[1]
Another very dubious headline was that 95% of hate crimes in the U.K. were anti-Semitic in nature; this was the discussion on a BBC Radio program called “More or Less” this week which completely debunked the statistics which gave rise to the alarming headlines.[2] The research of “More or Less” found that the claim by Angela Epstein that 95% of hate crimes in the U.K. were against Jews was based on figures given by the Metropolitan police and only covered London, not the entire U.K.
The real statistics are that out of more than 13,000 hate crimes last year 358 were anti-Semitic which is, in fact, less than 5%. Admittedly, in July last year there was a spike in hate crimes against Jews during the State of Israel’s attack on Gaza. “More or Less” also stated that there are nearly twice as many Islamophobic crimes as anti-Semitic ones.
The link to the BBC “More or less” programme is posted below and I recommend that everyone listen to the first ten minutes on the subject of anti-Semitic hate crime.
The real issue here is the state of obvious panic that the government is in both at the reported rise in anti-Semitic attacks and the notion that Jews might be leaving the U.K. Why would this be? Are not the major political parties bending over backwards to prove their “tough on immigration policies” and cracking down on Islamic extremism (whatever that is, remains undefined) in order to woo potential U.K.I.P. voters back to the fold? The number of headlines that these flawed statistics have generated shows a massive media and government bias, backed up in monetary terms by the millions of pounds that the government is investing in protecting Jewish schools and places of worship. Not only that, but in these harsh times of recession and austerity David Cameron announced today the government is ready to invest 50 million pounds in a holocaust museum.[3]
How much research is the government conducting into hate crime in the U.K. itself? A serious question when we see how quickly they are prepared to respond and how much money they suddenly have available to tackle anti-Semitism. Are they basing their decisions on lobby groups and think tanks that have an agenda over and above merely the protection of our Jewish citizens? The faulty survey by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism that found such a high number of Jews thinking of leaving the U.K. was heavily promoted by the Zionist Federation who may possibly have a reason to want British Jews to leave here and live in the State of Israel. We know the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was engaged in encouraging French Jews to go and live in the Israeli “Jewish” State after the recent shootings in France, where victims included Jews, to such a degree that French Jews broke into singing the Marseillaise during his visit to a Paris synagogue to indicate their loyalty to France.[4] Prime Minister Hollande was very irritated by his assumptions that French Jews should leave.
On the other hand, I looked at the website of “Tell Mama” today, the organisation that records hate crimes against Muslims in the U.K.,[5] and noted rather sadly that despite the rise in hate crimes against Muslims post Charlie Hebdo shootings, and the worrying fact that children are subject to unregulated discussions on the topic at school and in the classroom, they have posted the following:-
We have tried on three separate occasions to meet with the Secretary of State for the Department for Education and on three separate occasions, the request has been turned down even though we are the only agency in the United Kingdom working with victims of anti-Muslim hate and where we have methodically documented the problem.
So why is the government ignoring the request of “Tell Mama”? Could it be that Muslims are not traditionally voters for the Conservative party and we have a general election in a few months? Perhaps the government believe that their ridiculous PREVENT strategy gleans information from children at school based on how they respond in the discussions about the Charlie Hebdo murders. Are Muslims irrelevant because the Conservative Party do not feel they will lose votes by ignoring us? Could it be because rich Jewish business people have donated funds to the Conservative party in the past as reported in the Jewish Chronicle, and that the Muslims are very weak in this country and Europe in terms of power? Not that the Labour party is any different in its policies, they too have been consistently pro-war and pro-Israel. Our community does not have the leadership, the representation or the lobby groups to equal the impact that the much smaller Jewish community can have on the government.
Apart from the worrying fact that our government is not responding to “Tell Mama”’s requests for a meeting, we have Prime Minister Hollande in France saying that new laws will be introduced which will conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. For a long time Zionists have been desperate to have all pro-Palestinian rights speech clamped down on, hence the campaigns against so-called Muslim extremists speaking at Universities and student activities such as Israeli Apartheid week, Boycott Divest and Sanctions actions. The European Working Document on Anti Semitism was not adopted in legislation as a means to define anti-Semitism.[6] The paper was considered “dead in the water” because it was not seen as feasible to define anti-State of Israel sentiments as hatred against Jews, [7] but now we may see France going down the route of promoting this definition which can only be seen as an attack on pro-Palestine activism. France already went so far as to ban pro-Palestine protests during the assault on Gaza by the State of Israel last summer and has also prosecuted B.D.S. activists under existing hate crimes laws. In the U.K., writing in the Daily Express, our Communities Minister Eric Pickles said,
“Even some councils have behaved irresponsibly. Like Tower Hamlets engaging in their own municipal foreign policy by flying the Palestinian flag. These public bodies should be using their position of authority to actively reduce tensions, not stir them up”.
Apparently the Palestinian flag is offensive to some although they have flown it from the municipal building in Dundee many a time over the last 30 odd years, so perhaps it is ok for non-Muslims to fly it, either that or the Scots are not as under Zionist occupation as the Palace of Westminster. Maybe Palestinians are just the “wrong sort” of Muslims unlike the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia who must be the “right sort of Muslim” since Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster flew the Union flag at half mast last week as a sign of respect to mourn his passing.
It is indeed interesting that, whilst the Charlie Hebdo cartoons being published was seen as an issue of the right to freedom of speech, even if it is deemed offensive to Muslims, in the wake of the murders at their offices many new laws in France and the U.K. will clampdown on free speech on the internet particularly if it is critical of the State of Israel. The British government opportunistically views the events in France as occurring at a good time to push through a bill called the “Counter Terrorism Bill” which may impact on our scholars’ freedom to teach us Orthodox Islām.[8] It has been very convenient for pro-Israel lobby groups such as The Henry Jackson Society to promote the notion that Muslims are backward savages who are not able to adopt “British values” based on theological teachings about homosexuality, segregation of the sexes and the covering clothes of women. But surely, Orthodox Jews and indeed Orthodox Christians hold the same values, and yet are not under attack?
I travel through Stoke Newington every week and notice how Orthodox Jews get along with their lives, living in a tight community all together, which no one points the finger at or suggests this is ghettoization, or worse, a no go zone. It makes sense to live in a community where you can find the services that you need, such as kosher or halal shops and faith schools, synagogues or mosques; yet only Muslims are criticised for choosing to live together. Orthodox Jews also teach from their scripture the same teachings as Muslims on homosexuality. They segregate the sexes both children and adults but, once again, no one is calling them extremists nor suggesting that they are not integrated or that they do not live by British values (whatever they are).
Whilst there have been a constant stream of Muslims condemning and disassociating Muslims in the U.K. from vicious acts carried out by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, we have not witnessed a similar condemnation by British Jews for the acts of atrocity carried out by the Jewish State of Israel (as it wishes to be known) against the civilians in Palestine. Despite 530 children and many innocent adult civilians being murdered in Gaza last summer, British Jews are not required to condemn barbaric acts carried by the Jewish State of Israel nor is their loyalty to Britain in question in the same way as British Muslims’ loyalty is.
The Muslim population in the U.K. is estimated to be almost 3 million, by comparison the Jewish community is estimated to be about 250,000. Despite that, we are politically very weak and powerless. My belief is that we need strong leadership that we can unite under. We have failed to agree on a body of people to represent our views and this has resulted in us not having the right people on T.V. and radio who are strong enough to make the case for Muslims or take our case to the government. Every time that Muslims anywhere in the world hit the headlines the media call in “experts”, yet I have heard some very weak representations by those who are supposed to be our leading bodies.
Why do we not have leaders who will take forward our struggle? If we want to avoid the kind of proposals that are coming forward now of government sanctioned khutbas (Friday sermons) and government regulated Imāms then it is time we got our act together. The voices of those who work for the Quilliam Foundation have no trouble promoting their hypocritical agenda on the airwaves, neither do those Muslims who are ever ready to appear on the news condemning and apologising for Islām, and that is not entirely the fault of the media for always choosing them, it is as much our fault for not having organised leadership that is knowledgeable Islamically, polished, media savvy and available at short notice for interviews. Until we organise as a community we will have to continue being reactive to events that affect Muslims instead of leading the discourse on Islām and the matters that are important to us.
Abiding We ‘Give, Give and Give’ And They Still Don’t Like Us
By Gilad Atzmon
I'm thinking of quitting Britain over 'very, very depressing' recent rise in anti-Semitic attacks, says Jewish actress Maureen Lipman
· Maureen Lipman said she is considering leaving the UK over anti-Semitism
· The 71-year-old actress said she is concerned by the increasing attacks
· She told LBC she is considering a move to either New York or Israel
Mrs. Lipman, 71, said the Jewish community in Britain ‘give, give and give’ and described the recent rise in anti-Semitic attacks as ‘very, very depressing’.
I am puzzled by Lipman and other British Jews who express similar views. Jews settled in this country in the late 19th century. But it seems that more than a century or about 4 generations have not been sufficient for British Jews to feel themselves an integral part of this country. They give up on this kingdom quite easily. Lipman is threatening to leave us and 58% of British Jews do not see future in Britain.
The actress told LBC Radio: “When the economy dries up they turn on the usual suspect the Jew… and when the going gets tough the Jews get packing.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y5qzBOPMZg
Lipman is slightly wrong here. At least this time, the economy in Britain is actually improving as anti-Semitism is reportedly rising.
Lipman said “One school of thought says it’s because of Israeli policy in the Middle East, it isn’t. There’s been anti-Semitism for 4,000 years.”
I guess that Lipman may be correct here; it isn’t just Israeli or Zionist crimes that lead to the rise of opposition to Jews. A recent poll initiated by the Jewish Community suggests that around half of the Brits acknowledged Jewish domination in media, finance and politics. According to the poll, many Brits are really unhappy with the dominance of the Holocaust. When they, for instance, visit The Imperial War Museum, they may be distressed to find that around two-thirds of the building has been devoted to a permanent Holocaust exhibition.
Recently the Jewish actress vowed not to vote Labour. She complained that Mr. Miliband’s support for a motion recognising the state of Palestine ‘sucks’ at a time of rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
Lipman was probably afraid that someone would mistake her for a Jihadi martyr. She said, “there are 245,000 Jews in the country. What’s to fear? We don’t fly planes into buildings, we generally keep on the right side of the law.” Lipman basically said, ‘unlike the Muslims, we, the Jews, are good law abiding citizens.’ Lipman is factually correct, Jews do not fly airplanes into buildings: but the Jewish State, which she openly identifies with, flies lethal drones decorated with Jewish symbols and drops bombs on the most densely populated place on this planet.
The Daily Mail believes that Mrs. Lipman’s comments add to the growing clamour of voices calling for protection of Jews and an end to anti-Semitic attacks. I am afraid that paper is wrong. Some of Lipman’s statements above are outrageous and could only provoke more harm to Jews.
If Jews want to calm the situation down, and I hope they do, they must consider the situation from a larger perspective. Rather than once again blaming the 'Goyim,' Jews must look in the mirror and find out what is it in Jewish culture and ideology that makes the situation so unstable for the Jews.
If Jews want to look into this issue and prefer to save time and energy, the best place to start is by reading The Wandering Who. I have spent ten years of my life looking into the topic and I have a lot of answers to offer.
God Promised Antisemitism to the Zionists
Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: The following is an interesting article by Aaron Dover, a British Jewish peace activist. It offers a critical point of view on Holocaust politics and the primacy of Jewish suffering.
My personal reflections on the Campaign Against Antisemitism survey, by Aaron DoverIn order to say what some might consider the un sayable I first need to deconstruct some mythical terms so let me just wade into some taboo territory as though I don’t even see the no-entry signs.
What is anti-Semitism?
“Antisemitism” is a word and a political construct. It has been loaded with meaning and importance like no other word in the English language. This is no exaggeration, it is not meant as hyperbole, if you want evidence of this you need look no further than the UK National Curriculum. I had a look at the core curriculum for secondary school History, and have quoted a section of it below.
- challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day
In addition to studying the Holocaust, this could include:
Examples (non-statutory)
women’s suffrage
the First World War and the Peace Settlement
the inter-war years: the Great Depression and the rise of dictators
the Second World War and the wartime leadership of Winston Churchill
the creation of the welfare state
Indian independence and end of Empire
social, cultural and technological change in post-war British society
Britain’s place in the world since 1945
Now take a look closely at it. It does not say that the Holocaust is a mandatory subject, but it is implied, which is interesting in itself; the optional subjects follow and are clearly marked as such. The Holocaust is the only mandatory subject in this area. Not just any holocaust; there are so many to choose from by now; with new ones happening frequently; this is the Holocaust and is a proper noun with a capital.
The most important things being said here are those that are unsaid. What is unsaid? The Holocaust is the important holocaust i.e. the Jewish one. The Holocaust is exceptional. Not just important; nobody is here to argue with that; but exceptional. The other ideas suggested are important, and many, many ideas that would never appear on that list at all are also very important. The Holocaust is unique, and all students must know about it, and laws in place that criminalise Holocaust denial ensure not just that the topic is covered, but that it will be covered with the broadly accepted narrative. Every child educated in UK schools will be told about the Holocaust and they will be told the same things you were told.
Other holocausts might match it in terms of any particular respect; the brutality of the methods; the nature of the target population; the body count; the ideals of the perpetrators; their propaganda; their moral failings; and so on. But irrespective of any of those things, the proper noun Holocaust retains an exceptional an unique position in the prevailing historical narrative of all Western society.
As a result, a fully-educated Brit will certainly know that Hitler ran the Nazi party in Germany, unless he skipped class a great deal and his parents and friends never mentioned it, but may well be unaware that the British royal family are of German origin.
One of the implications of this is that every child in the UK will learn about Jew-hatred, termed anti-Semitism. No child will be left behind on this subject. They may not hear about other racial prejudices, other holocausts, they may not know how they got what remains of a welfare state around them, but they will know about anti-Semitism and Holocaust. This then becomes the common currency in discussions as the high water mark of evil throughout history, and this is the explanation for the existence of Godwin’s law (or Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies).
The reason people reach for Nazi analogies so frequently is a result of it being this global common currency of an ultimate evil narrative. People wouldn’t write articles in the global press saying “so-and-so is behaving like Ceaucescu” the way they say so-and-so is behaving like Hitler. They know they would lose the majority of their readers on that remark, because no matter how nasty Ceaucescu is, he is just not as famous. Obviously there are countless other examples. This is quite simply because everyone knows about Hitler, and – crucially – everybody knows that everybody knows about Hitler. It’s a given. The Nazis are the one-stop-shop for evilness yardsticks.
The Nazi Holocaust of the Jews (and other victims of that same holocaust) therefore enjoys the same educational status as, say, basic maths. In the same way you expect people to be able to do a bit of arithmetic, you can be confident that they have covered these educational subjects. They will know that 6×7=42 and also that the Jews have always suffered persecution throughout their history and were brutally slaughtered at the hands of a maniacal German tyrant who we stopped. They will not necessarily have heard of Zionism, nor have any awareness of the Nakba in Palestine that followed the war. Nor, for that matter, will they necessarily have any knowledge of any holocaust in Armenia for example.
So it follows that you can go and do a survey of people’s views about attitude towards Jews, and that isn’t weird to anyone, because of the Holocaust. They will know the various tropes and stereotypes assoicated with antisemitism, if they were listening in class, the hook noses, the greed, the blood libels and so on. Therefore if you ask someone in a survey or focus group do you think people perceive Jews to be more interested in money than other people? What will happen is that they will recognise that this view is a view that was held by antisemites, such as the Nazis. You will also know that these tropes have persisted over the ages, because you were taught that. These are ideas about Jews that wax and wane across time and society but never vanish; that is what we are taught. So to enquire as to whether these tropes that you may have first heard about during Holocaust lessons are present today and to be asked if you agree with them is a fair question, if we accept the previous fact.
Hitler was a maniac. But he was not a maniac for his antisemitic views, because these were things he found already lying around him in German society to repurpose to his ends. The antisemitism was there, it is there now, it is here, it is all around us, always, like a field. The field is stronger and weaker in places, but nowhere in space and time is it absent.
A survey therefore is simply a way to measure the field strength at a specific location and time. The questions will reflect the set of tropes that we understand to comprise antisemitism. We don’t ask, in a survey; what do you think about Jews? Open questions are not suited to surveys. So instead we must create a survey based on a set of preconceptions of how to measure the antisemitism field. We ask people about their own feelings in respect of the attitudes we suspect they may hold. This method is fundamentally flawed if we seek an objective answer, because the questions are leading.
If I ask; do you think Jews are more interested in money than most people? I might also ask; do you think Jews are more interested in motorsports than most people? But I do not ask the latter. Of course, you can only ask a limited number of questions so you have to stay focused; and that means discarding anything which could be used as a control for any other questions you are asking. What if we asked that second question and 99% of people responded positively? Thinking “bloody Jews, all into bloody motorsports” would not be the kind of antisemitism we are probing for. It does not fit our preconceived opinion-fingerprint of an antisemite. That’s not to say a dedicated Hasbarist wouldn’t try to make capital of such a statement, but it isn’t one of the statements that sets off a buzzer.
What are these tropes? The stereotyped view of a Jew by an antisemite, we learn, is made up from a number of parts. The hook nose. The evil, the clasped hands, the leering girn, the rubbing of hands in glee at either massive financial gain or the death of Christian babies. That’s your antisemitic stereotype. There’s plenty more to it than that, it extends from this to encompass more. The blood libels, the Jew hungry for the blood of Christians; that’s a blood libel.
What do each of these tropes provide to the ever-eager antisemite hunters? A wealth of opportunity for allegations.
What is antisemitism? Antisemitism poses a very real and very present danger in the UK and Europe, and around the world. On that I will agree with CAAS and their ilk. That is by now one of the most politically powerful ilks in human history. That ilk has made it on the one hand compulsory to learn the Holocaust; but on the other hand has made it criminal to deny or belittle the Holocaust. It has achieved this dual success in many of the developed nations.
Antisemitism is a danger not to the purported victims of said antisemitism, but to the actual victims; those accused of it. Everyone lives in the antisemitism minefield. It is not neccesary for me to spell out the consequences for anyone who falls foul of the various bodies of antisemite-hunters that span the globe. Socially, professionally, step on an antsemitism mine, and you’re toast. You could be anyone; you can be the President of the United States, you are in the same minefield. You can even be a Jew, in which case the antisemite-hunter reaches into the bag for a self-hater label instead, it’s not a great substitute but it’s all they’ve got to work with. I’m not going to go into the self-hating Jew mythology here, there are more worthwhile subjects to address.
How do we fight antisemitism? In terms of containing antisemitic sentiment, we gag people and ban things from being said, and we keep everyone in fear of stepping on an antisemitism mine by making examples of public figures on a frequent basis. If people keep seeing careers destroyed by a misplaced remark on Gaza or similar, others will not become too emboldened, even if they harbour such antisemitic thoughts, to vocalise them.
To fight antisemitism, do we also stop the large scale killing of Jews by a monstrous machine of fascist brutality? No. Why? Because we did that decades ago.
How do we fight Islamophobia? In terms of containing Islamophobic sentiment, not very well at all, that’s how. We could try to restrain the media from trying to link individual incidents to all Muslims, through their overt and covert propaganda. But we don’t.
To fight islamophobia, do we stop the large scale killing of Muslims by a monstrous machine of fascist brutality? No. Why? Because we are the machine. The Western killing machine has run on a fuel of islamophobic sentiment for over a century.
But the media are focused more on the rise of antisemitism, or a perception of a rise. A survey of this kind signals simply by the fact that it is done, let alone the results, that antisemitism is something we should fear. The minefield is something we should fear.
But the fear of antisemitism is unrelated to incidents of antisemitism. The fear-to-incident ratio has never been higher; the perception of antisemitism and fear of that antisemitism has been boosted as hard as possible by the scaremongers of CAAS. They don’t even care if their survey methodology is a joke. If they send out their survey so literally anyone can fill it in and question 1 is “are you Jewish” and question 2 is “are you British” and you fill it in from any web browser… and take the answers in good faith… allowing literally anyone to contribute to the results… well then you cannot be taking the methodology very seriously. But CAAS doesn’t need to, because they know with their network they can churn out the intended results infographic and get the whole world media singing their song. It’s a song of victimhood that’s had so many re-heatings and re-releases that even Bob Geldof would blush.
It’s a song about the poor Jews feeling scared. Not being actually murdered or gassed or blown to pieces but worrying that they might at some point. Whereas the Muslims victimhood song doesn’t even chart, when they are being massacred day in day out by our stormtroopers and hired guns.
The world is tired of the Jewish victimhood song, and tired of this victimhood being used as a weapon, as a means to bully people into observing Zionist taboos.
Antisemitism is a terrorist weapon. It is used to terrify the world into observing Zionist taboos through fear of losing social standing, being labeled a racist, being fired, exiled, diminished, hounded. This terror is being escalated by CAAS and all the other antisemite-hunters.
I’m Jewish; It takes Jewish privilege to be able to say this. It should not. But to actually question the dogma around antisemitism itself, is one of the ultimate taboos. It’s at the very foundations of the Zionist enterprise.
I don’t think there is any special exceptional Jew-hatred, a special antisemitism field existing all around us throughout time. People are really very pissed off with Israel though.
That’s why the public perception of antisemitism has to be cranked up now, because the gagging needs to be cranked up, because people are waking up smelling the bullshit and calling out Israel for its actions. Now that is the kind of antisemitism emergency that calls for a total propaganda war. Expect more assaults on free speech, the mines in the minefield are going to be increasingly sensitive. Expect increased casualties of public figures. Expect people to become more reticent about saying stuff; expect media and social media to clamp down on any anti-Israel sentiment.
Because otherwise, you know at this rate, we European Jews will all going to the gas soon. Yawn.
Marlbank Album Review-The Whistle Blower, Fanfare **** Recommended
Two years on from the release of Songs of the Metropolis the Orient House Ensemble looking a little different – long-time bassist Yaron Stavi and pianist Frank Harrison still on board. But there is a new drummer this time: hard bop hotshot Chris Higginbottom newly installed in place of Eddie Hick.
The issuing label is new too. It’s the first album on the saxophonist’s own Fanfare Records. Songs of the Metropolis had a theme of the “sound of the city”, with tracks named after places and was a ballads-driven album that tapped into a line going back to at least Sidney Bechet in terms of the saxophone. And ballads play a strong role on The Whistle Blower too settling in after the boisterous middle-eastern sounding dancey opener ‘Gaza Mon Amour.’ The gorgeous ‘Forever’ is a beauty. In a note in the sleeve Atzmon comments: “These compositions are about love, nostalgia, devotion, and simplicity.”
Recorded in a listener-friendly manner by Ben Lamdin at London studio Fish Factory over a couple of days of early-September last year Atzmon besides alto, soprano saxophones and clarinet – the harrowing soprano solo at the beginning of ‘To Be Free’ worth the purchase price of the album alone – also adds contributions on accordion, liltingly so on ‘The Song’, and guitar, while Harrison also switches between piano and keyboards, Stavi double bass and electric bass, all four adding vocal touches to the mock chorus of the title track. Atzmon’s wife Tali and Antonio Feola add some vocals as well, vocals particularly a presence on the title track kept to last. All the music is Atzmon’s, the penultimate song of the eight a slow romantic ballad dedicated, unusually for a jazz album, to Moana Pozzi, Italian porno actress and co-founder of the Love Party of Italy.
Stylistically, overall, The Whistle Blower is less about the Charlie Parker side of Atzmon’s considerable artistry, and leans more for instance on ‘Let us Pray’ towards Coltranian transcendentalism and balladry and pretty impressive that side is too. More tense in its best moments than Songs of the Metropolis but playful too, particularly on the amusing surf guitar-flavoured wordlessly vocalised title track (yes there is whistling, wolf whistling). Vintage Atzmon.
Stephen Graham
Released on 23 February The Orient House are touring extensively over the next few months. Selected Whistle Blower dates include the Verdict in Brighton on Friday (16 January); Hideaway, London (17); 606 London (31); Swansea Jazzland (4 February); Hen and Chicken, Bristol (1 March); RNCM, Manchester (5 March): Drill Hall, Lincoln (10 April); and Spin Jazz Club, Oxford (30 April). Full tour details here
January 27, 2015
Free Speech Forum: Gilad Atzmon Faces His Critics (Notthingham)
19.30on Monday, 2nd. February at Canal House, Canal Street, Nottingham.
Gedling Borough Council banned Gilad from playing at Bonington Theatre, Arnold as result of complaints received about his 'alleged racism.' Atzmon has challenged his critics to present their evidence to the police if they think that he is guilty of incitement to racial hatred. It is ironic that some people want to suppress freedom of expression at the present time. The complex issue of freedom of speech has been reignited in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings. Unavoidably this wider issue will be referred to on this occasion.
All are welcome to attend to hear Gilad and to challenge him if they wish -especially the persons who signed the letter to Gedling Borough Council!
United Against Galloway
By Gilad Atzmon
The BBC is under attack yet again by some Jewish ‘community leaders’ and their caretakers within British politics. This time the British broadcast dared to invite a British MP to participate in the primetime TV show, Question Time.
The Ultra Zionist Jewish Chronicle reports today: “The BBC has been attacked for its decision to invite anti-Israel MP George Galloway to appear on a Question Time panel in Finchley, north-west London.”
Apparently, Mr. Galloway, renown for his sharp criticism of Israel, will be part of the program filmed in the parliamentary constituency with the country’s largest Jewish population next week.
In typical shameless Israeli stooge behaviour, Finchley and Golders Green MP Mike Freer said the BBC’s invitation to the respected MP was “deliberately provocative,” as if intellectual or political provocation were necessarily a bad thing.
Someone should remind MP Freer that Britain is still a free country and though his district is populated by many Jews, it isn’t yet a Zionist Occupied Zone. We still do not need to obtain an Israeli pass to drive along Golders Green High Road.
Unlike MP Freer, I am convinced that encountering MP Galloway and learning first hand the basis of his argument against Israel and in support of Palestine could, actually, be a very positive engagement as far as North West London Jews are concerned. Unless MP Freer believes that his constituency would be better off sealed in a Jewish ghetto.
The JC was kind enough to list MP Galloway’s prime ‘offences’ against British Jews:
1. “Two years ago he (Galloway) walked out of a debate at Oxford University after discovering his opponent was Israeli, saying ‘I don’t debate with Israelis.’
2. Earlier this month Mr. Galloway interviewed ‘Israeli anti-Semite’ Gilad Atzmon on his Russia Today television show.”
I suspect that any thinking person will note the clear contradiction between 1 and 2 - if Galloway doesn’t debate with Israelis, why would he invite an ‘Israeli’ to his TV program? I hope someone in the Jewish Chronicle is clever enough to notice how ridiculous and laughable the label “Israeli anti-Semite” appears to most people (including Jews). Maybe describing yours truly as a ‘Hebrew Speaking Palestinian,’ ‘Ex Israeli’ or just an ‘Ex Jew’ might help the clarity of their reasoning in the future.
January 26, 2015
Holocaust Memorial Day 2015
Enzo Apicella - LA MEMORIA VIVE!
January 24, 2015
Interview with Carlos Perez Cruz
We spoke about the clumsy attempt to block my music in Nottingham last week. The attempt failed. The concert took place in another venue. It was a huge success, Nottingham Jazz Committee stood firmly behind me. The concert was a transforming rally in my support (video below). It is now the local council that struggles to justify its act as resentment to its surrender to Zionist pressure is evident. I ll be speaking in Nottingham on Feb 2 for the Freedom Of Speech Society.
January 23, 2015
Here Comes The Whistle Blower...
I am really proud of this album and this video. I hope you like it as much as I do...
Dear brothers and sisters, our OHE album will be available from Monday in the UK and the USA.
Jazzwise: For the past two decades Israeli-born, UK-based saxophonist, author and political provocateur Gilad Atzmon has matched his incendiary playing and controversial opinions with a relentlessly questioning attitude to the establishment and his own identity. With 15 albums to his name – backed by his rip-roaring Orient House Ensemble – Atzmon’s latest, The Whistle Blower, is perhaps his most compelling to date, his garrulous playing both mesmerising and melancholic by turns. Stuart Nicholson discovers the outspoken polymath is still searching for answers in today’s polemical maelstrom through passion, humour and politics
Listen to The Romantic Church: https://soundcloud.com/gilad-atzmon/the-romantic-church
