Atzmon is a former Israeli
soldier who now lives in London. He is not only a renowned author and writer but
also a famous award-winning jazz musician. Described as a musical genius he has
recorded with the likes of Robbie Williams, Sinead O Connor, Robert Wyatt Paul
McCartney, Tunisian singer Dhaffer Youssef and countless
others.
With a strong presence on and off stage and a
disarming smile, Atzmon has a huge following not only for his music but for
being a unique thinker and philosopher.
Admired for his
fearless stance against oppression, he is also at the forefront of a taboo
discourse that many will not venture into out of fear of being branded
anti-Semite; and that is the discourse on the Jewish identity, Zionism and
Israel. -- Shabana
Syed
Photo: Gilad
Atzmon
By Shabana Syed
According to the famous
Israeli-born Jazz musician, Gilad Atzmon, "The ideology that carried out
execution-style killings on the Gaza aid flotilla the 'Mavi Marmara' is the same
ideology that carried out the massacres at Deir Yassin, Qibya, Sabra and
Shatilla, Qana, Gaza, Jenin and the murder of Rachel Corrie — more than that it
is the same ideology that killed Christ."
He continues: "there is no
biological, racial or ethnic continuum between the ancient Israelites and the
contemporary Israelis. The attack on the aid convoy is a continuum of the same
ideology that killed Christ. Christ's killing is a symbol of a brutal assault
against goodness, in the same way the attack on the aid convoy was against
humanity and compassion." Speaking to Arab News after the deadly attack on the
aid Flotilla where 9 peace activists were shot dead and around 50 injured Atzmon
was scathing against Israel's actions and demanded that it should be stripped of
its UN membership.
Atzmon is a former Israeli
soldier who now lives in London. He is not only a renowned author and writer but
also a famous award-winning jazz musician. Described as a musical genius he has
recorded with the likes of Robbie Williams, Sinead O Connor, Robert Wyatt Paul
McCartney, Tunisian singer Dhaffer Youssef and countless
others.
With a strong presence on and
off stage and a disarming smile, Atzmon has a huge following not only for his
music but for being a unique thinker and philosopher.
Admired for his fearless stance
against oppression, he is also at the forefront of a taboo discourse that many
will not venture into out of fear of being branded anti-Semite; and that is the
discourse on the Jewish identity, Zionism and Israel.
Because of this stance, he has
been branded a "Jew self-hater." Atzmon smiles: "in fact I correct them 'I am
not only a self-hater but a proud self- hater.'" The accusations do not deter
him as he is quite vocal about the self-hatred he feels for the Israeli part of
him. He argues: "We are dealing here with a morbid collective that sets itself
against humanity.” He believes the reason why he is at the forefront of this
discourse is because he is more able than others to understand Israeli mentality
because, "I come from them, and I know how they think." He himself has studied
for many years the issue of the Jewish identity, and in his talks is often found
quoting philosophers like the Austrian Otto Weininger, Kant, Heidegger,
Nietzsche, Lacan, Marx as well as Eastern philosophers.
He explains: "Israel has
violated all international laws, it has never been held accountable for the
countless massacres." However, he argues the latest massacre of peace activists
on the aid flotilla with the emerging forensic reports which suggest Israeli
execution-style killings of the 9 peace activists has resulted in shock horror
around the world.
"The remarkable fact is they
don't understand why the world is beginning to stand against them in the same
way they didn't understand why the Europeans stood against them in the 1930s.
Instead of asking why we are hated they continue to toss accusations on others."
In his latest article titled "Jewish Ideology and World Peace," he argues:
"Within the discourse of Jewish politics and history there is no room for
causality... Within the Jewish tribal discourse every narrative starts to evolve
when Jewish pain establishes itself. ...It also explains why for most Jews the
history of the holocaust starts in the gas chambers or with the rise of the
Nazis. I have hardly seen any Israelis or Jews attempt to understand the
circumstances that led to the clear resentment of Europeans toward their Jewish
neighbors in the 1920s-40s.”
Born and brought up as a Zionist
in Israel, Atzmon believes it was his love of music that first opened his eyes
to the world. "I was brought up to believe that Jews were the chosen people and
no one was better than us. Then I discovered jazz and found out that many of the
great jazz musicians were black Afro-Americans. That was the first dent in the
theory of our greatness and as I picked up the stones more truths began to come
out." At 19, Atzmon was stationed as a soldier to Lebanon where he saw for the
first time thousands of Palestinians living as refugees. "We were told that the
Palestinians had left and gone to other Arab countries, so when I saw thousands
of refugees living without the basics I realized that we had stolen their land."
Atzmon also witnessed the atrocities the Israeli Army was committing against the
Palestinians; so as soon as he could, he left the army and left the country for
good.
"My studies have shown me that
the Jewish identity is foreign to humanism, it is tribal and has evolved as an
outcome of an exilic culture." He argues that we can learn a lot about Jewish
collective ideology by looking closely to the biblical "Story of Esther" which
he argues teaches Jews the art of infiltration into politics and
governments.
He continues: "This form of
infiltration is clearly evident in America today where the Jewish lobby (AIPAC)
dominates the political discourse. Also in Britain we have the British Jewish
lobby, and the 'Friends of Israel', we also have people like David Aaronovitch,
The Times columnist and Nick Cohen of The Observer, who advocated for war with
Iraq. Both write for the Jewish papers, are known sympathizers of Israel and
have contributed extensively to the growing Islamophobia in Britain. Lord Levy,
a rabid Zionist was funding the Labour Party when it went into an illegal war
with Iraq which led to over a million Iraqi fatalities.”
He continues: "We have the likes
of David Miliband the Labour MP; I wonder how many people know that he is listed
on the Israeli propaganda site as an Israeli propagandist author. Did you know
that under the last government, when everyone was talking about Israel's killing
of a Hamas leader in Dubai by using forged British passports, David Miliband was
busy attempting to amend the laws of universal jurisdiction so Israeli war
criminals could enter Britain.”
In his latest article Atzmon
writes: "Enough is enough; it is time to name and shame every Israeli and
Zionist infiltrator within political circles, media and academia." Maybe it is
the soldier in him but there are not many subjects that Atzmon is not afraid to
confront. The biggest taboo subject today is to question the holocaust. In many
European countries one can be jailed for questioning the numbers killed or to
what extent gas chambers were used? Atzmon however has no fear when he says: "I
do not deny that Jewish suffering took place, I also lost family in it. However
if the established holocaust narrative is true why do we need laws to protect
it?" He continues: "We want a coherent narrative open to scrutiny. We owe it to
ourselves, to history to find out the truth and I don't mean the truth through
emotionally charged Hollywood films. Also I reiterate that those involved in an
academic and historic inquiry should not be threatened with law suits and
abuse.”
To stop further world conflicts,
Atzmon believes that governments should confront Israel. He argues that unlike
the last Labour government that indulged Israel to continue its brutal assaults,
while its leaders Blair and Brown were honorary patrons of the Jewish National
Fund UK, the new government has to take a stronger stand. "In order to end one
of the most brutal occupations of Gaza we need to ban Israeli aircraft from
British airspace, impose EU trade sanctions against Israel and strip Israel of
its UN membership." For Atzmon the tide is turning and humanity which is bound
together by human ethics and morals need to stand together against Israel before
it takes us to war with Iran which according to him "is its next
step.”
Source: Arab
News
6:37 AM
Sultan Shahin
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