Gilad Atzmon

An open letter to Israel From: Lauren Booth, UK

DateSunday, August 22, 2010 at 9:06AM AuthorGilad Atzmon

“This morning I set out to write a piece about the looting of the aid Flotilla to Gaza, by your soldiers. As you may have read, an Israel Defense Forces officer, has been remanded by a military court, suspected of stealing laptop computers from passengers.

Interestingly, Haretz newspaper, now refers to the fleet as an ‘aid flotilla.’ Which it was. Rather than the ‘terror’ fleet your leaders would have had you call it. But I digress.

So, there I was, all ready to write my piece, when I came across an article on ynetnews. It sought to spell out the shock perhaps felt by some about the looted goods. A senior Israel Defense Forces officer said of the flotilla thefts: ‘there must be a serious problem in the IDF in terms of values.”

I looked at those words for a long time. And, instead of writing my piece, decided to write to you instead. Because I can’t help wondering, who on earth still has any reserves of ‘shock’ to spare for the behaviour of your military? I mean really, come on guys.

Beyond the comfortable avenues of Tel Aviv, the rest of the world finds the phrase ‘Moral Army,’ when applied to the IDF, nothing short of a huge, (sadly catastrophic), global sized joke. One on the same level as, say, climate change denial or George Bush’s presidency.

Now, here I’ve done it again. I’ve made you really mad at me. But please, just give me a moment or two to explain why I’m writing this letter. Because I didn’t set out to, nor do I want to insult you. Certainly not anymore than I have in the past. I’m sat here with washing up undone and housework piling up, to ask you one question. As a mother and as a fellow human being I need to know why you don’t see the evil that’s being done in your name?

How can you not see?

As you may already know, I was on the first Freegaza mission in 2008. This means that I not only have the pleasure of knowing personally the fine ladies who founded the FGM (Freegaza Movement). It also means that I had many friends and colleagues on the Flotilla that your military attacked in May.

You know, (again just for a second see me as a mum and not an ‘enemy’) not one of those fine people is a terrorist, wanting to run weapons to ‘extremists’. They are to a man (and to a woman) kind, concerned citizens of the world. People, who simply cannot go about their normal daily lives whilst your state, your army, your settlers torment other human beings. Every minute of every day. Of every month. Of every year.
For sixty two years.

I don’t mean to be rude guys. But there comes a time when saying ‘I didn’t know what was going on’ wears a bit thin. You know what I mean? This whole charade about being ‘shocked’ by your soldiers bad behavior, it makes non Israeli’s, well, it makes us laugh.
.
Because, this weeks looting by your soldiers, it’s not the first of its kind. is it? Come on. Think back. There have been an awful, awful lot of others. Forgotten? Let me help you. Get to a computer and type the words ‘IDF looting’ into googles search engine.

You may (or may not be surprised) when this search produces more than 64,000 results. Now before you go off the deep end, crying ‘our enemies are telling lies about us.’ Please, I beg you. Read just some of the results on the first page. It won’t take you long. Okay why not spend the whole morning reading them? After all it’s kind of your duty to know what’s being done in your name isn’t it? I mean, when military crimes are being committed with YOUR tax shekels, you have a right to know.

One of the google results reveals that an Israel Defense Forces soldier confessed to stealing a credit card from a home in northern Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Remember that? The soldier in the Givati infantry unit’s reconnaissance battalion used it to withdraw NIS 1,600 in Israel. A small criminal act.
Part of a much wider crime.

A crime against humanity, that you’ve been either ignoring. Or have been deliberately blinded to by your leaders.

As I have already said though, you have access to the internet, you don’t have to remain in the darkness. Unless of course you’re comfortable there.

The most recent looting by the IDF of civilian goods, made me think of the Al Samouni women, I met them last year, on the rubble of their homes in Al Zaytoun (I’ve attached some photos for you to see). You may, vaguely recognize that name ‘Al Samouni’. Let me jog your memory. On Saturday, 3 January 2009, the Israeli incursion into Al Zaytoun neighbourhood began.

The following day, on 4 January 2009, your forces bombed the same area.

On Monday at 7:00 Am, 5 January 2009, again your forces bombed the very same area of Hay (neighborhood) Al Zaytoun. One of the missiles struck the third floor of Tallal Hilmi Al Samouni’s home. Then came the soldiers shooting to kill.

Overall, 26 members of the Al Samouni family were killed, including 10 children and 7 women. The Red Cross was only allowed entry three days later to evacuate the dead and injured, the majority of whom were so critical that they were taken to Belgium, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia for treatment.

Allow me, if you don’t mind to give you their names as you probably don’t know them. As kind human beings, I’m sure you’ll wish to pay them your respects, and perhaps pray for them.

Names of children killed

• Azza Salah Al Samouni, 3 years of age
• Waleed Rashad Al Samouni, 17 years of age
• Ishaq Ibrahim Al Samouni, 14 years of age
• Ismail Ibrahim Al Samouni, 16 years of age
• Rifka Wael Al Samouni, 8 years of age
• Fares Wael Al Samouni, 12 years of age
• Huda Nael Al Samouni, 17 years of age
• Ahmad Atieh Al Samouni, 14 years of age
• Mu’tassim Mohammed Al Samouni, 6 years of age
• Mohammed Hilmi Al Samouni, 5 years of age

Names of Women Killed
• Rahma Mohammed Al Samouni, 50 years of age
• Safa’ Hilmi Al Samouni, 25 years of age
• Maha Mohammed Al Samouni, 22 years of age
• Rabbab Azzat Al Samouni, 32 years of age
• Laila Nabih Al Samouni, 40 years of age
• Rifqa Mohammed Al Samouni, 50 years of age
• Hannan Khamis Al Samouni, 36 years of age

Names of Men Killed
• Tallal Hilmi Al Samouni, 55 years of age
• Attieh Hilmi Al Samouni, 25 years of age
• Rashad Hilmi Al Samouni, 42 years of age
• Tawfiq Rashad Al Samouni, 23 years of age
• Mohammed Ibrahim, 26 years of age
• Ziyad Izzat Al Samouni, 28 years of age
• Nidal Ahmad Al Samouni, 30 years of age
• Hamdi Maher Al Samouni, 23 years of age
• Hamdi Mahmoud Al Samouni, 70 years of age

Last March I was shown around the rubble of their community by the surviving women and children. I saw the racist grafitti left behind on the walls of the room where a teenage girl still had to sleep. Left for her by your ‘Moral Army’ no less. It said in places in Hebrew, in places English stuff like ‘we’ll be back’ and there was a coarse cartoon of a house exploding with the words ‘you are here’ wittily added.

A beautiful young woman, told me of how she was about to get married before the attack. Her family had saved several thousand dollars for her dowry (many people of one family saving for a very, very long time, as you can imagine). It had been hidden under a bed in a suitcase for the happy event.

Her mother had a few ancient pieces of jewellery that had been past down through the generations in gold as well. Well, you see, your soldiers, bombed these people, then shot their children, then finally looted everything the survivors owned. I swear to you, look on google, look into your own hearts, you know, this happens.

You know this is how your army deliberately treats Palestinians.

Before you scream ‘lies!’ or ‘anti semite!’ please, I beg you. Parent to parent. Human to human. in the name of the God of all faiths, take a breathe, suspend your disbelief a while longer, then read on. Because, oh Israel. What if, just suppose, I’m not the anti semite your wiki trained extremist supporters try to paint me as?

And what if, just ten per cent of the 64,000 google entries for “IDF looting’ are utterly true? What then? What does that make you complicit in? What will you do if just for a second the truth that the rest of the world sees about your leaders barbarism fills your mind and your hearts as it one day surely must?

My words, as an outsider will no doubt seem harsh, even naieve. This then, is from todays Jerusalem Post:
“According to information analyzed by the human rights organization Yesh Din, between September 2000 and the end of 2009, less than six percent of nearly 2,000 investigations opened against IDF soldiers suspected of crimes against Palestinians ended in indictments.

During the same period, according to various estimates, thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed as a result of IDF activities. How many of these fatalities resulted in convictions? Four.
Not four percent – just four.”

It’s becoming increasingly clear that your young men and women are being trained to behave like animals. These events, the looting, the photos posted online by Eden Abergil, they can’t be explained away as ‘one off’’s any longer.

It’s for you to ask yourselves what they mean.

I’m truly sorry if my words have offended you. I just wanted to talk with you directly for once.

By the way there are an estimated 400 laptops, 600 mobile phones plus other personal cash and effects, which your military still has not returned to the passengers of the aid flotilla. You see, when then they set sail. For some reason, those good people, didn’t think the IDF would steal from them.

Yours in Hope

Lauren Booth

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August 22, 2010 0

We Need Your Vote!!!

Director: Dima Hamdan Produced In: 2009

Synopsis: Gaza 2009. A massive Israeli assault is underway on Gaza. Mahmoud is in London, his mother is trapped in Gaza, and he is desperately waiting for her to call. He agrees to take part in a radio program about Gaza, but the producers take away his mobile. For the next few minutes, he has to endure listeners’ questions, and a surprise guest who will reveal what has become of his mother. “Gaza-London” is an intimate portrayal of the helplessness and frustration many Palestinians felt as they watched from a distance while their loved ones lived the nightmare.

Dima Hamdan’s latest short film Gaza-London is competing on the Culture Unplugged online festival, we need as many people as possible to see the film, vote for it (i.e: rate it) and post a good comment.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/3465/Gaza-London? Dima is a brilliant Palestinian film maker.
In case you wonder, the music (soundtrack) is mine. (Gilad Atzmon)
Thanks for your support
Gilad

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August 14, 2010 0

Gilad Atzmon: A Glimpse into Israeli Paranoia

Watch this amusing new Hasbara video. It seems as if the Israelis start to acknowledge that the days of their ‘Jews only state’ are numbered. They clearly gather that they are about to be forced out of the West Bank. In this short propaganda film Israel seems to acknowledge that it will be squeezed into the 1949 armistice lines.

*Every state has the right of ‘self defence’ says the Hasbara video, yet, someone better remind the Israelis that not many countries celebrate their symptoms at the expense of others.

*According to this Hasbara film, in 1967 Israel was attacked by four countries, until recently we were all convinced that it was actually the other way around, it was Israel that launched that war. Truth and historical truthfulness is not highly valued in the Jewish state.

* What are Israel’s ‘defensible borders’? The Jordan Rift Valley says the film, for tanks, ballistic missiles or airplanes can never cross this unbridgeable natural barrier.

* Ladies and gentlemen, 2 minutes and forty seven seconds into this new Hasabara video the voice over explains why Israel should never be “forced back into the 1949 armistice lines”. In other words, the Israelis start to realise that the legitimacy of their Jewish state is under question. They somehow start also to grasp that their one and only recognised international border is the 1949 Armistice lines.

* I never thought that it would be that quick and easy.

August 12, 2010 0

Gilad Atzmon: Oliver Stone apologized for Telling the Truth

DateWednesday, July 28, 2010 at 9:58AM AuthorGilad Atzmon

There you go, Oliver Stone apologized for suggesting that the Jewish lobby controls Washington’s foreign policy and that Hitler’s actions should be put into context.

In fact, Stone’s apology confirms Stone’s argument. We are subject to constant assault by Jewish and Israeli gatekeepers who insist on controlling the political and historical discourse and defy any possible criticism of Jewish national affairs.

“In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret,” Stone said in a statement released late Monday, the day after his remarks were published in a British newspaper.

JTA reported today that Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, was among the Jewish organizations and Israeli officials to condemn the remarks.

Steinberg in a statement said Stone’s apology “was necessary and we accept it. But whether he acted out of sincerity or as a desperate response to the moral outcry at his comments is an open question,” he added. “He must be judged by his future words and deeds.”

Steinberg demands “sincerity” and future subservience. I would actually expect him to join Stone and be slightly more enthusiastic about historical research and contextual thinking.

Israel’s propaganda minister’, Yuli Edelstein, was also among those who had condemned Stone’s remarks early Monday. “They are nauseating, anti-Semitic and racist, Not only is he showing ignorance, he is demonizing Jews for no reason and returning to the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’

Interesting indeed. Stone doesn’t refer to race. There is nothing anti Semitic in his remark whatsoever unless telling the truth is a form of anti Semitism. Moreover, Stone didn’t demonize Jews for being Jews, he described some actions committed by Jewish institutional lobbies, actions that are now academically documented and studied. He did it for a good reason. Stone is probably patriotic or pragmatic enough to gather that peace is important.

“When a man of Stone’s stature speaks in this way”, said Edelstein, “it can bring waves of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment, and may even damage Jewish communities and individuals.” Edelstein is almost correct. Stone was brave enough to tell the truth about Jewish power, he probably wasn’t courageous enough to stand for it, which is understandable. However, Edelstein and other Jewish leaders better realise that Stone is far from being mad, anti Semitic or racist. Stone told the truth as we all see it.

Instead of silencing criticism, Edelstein, Steinberg and others better look in the mirror because the time is running out for Israel and its supporters

Update: Haim Saban to CBS: Cancel Oliver Stone’s Showtime Series

http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/exclusive-haim-saban-stone-should-join-mel-gibson-retirement-19614

The New Yorker reported last month that at a conference last fall, Saban described his pro-Israeli formula, outlining “three ways to be influential in American politics…make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets.” …

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Coming Soon- David Cameron apologizes for telling the truth about Gaza being a prison Camp.

July 28, 2010 0

A much fuller version of Antony Loewenstein & Ali Abunimah: The Real Peace Process

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/antony-loewenstein-ali-abunimah-the-real-peace-process.html

July 25, 2010 0

On The Israeli Right’s New ‘Peace’

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

As the Israelis are becoming conscious of their inevitable tragic circumstances, a final desperate attempt to rescue the Zionist project has come to life. Astonishingly enough it is the Israeli right that is now pushing for ‘one binational State.’ It is pretty staggering to find out that while the Israeli so-called ‘left’ is locked within the 1967 territorial paradigm that is fueled by Judeo centric racial ideology, it is actually the hawkish Zionist thinkers who are willing to move the discourse forward.

In a mind provoking piece Noam Sheizaf outlines in Haaretz the new revolutionary Israeli idea. However, I will maintain at this stage that the new Zionist call for ‘one binational state’ suggests that Zionist ideology is on its last leg. Israel has come to realise its inevitable end. And amidst its terminal conditions Israel tries to buy time.

Israel should apply its law to “Judea and Samaria and grant citizenship to 1.5 million Palestinians,” says Moshe Arens, a former Israeli defense minister, a top leader in the Likud party and a political patron of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Arens is not put off by those who slander him for promoting the idea of a binational Jewish-Palestinian state. “We are already a binational state,” he says.

This approach is now being advocated by leading figures in the Likud and amongst the settlers. A year ago, Uri Elitzur, former chairman of the Yesha Council of Settlements and Netanyahu’s bureau chief in his first term as prime minister, published an article in the settlers’ journal Nekuda calling for the onset of a process, at the conclusion of which the (West Bank) Palestinians will have “a blue ID card (like Israelis), yellow license plates (like Israelis), National Insurance and the right to vote for the Knesset.” Emily Amrousi, a former spokesperson for the Yesha Council, also takes part in meetings between settlers and Palestinians and speaks explicitly of “one land in which the children of settlers and the children of Palestinians will be bused to school together.”

This Zionist political novelty doesn’t take me by complete surprise. Unlike the Jewish left that is tribally orientated both in Israel and in the West, the right wing Zionist philosophy was grounded on a dream of an eternal bond between the Jew and the alleged ‘promised land’. In Zion the Jew was supposed to transcend oneself beyond the race and the tribe. Israel was there to demolish the ghetto wall. As it happened, in practice, Israel had become the biggest ghetto in Jewish history.

However, there is a clear trap here. As much as the peace loving Zionist hawks seem to champion Palestinian civil rights, the vision of a ‘one binational state’ is still totally Judeo centric. The Israeli advocates of the one binational state are not talking about a neutral “state of all its citizens”, nor about “Israstine” with a flag showing a crescent and a Shield of David. One state still means a sovereign Jewish state, but in a more complex reality, and inspired by the vision of a “democratic Jewish state” without an occupation and without apartheid, without fences and separations.

One may wonder at this stage what the notion of “Jewish democratic state” stands for. It is obviously an empty signifier, there is no such a thing as Jewish democracy. As far as I remember Democracy was born in Athens rather than Jerusalem. And yet, the dream is compelling. In such a state, “Jews will be able to live in Hebron and pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and a Palestinian from Ramallah will be able to serve as an ambassador and live in Tel Aviv or simply enjoy ice cream on the city’s seashore.”

It is clear beyond doubt that a coin has dropped. Some Israeli hawks have come to realise that the occupation cannot be maintained forever. They were also quick to grasp that, in the long run, the separation wall put an end to the Zionist expansionist program. They also gather that the negative exposure of Jewish lobbies in the West will eventually lead to the down scaling of Israeli political maneuvering.

However, the Zionist tribal orientation is never too difficult to trace. When Elitzur was asked “What do you say to the allegations that you have joined the radical left?” he was quick to reveal his political mantra.

“There’s a clear separation between us. I am talking about a Jewish state, the state of the Jewish people, which will contain a large Arab minority. The left is talking about an Arab state containing a Jewish minority, even if they do not explicitly think that. The leftist demonstrators in (the West Bank village of) Bil’in have totally joined the Palestinian cause.”

I guess that this what it is all about. The Israeli hawks want to counter the inevitable ‘demographic disaster’. They would offer West Bank Palestinians Israeli ID cards, and offer them to “enjoy ice cream in Tel Aviv” as long as they are kept as a minority. The Israeli hawks ignore Gaza and the right of return. In practice they dismiss the Palestinian cause for they are certain that the Jewish one is superior. In short, this is not a solution or a resolution. It is just another Zionist spin that is planted in our discourse in order to disseminate confusion.

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July 21, 2010 0

Each village is a reminder

4650478686_e5e0b3647b_o-a — The Palestinian refugee community of Shu'afat sits behind Israel's separation wall, cut off from other Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem (Jeremy Price)

DateTuesday, July 13, 2010 at 3:25PM Gilad Atzmon interviewed by by Brian Lenzo

YOU GREW up in Israel, right when the Palestinian National movement had come on to the scene. Were you aware of it? What was it like growing up in Israel at that time?

THIS IS a very interesting question. When you read what Jews have written about their suffering, the philosophers and historians, they always talk about the magmatic effect of irrational hatred. About the Germans: “It was madness.” Now the Turkish: ‘They are mad!” And the Palestinians. We asked, “Why do they want to come here? There are so many Arab places to go?”

As kids, we thought, “Everybody is mad!” The mentality was–and still is–us versus them. The Jewish world is divided into a binary opposition of us and them. This was my vision of the Palestinians.

We were shocked to wake up in the morning and find out there was a ‘terror’ attack, then another terror attack. It took me years to understand that these were people who were fighting for their land–land that belongs to them and them alone.

It took me some time before I realized that the Qassam rockets are a love letter from the Palestinian’s stolen land. The Palestinian movement is a poetic movement. And it’s through the poets that they will be able not just to liberate their land, but to liberate all of us.

I TRAVELED to Gaza last year in July with the Viva Palestina convoy, and I spoke with people from the Jabaliya refugee camp. They talked about their expulsion first in 1948 and then again in 1967. It became clear to me that if you only allow return to the 1967 territories, but leave alone the issue of 1948, you would be potentially splitting up families…The mother could return to the West Bank, but the grandmother could not go back to Haifa.

Was there any recognition that this tangled web had been woven by the time you were born in Israel? Was that something you realized later or was that something in the background that you look back on and say, “I should have recognized it back then?”

I DEFINITELY look back on it. I wasn’t aware. We were not aware. Probably our teachers were not aware and probably my father, who lived through it.

I asked my father once, when I started to learn about the expulsion, “Listen, man, you were nine years old in 1948. This land changed in front of your eyes. Convoys of refugees.” My father told me, “I didn’t see anything. I don’t remember.”

I told him, “The way to Haifa was all Palestinian villages. Here.” I had the map. “Here they are, and they’re gone.” My father just waved his hand as if to say, “Go away.”

We really have to start to understand the notion of phantasmic past. These people invented their past, as Shlomo Sand argues, and he is right. The Zionists invented their past with the hope that their future would shape accordingly. And their history doesn’t have to be consistent, because they can invent it whenever they want. They cherry-picked the events that would support their narrative. It’s very typical.

Every time I think about my past, I find more and more things I should have recognized. I read and reviewed Ramzy Baroud’s amazing book My Father Was a Freedom Fighter, and he talks about his father’s experience and where he was born. It’s amazing. I gave it to my mom, who read it and, like myself, was shocked. She said, “Where was this village?” We looked at the maps, and we couldn’t figure it out.

You have to understand. It’s hard to believe, but try to imagine you traveled from Rochester, N.Y., to New York City and on your way back, all the villages and towns along the way were wiped out. Even the signposts…gone.

The Israelis have managed to wipe out Palestinian civilization. But it didn’t work. Why? Because the Palestinians didn’t disappear. The claim is there. It is sound. The prickly pear is there, in each village, to point out that this was a village of authentic people and will be there until they come back. Again, it’s poetic.

I ASK about your childhood because growing up in this part of New York, you have the experience of learning about the history of Native Americans in the United States, and then part of your school education is to tour some of the sites, because this area is where the Iroquois Nation lived and still lives.

Our school books will at least admit that the Native Americans were driven off their land, but at the same time, they won’t talk about what that might mean for the current generation of Native Americans. Do you see any similarities to this situation in Israel?

IN MY opinion, the Palestinians are not anything close to that situation. The Palestinians are still nonexistent to the Zionists. The Israelis don’t understand that the people in Gaza, in the West Bank and in Lebanon are largely people waiting to come back. They are there, still waiting, but they will come back.

I understand it now. I know that many Palestinians lost hope throughout the years, but I think that there is room for hope again.

IF YOU google the name Gilad Atzmon, you find this dual persona. There is the musician, and then there is the writer/activist. In your presentation, you talked about how these aspects of your life intersect. Can you explain this some more?

IT’S AN open question. It’s a dynamic thing. You see, I’m basically dyslexic. And dyslexic people are used to regarding themselves, at least in their early life, as morons. I used to think, “You’re stupid, man.” Everybody has to write, you know, we all write, but when there was a dictation, I ended up with more mistakes than letters!

So I never thought that anything good would come of me…I’ve never spoken about my dyslexia before, by the way.

When I was 17, I listened to Charlie Parker, and said, “Oh my god!” And the saxophone–wow! I had a saxophone, and I started to play. Through music, I really became a confident human being.

I never had any dream of becoming a philosopher or thinker. Now I start to understand that I am. It took me many years to understand that I see things differently, and a lot of people are interested in my thoughts.

One thing that is very clear to me: I am a loner. I don’t take orders from anyone. I never want to be part of any party or any group or any ideological setting. I want always to be free and to try to think things through for myself.

As a musician and as a producer, I listen. I close my eyes. I want to be overwhelmed. And that’s the way I operate now with my writing. I am writing for myself. When I’m doing a written interview, I want every answer to be an exciting moment. I think this makes my writing very popular at the moment, and I’m still developing.

I’m searching for the truth, the philosophical truth. I am searching for something that will explain it all. Because there are a lot of things I don’t understand yet.

For instance, I don’t understand what it is that all those AIPAC Zionists want. What do they want? It’s like the most stupid question. Do they want safety? No. Do they want security? No. What do they really want? It’s a very big question, a very simple question but I don’t have an answer.

YOU HAVE a certain confidence to talk about an issue that is rather hush-hush in the United States. It’s not polite to talk openly about the Palestinians, let alone question the nature of Jewish identity.

TO START with, based on stats from my Web site, hits coming from America are surprisingly high. My popularity in this country is shocking. If somebody told me years ago that I would be getting 30,000 hits a day or something like that from America, I would have laughed out loud. So, it’s true, a lot of people here are reading it.

Earlier today, someone asked me, “Given all you said, what should we do?” I don’t like to talk about state solutions–one-state solution, two-state solution. The most important thing, the only thing that we can do, is to speak our heart. For some, it may be for the first time after so many years of being silenced.

Speak your heart. Say, “We don’t like it. We don’t like what you’re doing. We don’t like to send our soldiers to fight Zionist wars in Iraq. We don’t like it.” To identify, to name and shame the people that are behind it. They will call you an anti-Semite. To me, if telling the truth means I have to be labeled an anti-Semite, then I’ll be an anti-Semite. What do you want me to do?

A LOT of musicians aim to become the best at a particular genre. From my perspective, you have managed that much with your saxophone playing, but beyond just being talented at your craft, you explore other musical genres outside the Western musical tradition. Can you talk some about that?

AS I said, growing up, I listened to Charlie Parker, I listened to Coltrane, I listened to Michael Brecker. I said to myself, “Oh man! How can you play like that?” I’m still overwhelmed by it. And when I was in America in 1986-87, I thought to myself, “Shit, I really want to be a professional musician.”

America is a country in search of professionalization in everything. You have to be really good to make it in America, and I admire that. But with music education in jazz, at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and other music schools, music has lost its spirit. Rather than the spirit of resistance–and this is what jazz was and what made it so great–it has become just another form of knowledge.

So the professors say, “And today we are going to learn the Lydian scale. Everyone together–one, two, three, four!” I went to Berklee–I was there for two hours, man. If this is what it means to be a musician, I thought I better become a builder.

YOU SEEM to gravitate towards musical styles that have these radical roots, like jazz and punk rock. Is that intentional?

I LIKE music that moves walls. Coltrane could break a wall. I was lucky to work with Ian Dury. This man, this band, The Blockheads, can cut through anything.

I had a great chance to work with Robert Wyatt. Robert’s taste was extremely vulnerable. It’s delicious. It’s this crispy deliciousness that can make a window crack. Yes, I want to be moved by music.

My engineer, who I’ve worked with for 10 years now, told me a few months back–and realize that he’s 60 years old and he’s been doing this for 40 years–“Gilad, you are the most exhausting human being I’ve ever come across.”

I started to cry. I thought, “What did I do now?” He said, “Listen, you just won’t let something go.” You know, I could walk into a session with a band, and I’ll stay there until a tune is tearing you apart. My engineer is right, I won’t let it go. And I hope that I’m not yet at my peak. Yesterday, I listened to Zero Hour by Astor Piazzolla on the airplane. Oh man, he can go through a tank! I’m not there yet, but I am still working on it.

IT’S THAT combination of anger, defiance and also hope. That came through in your talk and in your playing, too.

I THINK that hope is the fuel of life. And I don’t think that the current political setting is providing us with such a thing. What is the greatest asset of Barack Obama? It was the hope. And I don’t want him to waste this hope on idiotic political games. We need hope because we don’t have money. We have kids, but what kind of world are these kids going to have?

It’s very possible that our politicians cannot provide this hope. I said the other day, and I’ll say it again: Try to buy an F-15 fighter jet. They’re expensive, man. Try to buy a tank. Try to buy armor. How much is it? Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars?

It’s much cheaper to buy a politician. You take him on two trips to Israel with his wife and put them in the Hilton in Tel Aviv…She can do the shopping, blah blah blah. They have a good time, they fly them back, give them some money so they can have a new swimming pool. That’s it! It’s much cheaper to buy American or British or French or German or Dutch politicians than buying a tank!

So they buy a few American politicians, and then you fight their wars. You go, you kill Saddam, you say you’re going to liberate the Iraqi people. It’s almost pathetic. How can these politicians…how can this system provide us with hope?

The first step towards hope is to be genuine. Say, “We don’t like what we see.” And for Palestine, I think that the shift of consciousness is far bigger than the politicians. The politicians will follow us. We are ahead of them.

source

July 14, 2010 3

Invitation to olive picking [Palestine, October, 2010]

AuthorGilad Atzmon

(Starting Saturday 16th October 2010 for 9 nights)

http://visitpalestine.webs.com/oliveharvestoct2010.htm

2010 will be the 7th year the annual Olive Picking Program in Palestine from October 16th to 25th 2010. This event is of special significance to the Palestinian economy when all energies and efforts are mobilized.

Since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000, the olive harvest has been overshadowed by the Israeli policies of repression, closure, blockage of streets, confiscation of agricultural lands, as well as repeated attacks against Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers*. Now with the construction the Apartheid Wall and the continuous expansion of Israeli settlements at the expense of agricultural land in the occupied Palestine , many farmers are separated from their trees, and help is most needed.

The objective of this program is to mobilize as many people as possible for olive picking, especially in areas that are situated in proximity to Israeli settlements and bypass roads, in order to help Palestinian farmers harvest their olive trees which they might be unable to do without international support. Also, the event has brought up awareness to hundreds of people from many countries around the world about real life under the Israeli Military Occupation, and the experience itself was referred to by several participants as a life changing one. You too are invited to join us for this event.

Besides picking olives, the program will feature introductory presentations about the organizing institutions, the current situation in Palestine and the effect of the Apartheid Wall, tours in the old city of Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem , a tour of Hebron , cultural evenings and social gatherings.

Olive Picking 2010 – Proposed schedule

Day One – Saturday 16/10/2010: Arrival. Meeting representatives from the organizing institutions for an overview and discu ssi on of the program.

Dinner and overnight in Beit Sahour (near Bethlehem )

Day Two – Sunday 17/10/2010: Half day picking olives at a selected field.

After lunch, political tour and sightseeing in Bethlehem , including the visit of a refugee camp. Dinner, followed by screening of a documentary at Jadal / Alternative Information Center (AIC)