By Gilad Atzmon
On Thursday night, the Jewish charity, Campaign Against Antisemitsm (CAA) declared that it would “be selecting a number of future dates on which to picket the 606 [jazz] club over its decision” to present a jazz performance by yours truly. With this threat, CAA crossed the line. This time it wasn’t just going after me or my band, this time its threat encompassed an entire community of musicians and music lovers for whom the 606 club is a preeminent venue, and none of whom have anything to do with me or my ideas.
Such threats are anathema to the values of British and western culture: the way to counter ideas with which they don’t agree is to present their own position. The tactic of gross intimidation, of menacing an entire community over the legal speech of one member are more characteristic of organised crime than of a British charity.
Yesterday I reported the CAA’s actions to the police. They took my complaint very seriously and I was interviewed for two hours. I had the strong impression that the matter was already known to the police.
During the time the police interviewed me, I received a message that the CAA is under investigation by the Charities Commission.
I was advised that every musician, music venue, promoter or audience member who is or has been subject to any intimidation or harassment by the CAA should contact the police immediately.
No one should be harassed, especially by a charity, and I want to believe that the threats to British politicians, artists, intellectuals, journalists, venues and ordinary people are about to come to an end. Such a development will make life safer and more comfortable for Jews and Gentiles alike.
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist, and writer.
Atzmon’s album Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003. Playing over 100 dates a year, he has been called “surely the hardest-gigging man in British jazz.” His albums, of which he has recorded nine to date, often explore the music of the Middle East and political themes. He has described himself as a “devoted political artist.” He supports the Palestinian right of return and the one-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
His criticisms of Zionism, Jewish identity, and Judaism, as well as his controversial views on The Holocaust and Jewish history, have led to allegations of antisemitism from both Zionists and anti-Zionists. A profile in The Guardian in 2009 which described Atzmon as “one of London’s finest saxophonists” stated: “It is Atzmon’s blunt anti-Zionism rather than the music that has given him an international profile, particularly in the Arab world, where his essays are widely read.”
His book The Wandering Who? is available at Amazon.com
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These people are fake Jews, who have taken their traditions from the Pharisees. They’ve turned Palestine into a ‘den of thieves’. They support the ideas of Theodor Herzl, whose Complete Diaries reveal his real intentions: He wrote to the Czar offering the ‘Zionist plan for the final solution of the Jewish Question’. He appealed to Lord Rothschild for his support in ‘the final solution of the Jewish question’. His plan was for the extradition of ‘poor Jews’ from Russia and Germany to Palestine. See my article at https://www.unz.com/article/uks-labour-antisemitism-split/ . They don’t represent the ‘poor Jews’. Since they’re constantly closing down various legitimate groups in the UK, and their ambassador was found to be undermining a cabinet minister as well as the leader of the opposition, it is high time that their own embassy in London was boycotted. We’re all Palestinians now.
A replay of Samuel Untermeyer’s “Judea Declares War on Germany?” Or how about the torching of Ernst Zundel’s house? Marcus Tullius Cicero noted the Jewish mob action at the trial of Flaccus and that was around 40 BC. At least they are consistent. But note please, they are not THE Problem. Society has created forces to keep order, look there for a remedy. If they are even thinking about it, mob action at a music venue, already the forces of order are compromised.
Next they would be boycotting the stores where you shop, the parks where you walk, the government tax department you deal with, your barber, shoe repairman, your local bank (well maybe not the bank …) harrass your fans and followers. I have a sense of what St. Paul put up with on his travels. That is what happens to people who can’t see logic, they turn into a chaotic group of dangerous low-life imbeciles who end up kicking themselves in the ankle or if manic high dudgeon, in the arse. It has been a long road Gilad and you have reached the turn at last where – with a policeman directing traffic, you will be happy to see them fork off!
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