Gilad Atzmon sees off the Zionist lobby and the Board of Deputies!

Here is a fascinating story written by Gilad Atzmon, author and musician. I really like his attitude and, although I've not heard his music, word is he's a very good reeds man.

He's created a character called Artie Fishel who is simultaneously a musician and a hardline Zionist. Artie thinks the Jews invented jazz in the ghettos of Eastern Europe and it had nothing to do with the American black experience. He's there to examine Zionism through satire and humour.

As an anti-Zionist Jew, Atzmon has already come in for some criticism from the hard right (he's been called an "anti-Semite" and a "holocaust denier") but he was unprepared for the level of vitriol that would be unleashed when he scored a gig for Artie Fishel and the Promised Band at London's Pizza On The Park, a prestigious jazz venue.

But, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a self-proclaimed representative of British Jewry, decided to kill Artie before he was even born. A week prior to our launch concerts at the prestigious London's Pizza On The Park I learnt that Pizza Express's Head Office had been subject to some heavy pressure. They were blitzed by 'alleged customers' who expressed outrage that Pizza Express "could give a stage to Gilad Atzmon, a 'racist', an 'anti-Semite' and a 'Holocaust Denier'." The orchestrated campaigners, as I learned, spoke as a single voice. Though I have written hundreds of pages of articles about Israel, Palestine and Jewish identity, the 'alleged customers' all seemed to be quoting from the same four quotes. Passages that were either re-worded or taken out of context, and they even put the words of others saw into in my mouth.

Press coverage began to prove very positive. As Atzmon notes, if he were really racist, he wouldn't get positive coverage in the mainstream media... but Artie Fishel was really taking off...

In fact, I have never received so much support in such a short time for any of my previous albums or acts.

This was far too much for the BOD. Unwisely, rather than surrendering their case and admitting that they may have been mistaken, they decided to escalate the battle. The Zionist Federation was pulled in. Together they moved towards moderate verbal violence. Telephone calls to the Pizza became rather abusive and a picket was planned in front of the venue. Pizza Express was left with no other choice than to hire bouncers to protect its customers from Zionist zeal. Surely, this doesn't seem to be the kind of behaviour that might give a shining image to those who operate in the name of Jews.

The run at the Pizza On The Park went ahead very smoothly, in the end, and was a resounding success.

However once we had finished the concert I learned from an Al Jazeera producer who was there to cover the event that a confused Evening Standard journalist had approached him at the end of the set wondering what was going on. Apparently, the BOD approached local and national media promising a performance of a 'Holocaust Denier' or at least a 'racist' warmonger. The Evening Standard journalist was confused, he just couldn't find anything to write about.

Moderate voices within the Jewish community have also rallied round, and one young Jewish promoter apparently wants to promote a big gig for Artie and the Promised Band (love that) in Golders Green.

It's all an interesting insight into the extent to which the Zionist lobby is prepared to use very dubious tactics... and a glorious instance of those tactics backfiring in the face of humour, talent and wisdom.

Gilad Atzmon 2: Zionist lobby 0 (Atzmon, Zionists o.g.)

For the record, the United Kingdom Zionist lobby (or Zionist Federation) is no where near as powerful as that of in the States.

but, this is an interesting thread you have started

They're not as powerful, true, but they are becoming more active and seem to be doing all they can to help in demonising Muslims. I was listening to Radio 4 a little while ago, and there was a debate in which a poor moderate Muslim was trying to defend himself from personal attacks from a bunch of quite shockingly right-wing people. Some of them were armed with quotes allegedly spoken by various Islamic clerics... and these translations, it transpired, had been made and supplied by MEMRI, who are famous for mistranlating people they want to target - like Ahmedinejad, who did not use the phrase "wipe Israel off the map" (but try telling anyone that, right? Mud sticks).

The thought of an orchestrated campaign in the UK is pretty revolting, though, as is the thought of people ringing up Pizza Express to be vile and rude about the gig.

I checked out Atzmon's tenor playing on YouTube... he is pretty damn good (if you like that sort of modern tenor playing, which I do).