Gilad Atzmon

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Gilad Atzmon (right) with journalist Joseph Navratil (2015)

Gilad Atzmon (born June 9, 1963 in Jerusalem ) is a British jazz saxophonist , political activist and author of Israeli origin. His anti-Zionist theses are controversial and meet with approval in anti-Semitic milieus.

Life

Family, military service and studies

Gilad Atzmon was born on June 9, 1963 in Jerusalem, the son of Ariella Atzmon , the former lecturer in philosophy and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . Atzmon himself reports that he grew up in a non-religious Zionist family. His grandfather was a member of the Zionist underground organization Irgun . He had a great influence on the entire family and on Atzmon's self-image as an Israeli Jew.

In July 1981 Atzmon joined the Israeli army . When the first Lebanon war broke out in June 1982 , he perceived it as an Israeli war of aggression. He became a member of the Music Corps of the Israeli Air Force , which in the summer of 1984 performed a concert tour with the Israeli troops in Lebanon. One station was the Ansar Israeli internment camp in southern Lebanon. During a tour of the camp, Atzmon met thousands of interned Palestinians who, according to him, had to endure in the scorching heat. He suspected the cause of this dealings with the camp inmates in the feeling of superiority of Israeli society, the roots of which he saw in the peculiarities of "Jewish identity". He studied composition and jazz at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. Then he toured with his own band and worked as a producer and arranger in the field of rock, jazz and world music, for example with Ofra Haza , Jack DeJohnette or Michel Petrucciani .

Atzmon left Israel to first go to Germany. Since 1993 he has been mainly in Great Britain. He studied philosophy at the University of Essex. He became a British citizen in 2002. He lives in London with his wife Tali and two children.

music

Atzmon's interest in music was sparked by the music of Charlie Parker . Atzmon plays soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophone , and he also uses clarinet , sol, zurna , flute and accordion as secondary instruments . He was a member of the Blockheads and worked as a studio musician for colleagues such as Ian Dury , Paul McCartney , Sinéad O'Connor and Robbie Williams . He released his first CD in 1994 ( game ). He then founded the Orient House Ensemble , which is named after the former PLO headquarters in East Jerusalem and with which he has released CDs for the Munich jazz label enja since 2000 .

His music picks up folk oriental elements and connects them with the traditions of bebop . Free improvisations occur alongside world and pop music moments. His album Exile , which the BBC voted "Jazz Album of the Year" in 2003, represents this phase of style . On the album In Loving Memory of America he presents American standards and ballads with string arrangements in the style of the boppers of the 1950s. Although influenced by Cannonball Adderley , he has a slightly rough, but lyrical tone. Sometimes he goes on concert tour with his Orient House Ensemble and the Sigamos String Quartet.

The album Songs of the Metropolis was voted Best Album 2013 by the music critics in the Jazz Journal Critics' Poll 2013. It contains pieces that are dedicated to the metropolises of Buenos Aires, Paris, London or Scarborough, Berlin, New York / Manhattan (sound available below under web links), Tel Aviv. Atzmon is considered to be one of the jazz musicians with the largest number of annual live performances. He is on stage over 100 times a year. Atzmon expresses himself very differently about the relationship between jazz and politics. On the one hand, for him jazz is “an innovative form of resistance.” On the other hand, he rejects boycotts of artists for political reasons. For Atzmon the beauty of music is an inspiration to love the world and to enjoy life - despite all the depressing political developments that he associates with the names George W. Bush , Tony Blair and Ariel Sharon .

In recent years he has worked as a producer for Sarah Gillespie , Elizabeth Simonian, the world music group Yurodny and Robert Wyatt .

Atzmon claims that his passion for jazz is closely linked to his philosophical and political interests.

Some of Atzmon's appearances as a musician are used by critics for protests. It is not the quality of his musical presentations that is up for debate, but his political opinion. As part of these disputes, festival organizers are confronted by opponents of Atzmon's appearances with his provocative statements on Jewish identity politics. Atzmon's appearances were already criticized in advance, for example at the 2011 Jazz Festival in Göttingen and at the festival of the political song "Raise Your Banners" in Bradford . On Martin Luther King Memorial Day in January 2012, Atzmon gave a concert at the invitation of Friends Seminary, an elite Quaker school , with an orchestra in the school, which is located in New York / Manhattan. Alan Dershowitz then accused Friends Seminary of supporting Atzmon's political views. In May 2017, around 15 people protested against Atzmon's participation in a panel discussion in New York City.In the same month, two book presentations of Atzmon's in Edinburgh and Newcastle were canceled at short notice. The director of the St. Wendel Jazz Festival, Ernst Urmetzer, was asked in September 2017 by the Viennese publicist David Hellbrück to dismiss Atzmon again because of his political views, because "Atzmon himself is in dangerous proximity to Holocaust deniers." Urmetzer refused, however because he would appreciate Atzmon "as a convinced and honest humanist, great musician and cosmopolitan". Many opponents of Atzmon consider it legitimate to boycott his undisputed high-quality musical work for political reasons.

Political activism

Atzmon publishes on numerous online media such as Al Jazeera Online , World News , Press TV , Rebelion , The Daily Telegraph , Uprooted Palestinians , Veterans Today , Palestine Telegraph , Counterpunch , Dissident Voice , Information Clearing House , Middle East Online , Palestine Chronicle , The People Voice , Redress , Shoah (The Palestinian Holocaust) , The Guardian and many others. He is frequently invited to speak to, for example, Russia Today , Press TV and BBC Persian.

Atzmon's attacks are increasingly focused on Israeli government policy towards critical Jewish groups and individuals whom he accuses of improper use of their Jewish identity, e.g. B. Max Blumenthal , Rabbi Alissa Wise , Philip Weiss . He also criticizes groups that use the attribute "Jewish" in their self-designation, such as "Jewish voice for peace" or "Jews for Jeremy Corbyn " as ethnically exclusive communities ("Jews only"). On the one hand they would exclude non-Jews and on the other hand they would presume a moral superiority over non-Jews. They used their public approval and opposition to exercise illegitimate power. Atzmon speaks of the "kosher stamp" that these groups would give without being asked. He accuses them of enforcing the concerns that they claim to be advocating. B. to actually prevent the liberation of the Palestinians from Israeli occupation. Because of his radical criticism of the Israeli Palestinian policy, Atzmon is described by parts of the Palestinian movement as an "undesirable ally".

He explained the devastating fire in London's Grenfell Tower on June 14, 2017, with 71 dead, by saying that Jerusalemites would observe the Mitzvot , i.e. the religious duties in Judaism. However, he did not want to see “Jerusalemites” understood as a synonym for “Jews”, but rather portray the fire disaster as a result of the unreflective compliance with regulations that is common in Orthodox Judaism. In fact, fire protection regulations had just been massively disregarded for years in the high-rise building.

When, in December 2017, the blog NRhZ-Online in the Babylon cinema in Berlin awarded a prize worth 200 euros to Ken Jebsen in absentia , Die Breite and Atzmon accompanied the event. Although this was banned from the cinema operator , it still occurred. The Berlin Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer ( Linke ) had already criticized in advance that a “fair for the conspirators and aluminum hats a stage” was being offered in a publicly funded cinema.

Novels

Atzmon's first novel, A guide to the perplexed , was published in 2002 and was published in 2003 by Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag under the title Instructions for Doubting . Atzmon alluded to the title of the main work of the Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides : Leader of the Indecisive . The novel has been translated into 18 languages. The fictional action takes place in 2052 and looks back on the fall of the State of Israel in 2012. On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the end of Israel, the "German Institute for Documentation of Zion" publishes Professor Gunther Wanker's work from 2032, in which the professor reflects on the fall of Israel with great sympathy for German culture.

His second novel was My one and only love . The Edition Nautilus described the German translation as "a sharp reckoning with the Israeli culture and politics. A literary provocation! ”The novel presents the fictional biography of the trumpeter Daniel Zilberboim. The characters in the novel repeatedly express how repelled they are from everyday life in Israel: “Just take table manners. Israelis always eat with their hands and have loud conversations while their mouths overflowing with hummus. What shoud that? What kind of cultural code is that? ”.

"The wandering who?"

In 2011, published Atzmon at Zero Books The wandering who? A study of Jewish identity politics . Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer writes, "Gilad Atzmon wrote a fascinating and provocative book on Jewish identity" "that should be read by Jews and non-Jews alike." Richard Falk wrote that it was a “gripping and moving” book that “every person interested in real peace […] should not only read but also consider intensively.” James Petras described the book as “a series of brilliant and critical illuminations Reflections on Jewish ethnocentrism and the hypocrisy of those who speak of in the name of universal values ​​and act according to tribal laws ”. Atzmon exposed the connections that exist between the Jewish identity politics in the diaspora and the ardent support for the oppressive politics of the Israeli state. Atzmon has "the courage to speak the truth to the power of high-ranking and wealthy Zionists who shape the planning of war and peace in the English-speaking world."

Ten anti-Zionist authors, including Laurie Penny and Richard Seymour , who also publish with Zero Books, have criticized the publisher in a public letter for publishing the book. They signed a statement stating:

“The effect of Atzmon's work is the normalization and legitimation of anti-Semitism. We do not believe that the publisher's intentions in publishing were malicious. Atzmon has been able to enlist the support of notable figures such as Richard Falk and John Mearsheimer, which shows that he has a gift for confusing others about his own views and the issue of anti-Semitism. At a time when dangerous forces are trying to define political conflicts in racist terms, we consider the decision (of the publisher) to be a gross error. "

In The Atlantic , Jeffrey Goldberg quoted Atzmon's statements on the Holocaust, the alleged "Jewish persecution of Hitler" and the Jewish "trade in body parts". He accused Mearsheimer of "defending the writings of someone who takes sides with neo-Nazi views." Mearsheimer replied on Stephen Walt's blog that the book was undoubtedly a provocation, both by its main argument and by its very passionate ("overly hot." ") Language that Atzmon sometimes used. “But the book is also full of interesting insights that make the reader think long and hard about an important topic. Of course, I don't agree with everything that is in the book - which blurb writer does that? "

Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz thinks Atzmon is an anti-Semite and criticized Mearsheimer and Falk for recommending the book. Dershowitz cited statements in the book that portray Jews as inherently evil, want to rule the world, and pose a threat to the rest of humanity. Atzmon encourages the reader to deny the Holocaust and he quotes Atzmon's statement: "Jews are corrupt and responsible for the cause that they are hated and that Israel is worse than the Nazis." Dershowitz writes that even the most radical anti-Zionists in England have disapproved Atzmon Distances: “Hard-core neo-Nazis, racists, anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers” supported Atzmon, including David Duke , Kevin B. MacDonald and Israel Shamir . Dershowitz also criticized other academic teachers for defending Atzmon, such as Brian Leiter , William A. Cook , Oren Ben-Dor , and Makram Khoury-Machool , who challenged Mearsheimer and Falk to a public debate, which Falk rejected.

The book has now been translated into twelve languages ​​and was published in 2012 in Germany by the left-wing extremist Zambon Verlag . In the foreword to the German edition, Atzmon differentiates between Jews as people, Judaism as religion and “Jewishness”, which he does not regard as Jewish identity, but as “ideology”. The book concentrates on this third category alone - “with the intention of criticizing Jewish identity politics and contemporary Jewish ideology.” Atzmon himself believes that the severity of his criticism is justified, “because Israel is the Jewish state and Jewishness is an ethnocentric ideology, which is driven by exclusivity, exceptionalism, a feeling of racial superiority and a deeply inherent tendency towards secession. " A Jewish state is “fundamentally incapable of leading the region towards reconciliation” as long as “all traces of ideological superiority are not erased” from the Jewish identity. Atzmon's work found support in Germany in the right-wing anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist left milieu. Horst Mahler praised Atzmon's book as an “inspiring contribution” by a Jew to ending “Jewish rule over non-Jews”. Detlef Nolde, former functionary of the banned Freedom German Workers 'Party and today's cross- frontist from Jürgen Elsässer ' s circle , also refers positively to Atzmon's book. The repeatedly convicted Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck appealed to The wandering who with her theses that "the Holocaust [...] is one of the greatest lies in history" and the gas chambers of Auschwitz are "not real" . .

Works

Sound carrier (selection)

  • Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble , enja, 2000
  • Nostalgico , enja, 2001
  • Exile , enja, 2003
  • musiK , enja, 2004
  • Refuge , enja, 2008
  • In Loving Memory of America , enja, 2009
  • The Tide Has Changed , World Village (Harmonia Mundi), 2011
  • Songs of the Metropolis , World Village, 2012
  • The Whistle Blower , Fanfare Jazz, 2015
  • Gilad Atzmon / Alan Barnes The Lowest Common Denominator Woodville Records, 2017 ("Album of the Year" at the British Jazz Awards )

Fonts

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Gilad and Ariella Atzmon, in: ynetnews November 14, 2011
  2. ↑ G. Atzmon: Der wandering - Who ?, preprint ( memento of the original from March 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / othersite.org
  3. ↑ G. Atzmon, The wandering - who ?. A study of Jewish identity politics, Frankfurt, M.: Zambon 2011, p. 226
  4. ↑ John Lewis: Manic beat preacher. In: TheGuardian.com , March 6, 2009 (English).
  5. ↑ Jazz Journal Critics' Poll 2013, January 2014
  6. ↑ Martin Longley: BBC Review. A calmer-than-usual concept set from the virtuoso saxophonist. In: BBC.co.uk , 2013 (English).
  7. ↑ Gilad Atzmon: Jazz is freedom. Jazz and politics. In: Jazzzeitung , No. 2, 2005, p. 10.
  8. ↑ John Fordham : Gilad Atzmon Orient House Ensemble - review. In: TheGuardian.com , October 5, 2010 (English).
  9. ↑ jazzfestival göttingen eV press release ( memento of the original from August 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , November 2, 2011 (pdf). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jazzfestival-goettingen.de
  10. ^ K. Griffiths, Calls for musician's show to be canceled, Telegraph and Argus , November 22, 2011
  11. ^ R. Lauder, An Important Message from the Principal, Friends Seminary, Jan. 13, 2012
  12. ↑ Lincoln Anderson, This is lunacy ': Radical attorney slams protest vs. Theater 80 political panel, The villager, April 28, 2017 [1]
  13. ↑ Bill Weinberg, Mussolini in Lower Manhattan, The villager, May 17, 2017 [2]
  14. ^ Jewish News reporter, Anti-Israel author Gilad Atzmon has book launch events canceled, May 30, 2017, Jewish News Online [3]
  15. ^ Saarbrücker Zeitung: David Hellbrück specifies allegations against jazz musicians. Retrieved July 29, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Saarbrücker Zeitung, An anti-Semite at the International Jazz Festival ?, September 7, 2017 [4]
  17. ^ G. Atzmon, Was the Massacre in Norway a Reaction to Israel Boycott Campaign, BDS? Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, July 25, 2011
  18. ↑ BBC Persia & Gilad Atzmon interview, August 2, 2013 transcript
  19. ↑ G. Atzmon, The Pathology of Max Blumenthal, November 26, 2014 [5]
  20. ↑ G. Atzmon, In Case You Still Have A Drop Of Sympathy Toward Jewish Voice for Peace, July 1, 2015 [6]
  21. ↑ P. Weiss, Atzmon and Jewish identity, June 23, 2011 [7]
  22. ↑ Jewish Voice for Peace website [8]
  23. ^ Website of Jews for Jeremy [9]
  24. ↑ G. Atzmon, Goyim stay away from Jews for Jeremy, August 30, 2015
  25. ↑ Wolfgang Hübner: Contested Gala , Neues Deutschland from December 14, 2017
  26. ↑ Lee Harpin: Atzmon blames Grenfell Tower tragedy on 'Jerusalemites following mitzvot' , Jewish Chronicle of October 31, 2017
  27. ↑ Johannes C. Bockenheimer and Matthias Meisner: Querfront: Award ceremony for conspiracy theorist Ken Jebsen burst , Der Tagesspiegel of December 14, 2017
  28. ↑ a b Erik Peter: Great cinema of the absent. Award ceremony for Ken Jebsen. taz , December 15, 2017, accessed February 1, 2018 .
  29. ↑ Erik Peter: No room for Jebsen. Querfront award ceremony canceled. taz.de , November 14, 2017, accessed December 6, 2017 .
  30. ↑ G. Atzmon, A guide to the perplexed, English transl. by Philip Simpson, London: Serpent's Tail, 2002
  31. ↑ G. Atzmon, instructions for those in doubt: Roman, Munich: Dt. Paperback publ. 2003 (dtv 24368: Premium)
  32. ^ G. Atzmon, My one and only love, London: Saqi, 2005
  33. ↑ edition nautilus Online book presentation by G. Atzmon ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.edition-nautilus.de
  34. ^ G. Atzmon, My one and only love, Hamburg: Ed. Nautilus 2005, p. 109
  35. ^ G. Atzmon, The wandering who ?. A study of Jewish identity politics, Ropley: Zero Books, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84694-875-6
  36. ^ "Endorsements" of The Wandering Who from the book on Gilad Atzmon web site.
  37. ↑ a b c Why are John Mearsheimer and Richard Falk Endorsing a Blatantly Anti-Semitic Book? by Alan Dershowitz, The New Republic, November 4, 2011.
  38. ^ Zero Authors Statement on Gilad Atzmon . Lenin's tomb. September 26, 2011. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
  39. ↑ Jeffrey Goldberg, John Mearsheimer Endorses a Hitler Apologist and Holocaust Revisionist , The Atlantic , September 23, 2011.
  40. ↑ Stephen Walt, Mearsheimer responds to Goldberg's latest smear , Foreign Policy , September 26, 2011.
  41. ↑ Princeton prof turns down Dershowitz challenge , The Daily Caller , November 9, 2011.
  42. ↑ G. Atzmon, The wandering - who ?. A study of Jewish identity politics, Frankfurt M .: Zambon 2011, p. 16
  43. ↑ G. Atzmon, The wandering - who ?. A study of Jewish identity politics, Frankfurt M .: Zambon 2011, p. 224
  44. ↑ G. Atzmon, The wandering - who ?. A study of Jewish identity politics, Frankfurt M .: Zambon 2011, p. 224
  45. ↑ Michael Fischer, Horst Mahler - Biographical study on anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism and attempts by German defense against guilt, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe 2015, ISBN 978-3-7315-0388-0 , pp. 356, 522
  46. ↑ Johannes C. Bockenheimer: Imprisonment for unreasonable Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck , Der Tagesspiegel of October 16, 2017

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Atzmon, Gilad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz musician and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Jerusalem