'Auntie''s Favourites (and Unmentionables)

YEARS ago I knew two brothers from Willesden Green. Both had been in the Labour Party youth section, but whereas one, Cyril, became a Marxist, lecturing for a time at the London School of Economics (LSE), his brother Tony, down from Oxford to the BBC, was a committed Fabian.

One Budget Day a BBC crew were out on the street interviewing people near LSE when Cyril came along. Before the interviewer could step up to him with a mike, an anxious figure came zooming out from somewhere exclaiming "Not him! Not him!" It was Tony from the Beeb, ensuring brother Cyril's incendiary views were not broadcast to the nation.

That story is quite old, and may only concern two individuals, but a few years ago after the government announced it was scrapping plans for a third runway at Heathrow I watched a TV interview with MPs who had opposed airport expansion. They spoke to a Tory or two, and a Lib Dem, I think from Kingston. In the background, you could see left-wing Labour MP John McDonnell chatting to someone, maybe a constituent. Some pleasant parts of John's constituency would disappear under the concrete if the runway had gone ahead. But the interviewer never reached him. Perhaps there just wasn't time, or maybe the interviewers thought John McDonnell was still banned from airtime, as he seemed to be while he was challenging for the Labour Party leadership.

The criteria for whom the BBC invites and whom it excludes may not always be obvious, but nor are they random, or decisions left to individuals.  The individual broadcasters must learn whom or what is acceptable, and what best avoided.

Perhaps the best known case of the Corporation taking a political decision - whether or not it did so on its own - was at the beginning of 2009 when it refused to allow a charity appeal for people in Gaza. It seemed the Season of Peace and Goodwill to All had been cancelled.

  There have been less well known examples. On May 25, 1995, Yugoslav Youth Day, a Serb mortar attack on a cafe area in Tuzla killed 71, mostly young people, and injured hundreds more.  The mayor of Tuzla radioed the UN saying "Tonight we are picking up the pieces of our children".

It so happened that a man from Tuzla, parent of two, was visiting London at the time, and offered to go into the BBC studio to be interviewed. His name is Faruk Ibrahimovic and he speaks perfect English. The Beeb told him he would not be needed.  On Radio Four next morning they had their regular guests from the Serb Information Centre, messrs. Gasic and Gavrilovic, to deny that Karadzic's forces could be responsible for the slaughter of the innocents.

Earlier at the outbreak of the Bosnian war I heard a TV news announcer say that "the Muslim authorities" in a particular town were investigating a murder. For a moment, as I entered the room I wondered naively why the religious authorities were entrusted with such matters, but what I saw on TV was an ordinary Bosnian police car. Perhaps the driver was a Muslim, perhaps not. You would not expect a report on crime in London to say it was being investigated by the Anglican church authorities ( nor even , as a friend adds, the Masons!) But throughout the Bosnia war the Beeb would only refer to Bosniacs as "the Muslims". I don't think they ever got around to interviewing visiting Bosnian General Jovan Divjak (who happened to be Serb), nor diplomat Sven Alkali (a Sefardi Jew), as this would only have confused the poor listeneners and viewers.  (Though General Divjak  appeared in the BBC documentary The Death of Yugoslavia).

I think the BBC's coverage of the Bosnian conflict had been slanted to serve the dominant faction at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, for which official recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state was reluctant, and blamed on German pressure: whereas Britain's arms embargo (cf it's 'non-intervention' policy re Spain), and belief in partition (these foreigners only want to kill one another) went with an inclination to support traditional allies, the nationalist Serbs. However it was only some time later that Dame (now Baroness) Pauline Neville-Jones, who had been Lord Hurd's chief of the Joint Intelligence Committee, became a BBC governor.      

On November 2, 2005, the BBC TV London news had a report on the Skies Are Weeping concert, dedicated to American campaigner Rachel Corrie, killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza. The concert, for which Rachel's mother had flown over, had taken place at the Hackney Empire the night before. It was the world premiere of a cantata dedicated to Rachel Corrie by American composer Philip Munger.

 Having given the event no previous publicity, the Beeb's coverage focused on its "controversial" nature, featuring a small Zionist demonstration outside, and giving the last word to the demonstration's organiser Jonathan Hoffman. I wondered why the reporters had not interviewed the concert's organiser and soprano Deborah Fink, who could have told them that there were far more Jewish people like herself enjoying and participating in the concert, and more Jewish people among the celebrity sponsors, than Mr.Hoffman's sorry bunch, which included Kahanists and Christian Zionists, outside. It turned they had interviewed Deborah, who explained to them what it was about and why Jewish people were involved along with Palestinians and others. But someone must have decided that this was all too much to take in, and so Deborah Fink was simply edited out, and became an unperson, while not for the last time, Jonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation became a star. On February 16, 2006 the BBC sent Deborah an apology, admitting they had given a misleading impression. It was not the last time they had to apologise for news items in which Mr.Hoffman has appeared.

Still I suppose the BBC's belated and inadequate coverage of the Skies Are Weeping concert compares favourably with its two year blackout on the Liverpool docks strike and lockout, only lifted by Robbie Fowler revealing a dockers' support tee shirt to the cameras on Match of the Day.   

University lecturer and East End councillor Rania Hafez recently found herself invited to discuss women's rights and Islam on BBC One with none other than Tommy Robinson, alias Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, of the English Defence League. Amenable though she might be to civilised discussion, Ms. Hafez decided that the ex-BNP founder of the EDL was not someone suitable with whom she wished to have a friendly chat, nor would she lend herself to BBC programme makers' pretence that he was.


To Yaxley Lennon and Nick Griffin, we must add another offensive personality for whom the BBC seems to have a soft spot lately, and that is the Israeli musician Gilead Atzmon. Now if the BBC wants to broadcast him on sax with his Orient House ensemble or whatever I've no objection. He is entitled to pursue his profession, and his music has given a lot of people pleasure. He only becomes  objectionable when he takes the saxophone out of his mouth.

But the BBC's Persian service, for instance, seems to have decided lately that its Iranian audience could not get enough of Atzmon on the Iranian government-sponsored Press TV, and they must have more of him assuring listeners he is not an antisemite before explaining his antipathy towards "Jewish identity" and other sins on the BBC.


If the BBC wanted to find an Israeli dissident to interview, there is no shortage to hand these days. There's Professor Ilan Pappe, author of 'The Ethic Cleansing of Palestine' , who is at Exeter, and Iraqi-born Avi Shlaim at Oxford. Miri Weingarten, of Physicians for Human Rights is here in London, as is journalist Rachel Shabi.  Moshe Machover, a founder of the left-wing group Matzpen is a professor emeritus of Queen Mary's College, and in touch with left-wing Iranians through his activity in Hands Off the People of Iran (HOPI), which supports workers resisting the Islamic regime and opposes war and sanctions. Such people and their views might be of interest to the Iranian audience, even if they are not good sax players.

But unlike Atzmon, they have not taken sides with Holocaust deniers, hinted that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion might contain some truth, or spent their time denouncing the motives of Jews who are on the Left and involved in pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist campaigns. All of which makes me wonder what are the motives of the BBC in providing a platform for Atzmon?

Still, I see his latest interview is on You Tube, and being touted around as "superb" by David Icke's supporters. So maybe Icke too will soon be on the Beeb,  expounding his view that the Royal Family are descended from reptiles. At least that should be more entertaining than Atzmon. 

        

Two little victories, and one backstabbing

I'VE known Tony Greenstein for more than 25 years. Back in 1981 when it was rare to come across a Jewish name on a letter criticising Israel and Zionism, I noticed his, and we corresponded for a time. I found we disagreed on the PLO and Yasser Arafat's willingness to accept a state alongside Israel, which I supported as a step that could lead to a peaceful solution, whereas Tony suspected it would prove the formula for a sell-out. In 1982, we both campaigned against Israel's invasion of Lebanon, but soon parted when Tony took part in a walk-out from the Labour Committee on Palestine which he had helped found, while I was elected to its committee.

The breakaway with which Tony was linked was inclined to support a rejectionist Salvation Front that challenged Arafat's leadership, and was outspokenly anti-Zionist. That the two committees were also tied to different factions in the British Left only intensified the bitterness and suspicions accompanying our differences. We can still argue. I am a member of the Jewish Socialists' Group, Tony founded the more specifically oriented Jews Against Zionism.

Our approaches differ. But back in the 1980s both Tony and me took blows from Zionist thugs, not content with libelling us in their hate lists, and over the years whatever our differences, we have remained essentially on the same side, against Zionist oppression, for Palestinian rights, and against antisemitism and all forms of racism. We were both in the Socialist Alliance, too, and opposed to its liquidation by the SWP and allies for their ill-fated venture into Respect.

So I was naturally pleased to see a couple of victories scored by Tony Greenstein and his comrades in Brighton towards the end of last year, and count them for our side. First, came in the form of an apology from ex-Communist Party moderniser turned Murdoch 'Times' columnist David Aaronovitch, for retailing, along with some psychobabble about Jewish anti-Zionists not liking their parents, a claim by one "Mikey", said to be a Michael Ezra, that Tony Greenstein had been bullying Jewish students for thirty years. Anybody who knows Tony Greenstein, brave perhaps but not exactly a towering "shtarke", and knows Jewish students, might have found the accusation ludicrous. But Tony was not amused, and sought redress.

Since Aaronovitch moderates comment on his own blog, he had to take responsibility for what was on it. And in November he issued this apology:

At the beginning of July, an item was posted on my weblog which stated that Tony Greenstein had been "intimidating" or "harassing Jews’ at NUS conferences for 30 years. Tony Greenstein believed that this accused him of committing an offence of incitement to racial hatred under s.3A of the Race Relations Act 1976 and that it also implied that he is anti-Semitic.
While Tony Greenstein and I have had our differences, notably at NUS conferences, neither I nor The Times meant to suggest that he has been breaking the law for thirty years or that he is anti-Semitic. Our apologies for any embarrassment caused.

By way of recompense, Tony requested that Times newspapers paid an appropriate sum to the Friends of Bir Zeit University. Quite a satisfactory outcome then.

Secondly, the Independent Police Complaints Commission has upheld two complaints against Chief Superintendent Kevin Moore, Divisional Commander of Brighton Police, over the handling of a demonstration about the Lebanon war in Brighton in August 2006. The IPCC rebuked Moore for trying to justify the heavy police presence (outnumbering demonstrators) and behaviour by branding the peace and solidarity campaigners as "antisemitic' and accusing them of trying to "provoke" incidents.

Pointing out that many Jewish people like himself took part in the march, Tony has called for a formal apology from the Sussex police. He is also bringing a separate legal action against the police for assault and battery.

One doesn't have to be Tony Greenstein's greatest fan - and I'm certainly not - to be pleased about these victories. They are gains for all of us who are fighting for justice and peace for the Palestinian people, against Zionist propaganda, and against media lies and police repression.

But Tony has made other enemies besides the obvious ones. He has dared to expose the real antisemitism being purveyed behind the pretensions of Gilad Atzmon, his master Israel Shamir(who doubles as a Swedish antisemite), and ally Paul Eisen (who turned aside from his supposed aim of promoting the memory of Deir Yassin, to champion the Nazi holocaust denier Ernst Zundel). Whatever really motivates these characters, Tony believes quite reasonably that they are a godsend to the Zionists, and that the Palestinian solidarity movement is well-advised to steer clear of them.

This has brought attacks on him and left-wing Jews generally from Atzmon. (I don't question the Israeli's talents as a musician but I have my doubts as to whether he writes all his own material), But perhaps more worryingly this is being followed up by, among others, a Mr.Paul de Rooij, on the website of Cork PSC, of all places, though Mr.de Rooij apparently lives in London. In reply to a complaint by Tony he has written that he has "difficulty distinguishing your actions from those of Engage. Furthermore, lately I only hear about you when you are railing about 'anti-Semitism', but seldom hear anything dealing with Palestinian solidarity. ", going on to explain that Zionists have exploited antisemitism and the Holocaust, and suggest that Tony "turn your attention to those who have wrapped themselves in the flag of the holocaust...", claiming he can find no such articles.

I know that Tony Greenstein has not only been active on Palestine for many years, but has written extensively on Zionist collaboration, as well as abuse, of the Holocaust, and long before messrs. Atzmon and Eisen appeared on the scene. If Paul de Rooij is genuinely unaware of this then rather than proclaim his own ignorance as the last word he needs to get out a bit more, do some proper research, and learn from those who know what they are talking about. Instead he tells Tony "I think you and your friends owe GiladA, PaulE, MaryR an apology".

That last is Mary Rizzi, whose website "Peace Palestine" features pictures of Tony Greenstein and three other individuals, with quite different politics, and in case its readers wonders what they have in common, has the simple label "JEW" on each of them. Now that's what I prefer, someone who does not beat about the bush with pretentious pseudo-intellectual arguments, but gets right down to business. That way we know where we are.

Can Flying Saucers from Hollow Earth rescue Ernst Zundel?

ZUNDEL and the boys. in Canada.

Alas, he's now under a different sort of guard. Maybe he'd have been safer sticking to his earlier racket (above).

LOOKING round the world there are more than enough deserving causes to claim our attention - refugees, the homeless, the poor and hungry, the victims of racism, and the kids blown up by cluster bombs.

But real sophisticates will seek out the less obvious - say Slobodan Milosevic, or the Moors Murderers, -and some hearts will even bleed for Ernst Zundel, whom a court in Mannheim, Germany, has jailed for five years on 14 charges of inciting race hatred and denying the Nazi genocide which killed six million Jews.

Zundel's wife Ingrid and supporters are already promising a protest, saying "Is this how Germany treats Holocaust researchers? Join us for an historic demonstration in front of the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. protesting Ernst Zundel's shameful incarceration!Date: May 7, 2007 Time: 11 a.m to 1 p.m. Bring some friends!" http://www.zundelsite.org/

I like that innocuous description - not Holocaust deniers, or even "revisionists", but merely "Holocaust researchers"! Dammit, the man has only just been jailed and already his comrades are showing weakness by adopting bland liberal expressions. What kind of Master Race is this? What happened to "No remorse!"?

Zundel, 67, born in Germany, moved to Canada in 1958, apparently to get out of national service. I guess a man of his calibre must have felt he had better ways to serve the Fatherland than square-bashing in the Bundeswehr, with all that "democratic" nonsense, and talk of the "New Germany". His was the Old one. He wrote a book "The Hitler We Loved and Why" and became a worldwide distributor of Nazi literature, also publishing "Did Six Million Really Die", by the British National Front member Richard Verral. A court case in Canada found that this contained falsehoods and fabrications, but did not breach then existing law.

In 2000, after unsuccessful applications for Canadian citizenship, Zundel moved to Tennessee, where he married his third wife, Ingrid Rimland. It was a marriage of true soulfellows. Rimland has written two novels, Lebensraum, about Ukrainian Germans who "fight to preserve their own race", and The Wanderers, depicting the Nazi invaders of the Soviet Union as liberators.

The FBI gave Zundel a clean bill of health, but in 2003, he was arrested over visa problems, and sent back to Canda. In Toronto he was detained, accused of being a danger to Canadian citizens because of his Nazi links, and deported to Germany in 2005.

On trial in Germany, Zundel demanded a commission to investigate Auschwitz, claimed the law used against him was unconstitutional, and like others before him fell back on his right to "free speech". The court were not impressed.

Herr Zundel has not always been so keen on freedom from censorship. In 1980 he complained bitterly that Canadian and US authorities were not doing anything to ban the Holocaust mini-series on TV, which according to him incited hatred of Christian Germans, Ukrainians and others and did so to justify Zionist crimes.

"By stopping the Zionist 'six million' swindle, we can also stop the spread of Zionist tyranny and terror throughout the world. The following authorities in Canada, however, have not seen fit to enforce the law by stopping the "Holocaust" hate message: Prime Minister Clark... The same dereliction of duty has occurred with the counterparts of these authorities in the United States. It is therefor [sic] on behalf of Truth, Freedom and Justice that I offer my services on this most important subject of the past, present and future. I also offer books and publications about the "Holocaust" hoax. Help us now, before the lies of the past strangle our future. To be informed is not a privilege; it is a duty. Help us before it is too late by contacting me, Ernst Zundel, Spokesman for Concerned Parents of German Descent, 206 Carlton St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5A 2L1. Tel, (416) 922-9850. Your kind donations will help defray the enormous expenses of our Campaign for Truth, Freedom and Justice!"

In 1994 he produced a leaflet demanding that the authorities should ban the film Schindler's List. You may think Spielberg's film, based on Thomas Kennealy's book, shows how one German found it possible to rescue people from slaughter, but according to Zundel not only did Spielberg exaggerate the death and suffering in Auschwitz but: "The movie generates hatred against Germans, and it should be possible to ban it under 'hate laws' in Canada, Germany, and other countries. Photocopy and distribute this, and join the worldwide campaign to BAN SCHINDLER'S LIST!
Information: Ernst Zuendel at Samisdat Pub., 206 Carlton St., Toronto, Ontario..."

http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/z/zundel-ernst/

Before he decided to concentrate on disproving the facts of Nazi genocide, Ernst Zundel had made his name and reputation trying to establish a quite fascinating explanation of other phenomena. Ever resentful and suspicious of "Jewish" science like that of Einstein, and of the modern world in general, the Nazis were easy suckers for "alternative" theories about the world, the universe and everything. The Cosmic Ice theory had the stars and planets composed of ice, another had human beings arising in far northern climes (chilly, but,much more confortable for racialists than an African genesis).

Then there were Hollow Earth theories. One had us living on the inner surface of a hollow sphere. The story goes that Hitler dispatched a team of scientists to the Baltic island of Rugen (why there I don't know, though it is noted for tales of underground-dwelling dwarfs) to set up a powerful telescope and photograph the British fleet across on the other side of the hollow world.

A more modest theory, first put forward by a Captain John Cleves Symmes in the United States in 1818 said there was an inner earth, with openings at the poles. Captain Symmes appealed for a hundred "brave companions" to join him on an expedition to find the northern polar opening - which became known as "Symmes' Hole". He appealed to Congress for funding for the expedition, without success. http://www.unmuseum.org/hollow.htm But others eventually set out, and in 1926, Admiral Byrd reported that he had flown over the North Pole, following up three years later with a flight over the South Pole. No holes were spotted, either end.

It takes more than that to deter a Zundel. Marrying the Hollow Earth idea with the 1950s fascination with Unidentified Flying Objects, he spread the view that flying saucers were really developed by Nazi scientists and were issuing from the holes beneath which the new Reich was set up in the Hollow Earth.

" Our discoveries have led us into the production of a number of currently suppressed and sometimes vilified books which are now underground bestsellers. 'UFOs--NAZI SECRET WEAPON?' was our first title, now sold out in 5 complete editions. Our second book, 'SECRET NAZI POLAR EXPEDITIONS', is coming up fast and has sold out 2 full editions. Foreign language translations of these books are selling briskly, and it is becoming obvious to everyone that the media-enforced blockade of the truth has now been broken. Three additional books are currently under production and these will round out our Phase I Publishing Program: 'THE CIA-KGB-UFO COVERUP', 'THE ANTARCTICA THEORY' and 'THE LAST BATTALION'.

Besides the books, you could order an official UFO spotter's card, and for the children there was a working model UFO at $6.95 plus postage, or a flying saucer frisbee at $3.70. But if you were really serious, and had enough money, Zundel - or "Christof Friedrich" - appealing for funds to help his research, proposed to charter a South African plane which might fly from Rio or Buenos Aires and land a swastika flag on some glacier, reclaiming what he said was German territory - New Swabia - while seeking the hole leading to an underground world. Zundel promised this "Antarctic Expedition in Search of Hitler's Flying Saucer Bases and the South Polar Opening into Inner Earth will be the unique event of a lifetime", and they would drink champagne on the plane to celebrate.

Thwarted no doubt by the hidden forces, the search for Hitler's Hole never took off, but as Zundel says " I was young, rich and adventurous then - and we were all roaring to go. I had lots of fun and did up to three and four talk shows a week on that "Nazi-Antarctic-UFO-Find-the Führer's Bases" story".

According to Frank Miele's article "Giving the Devil His Due," in the Skeptic,

"In a later phone conversation, Zündel told me that the UFO book was in fact a ploy. 'I realized that North Americans were not interested in being educated. They want to be entertained. The book was for fun. With a picture of the Führer on the cover and flying saucers coming out of Antarctica it was a chance to get on radio and TV talk shows. For about 15 minutes of an hour program I'd talk about that esoteric stuff. Then I would start talking about all those Jewish scientists in concentration camps, working on these secret weapons. And that was my chance to talk about what I wanted to talk about." '

It seems a pity that Zundel had to turn from seeking the Hole to denying the Holocaust, or as he puts it "I was forced by Germany's enemies to tackle the hoary and fraudulent 'Holocaust' claims". (Zundelsite).

But he has gained some devoted admirers:

"Unlike most Holocaust revisionists (rather an austere, academic lot), Zundel is a hands-on activist – a gentle, good-humored man, kind and honest and with those qualities often found in the strangest places: a fine mind and a good heart."

This writer was surprised that "Despite an impressive defense from heavyweights such as Robert Faurisson, Marc Weber and David Irving who, having just read the Leuchter report, took the opportunity of the trial to proclaim his conversion to Holocaust revisionism, Zundel was again found guilty and sentenced…."

The writer in question, Paul Eisen, was impressed with Zundel's book
"Ernst Zundel was once involved in the publication of a book called The Hitler We Loved and Why, but Ernst Zundel was not the only German who loved Hitler and is probably not the only German who still loves Hitler. Millions of Germans loved Hitler who for twelve years impacted on them as no German has or probably ever will, and, though they never say so, must, deep down still cherish his memory."

This Eisen was appointed by US Professor Daniel McGowan as UK director of Deir Yassin Remembered(DYR). The idea of honouring the memory of that martyred Palestinian village, scene of a notorious massacre by Zionist forces in April 1948, seemed, and is, a worthy project. None of us had heard of Eisen, let alone knew of his views. DYR gained wide support and enthusiasm, and was able to stage a major successful event, but Eisen's musings in the JustPeace UK discussion list increasingly revealed another agenda. Though he empathises with Germans supposedly made to feel collective shame for Hitlerism, he had no problem accusing Jews of collective guilt for crimes going back to the Crucifixion.

Deir Yassin Remembered appeared more like Deir Yassin Forgotten, as Eisen denounced the very people who had been prepared to work with him, ascribing their wickedness to an inescapable "Jewish essence". But if we naively thought Paul Eisen had just strayed off on some unfortunate personal quest, we were put right when we found that one Israel Shamir, aka Swedish antisemite Joran Jermas, a Russian-born writer with curious view on blood libel, remains among DYR's advisers.

Nazis have often tried to infiltrate pro-Palestinian causes, and it suits the Zionist propaganda machine that they should be seen as succeeding. Where Shamir's role might fit such intrigue is open to conjecture. David Irving once backed off a deal whereby the ex-BBC Russian service writer tried to sell him a large selection of Nazi documents. Lord Ahmed failed to get out of an invitation to Shamir to the House of Lords, then found it used against him in the press a month later.

Shamir's website recently featured A Visit in Prison with Ernst Zuendel
By Prof Daniel McGowan. Shamir proclaims Zundel a "prisoner of Zion", and says visiting him was a mitzvah, a great good deed. McGowan doesn't hide behind mere concern for human rights, but praises Zundel's "courage" and "efforts to tell the truth about the Holocaust". In a footnote he suggests the American Civil Liberties Union would not not support Zundel because it looks after "Jewish interests". http://www.israelshamir.net/Contributors/Contributor44.htm

Zundel's friends and admirers have not so far paid great attention to his work on Hollow Earth and UFOs from Antarctica, which seems a pity. If the flying saucers can't be got to rescue him, at least Professor McGowan and Paul Eisen could renew the captive's dream by launching an expedition to discover Hitler's Hole and reclaim the lost Aryan Shangri La, the land hidden by the polar ice, New Swabia. If global warming continues it might soon be revealed, anyway.

I've got just the hero to lead the intrepid expedition, a bold figure who has loyally helped spread Eisen's gospel and kept in touch with Israel Shamir too.

That's if he can cancel some of his forthcoming saxophone gigs.

And Deir Yassin, like other sites of mass murder, might yet be properly remembered.

A Maccabee puts Meaning back in Christmas!

AT this time, when Tory newspapers are trying to make the Season of Goodwill a time for yet more hatred, by claiming that "They" (anti-racists, lefties and non-Christian minorities) are threatening "Our" Christmas; poor people are desperately trying to keep up with the exhortations to spend, spend, spend; the homeless are still seeking room at the Inn; and the casualty wards are gearing up for their busiest time....

Let us praise some people who are not only putting meaning back in Christmas by seeking Peace on Earth, but drawing attention to what is happening right now in the place where it is all supposed to have started.

You may not see them on television, but you might have heard them beneath the tree in London's Trafalgar Square some years back, and more recently around the statue of Edith Cavell. Tomorrow evening, December 21, you can catch them at Euston Station, singing what sounds at first like traditional carols, but with a difference. For instance....

O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL
O come all ye faithful,
All who care for justice,
O look ye, O look ye at Bethlehem.
Come and behold it
Under occupation.
O come, let's not ignore it,
O come, let's not ignore it,
O come, let's not ignore it,
Tell the world.

Sing, all ye people,
Sing in indignation,
Be with the citizens of Bethlehem.
Sing out for justice,
Freedom from oppression.
O come, let's not ignore it,
O come, let's not ignore it,
O come, let's not ignore it,
Tell the world.

ONCE IN ROYAL DAVID'S CITY
Once in royal David's city
Stood a big apartheid wall;
People entering and leaving
Had to pass a checkpoint hall.
Bethlehem was strangulated,
And her children segregated.
Though this city is a symbol
To the world of peace and love,
Concrete walls have closed around her,
Settlements expand above.
And apartheid Israel stands
All around on stolen lands.
David's people once instructed
All the world in righteousness;
Once they spoke of truth and justice;
Now they ravage and oppress.
Nations, look at Bethlehem
And speak out the truth to them.

HARK, THE HERALD ANGELS SING
Hark, the herald angels sing,
"Look what's really happening,
While you sing of peace on earth,
Eat and drink with festive mirth.
Nations, open up your eyes,
Stop the silence and the lies,
And throughout the world proclaim:
There's a Wall round Bethlehem!"

Hark the herald angels sing:
"Look what's really happening!"
Symbol of our lack of peace,
Symbol that our woes increase,
Symbol of the hate and fear
Filling places far and near.
If peace comes to Bethlehem,
It will radiate to them;
Nations, join with us to call
For the downfall of the Wall!
Hark the herald angels sing:
"Look what's really happening!"(repeat first verse)

The singers at Euston will include members of Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Jews for Justice for Palestinians (Opera singer Debbie Fink should be in fine voice), but the honours for initiating this fine new tradition belong to another mainly Jewish group, Just Peace UK, and particularly to amateur song-writer Deborah Maccoby, who penned these carols. I hope Deborah won't mind me giving her this publicity.

The Zionists have already been trying to get Deborah victimised from her job, and those upholders of cultural freedom at "Engage" get enraged all year round about these "Christmas carols"; but one other person has launched a bitter attack on Deborah Maccoby, after she dared to criticise him (blasphemy!).

More Balmy Gilead

Israeli sax player and self-appointed scourge of left-wing Jews Gilead Atzmon uses the online magazine Palestine Chronicle this week not to attack what Israeli forces are doing in Bethlehem, or proclaim goodwill to all men and women campaigning for peace with justice, but to denounce Deborah, whom he calls "professional goy critic Maccoby". It seems that, replying to his earlier attack in "The Protocols of the Elders of London", she took issue with his treatment of Jews as Christ-killers. Atzmon says:-

"Again the question I would like to raise is how come a Jew like yourself is so concerned with the association with Christ killers. Why Italians aren't that concerned with very similar accusations? At the end of the day, it was their Roman ancestors who made the crime. The reason is simple. While Italians developed an ethical thinking, your resemblance to the murderous great priest is shockingly apparent. It is something you try to push under the carpet. You know so well that you are a modern day Christ killer".

Maybe if there was a history of pogroms in which priest-led mobs inflamed by the Christ passion and too much vodka descended on Italian communities, burning homes and murdering entire families, then people of Italian origin would get a little sensitive now and then about the crucifixion story, and scholars would even spend time trying to prove the Romans were innocent.

But Atzmon, perhaps still a bit hazy about religion in his new milieu as he is about history, warms to the idea that Jews like Mark Elf and Deborah Maccoby who have criticised him or replied to his attacks are really attacking Christianity. "Living in London surrounded by Christmas decorations and millions of Christmas shoppers must make some tribal secular Jewish activists feel alienated. While the religious Jews have Hanukah, a Jewish alternative holiday of lights, the Tribal secular Jew has no collective bond rather than anxiety. At Christmastime Elf and Maccoby are apparently threatened by Christ the ordinary human being (rather than a Son of God). I can't wait and see what kind of fears they may bring up at Easter".
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/

I've no doubt some of the friends who were trying my home-made latkes at the Jewish Socialists' Group secular Hanukah party last weekend (the theme was anti-occupation. Oh there we go, stealing what Atzmon think is solely religious property!) will also be singing Deborah Maccoby's alternative carols tomorrow night. When the event was held in Trafalgar Square first time (with PLO envoy Afif Safieh and family as guests of honour) there were not just singers but several musicians with an odd but pleasing array of instruments.

Had we not got to know his views I expect people would have happily welcomed a certain accomplished saxophone player. As it is, detecting a certain identity wish in his Palestine Chronicle article, I might turn up with my hammer and nails if I thought Gilead Atzmon was coming.

Bum notes from a disoriented saxophonist and his friends

GILAD Atzmon is a brilliant musician. I first heard him live at the Conway Hall in Holborn, central London, not the poshest of venues, but he was performing at a benefit for the Vanunu campaign before rushing off to play in concert at the Festival Hall. I enjoyed his virtuoso sax performance, and fusion of jazz and Middle Eastern music, and I admired his dedication in finding time for a fund-raiser before his professional work that night.

I appreciated his gesture in calling his ensemble "Orient House". This building in Jerusalem housed the offices of the late Feisal Husseini, a Palestinian leader of some stature whose presence in the capital, centralising political and cultural work and archives, and greeting visitors (including on one occasion me) was an ongoing irritant to the Israeli occupiers. In 2001 they seized the premises, and Feisal Husseini died that year.

I was less amused when Atzmon at a fundraising gig threw in a gag about Jews not working. Maybe the people in the audience who tittered thought they were hearing irony, since most of those working to make the benefit a success happened to be Jews. But I felt tempted to heckle Atzmon by shouting "Shut up Yidele, and play us another tune!"

Feisal Huseini, son of a guerrilla leader and scion of an ancient family, was respected by even opponents and enemies as a diplomat and statesman. I don't know whether he ever tried his hand as a musician. But unfortunately, Gilad Atzman fancies himself as a thinker and political figure, and believe me, the man fronting this Orient House is no Feisal Husseini.

Anyone who has ever criticised the Israeli state or expressed support for the rights of the Palestinians will have come up against the Zionist lobbyists -sometimes themselves guilt-tripping gentiles and antisemites - who falsely identify Israel - a state, forcibly occupying land taken from Palestinians, and Zionism - the political movement that established it - with the Jewish people and religion. Hence any opposition to it is declared "antisemitic", as though any people other than Palestinians would willingly relinquish their rights and land were it not for this irrational prejudice!

Members of both the European and British parliaments have been persuaded perhaps unthinkingly to swallow the line that Zionism is but Jewish "self-determination" (not a right which the Palestinians were considered to merit).
Thus, I suppose, James Arthur Balfour, whose Aliens Act a century ago was aimed at keeping Jews out of Britain is considered a friend, since he followed up with his Declaration favouring a Jewish "national home" in Palestine in 1917. Jews who preferred to relinquish this right and stay or go elsewhere were traitors, like those Soviet Jews who had to be herded on to a plane at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport some years ago and taken to Israel whether they liked it or not, -some "self-determination", eh?! But if I raise that, or any other criticism of Israeli policy and Zionism, I must be a "self-hater", you see.

Being only human, Palestinians who have lost their loved ones in Israeli massacres, or seen their homes and farms destroyed, might not always express their bitterness in politically correct terms. But the Palestinian national movement has long made clear that its struggle is against a regime and ideology, not a people or religion. Only too aware of the strength of the organised Zionist Lobby here and more especially in the United States, the Palestinian movement and its supporters have analysed it factually, rather than falling for fantastic conspiracy theories about the 'Elders of Zion'. Right-wingers who have tried to use Israel's crimes as their opportunity to make antisemitism, and racism in general,respectable, have been denied openings in genuine solidarity movements. Jews on the other hand have been made welcome.

All this is frustrating, not just for neo-Nazis but for Israel's propagandists, and Zionist leaders, who are forever looking for ways to smear those supporting the Palestinians, and to shore up the invisible ghetto walls keeping their flock in order with suspicion, fear and denunciations of the "traitors" who dissent. If need be, the Mossad would hire some provocateurs to attack Jews, infiltrate pro-Palestinian movements in order to drag them into disrepute (something like this was apparently attempted in the United States using ex-cops); perhaps even use disturbed individuals to play the "self-hate" game, create confusion and stir animosity between potential allies.

Being neither privy to Mossad secrets nor prone to conspiracy theory myself, I don't say any of this is happening. I do say it is an objective set of circumstances against which people should be on their guard. And now, back to Gilad Atzmon. Some while ago he attacked various Jewish people active for a just peace (some of whom have also found themselves on Zionist hate lists) in a piece charmingly called Protocols of the Elders of North London. Having now helped circulate the letter below, I am honoured to join them.

I don't think Atzmon is any kind of "agent". He may be perfectly sincere.
From what friends have told me and what I have observed he is the kind of personality, more common among small children, that delights in upsetting people with what he thinks is clever, and takes reproach as encouragement to do it all the more.

That might suggest we should not give him so much attention. After all, whatever the outrageous views he expresses, they don't interfere with his sax playing. But they should give pause to thought to anyone considering him for anything more.

An open letter from the Jewish Socialists' Group to Scottish Palestine Solidarity

OPEN LETTER TO SCOTTISH PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

Dear Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign,

The terrible situation of the Palestinians today,especially in Gaza, demands the broadest possible unity by those who wish to challenge oppression, racism and human rights abuses. Those who disrupt that unity, or make pro-Palestinian activity vulnerable to charges of antisemitism cannot be friends of the Palestinian people. Against this background, the Jewish Socialists’ Group strongly oppose Scottish PSC’s invitation to Gilad Atzmon to speak and perform on November 22 at an event called “Zionist Control”.

Apart from the SWP, which has inexplicably invited Atzmon to its annual Marxism events, and to a book launch at its Bookmarks shop (which was picketed by “Jews Against Zionism and other anti-racists), Atzmon is shunned by other progressive, pro-Palestinian organisations. They completely reject his statements - regurgitating world Jewish conspiracy theories and diminishing the crimes of Nazism - which have been widely denounced as antisemitic. Atzmon’s outbursts have been a gift to Zionist journalists, providing them with an opportunity to discredit and smear those who support Palestinian rights and justice for the Palestinian people.

If you are not familiar with the views of the person you have invited, here are some examples from his article "On antisemitism" December 2003 on his own website (www.gilad.co.uk) and reprinted in Al-Jazeerah:

"We must begin to take the accusation that the Jewish people are trying to control the world very seriously…American Jewry makes any debate on whether the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' are an authentic document or rather a forgery irrelevant. American Jews do try to control the world, by proxy."

“Israel's behaviour throws some light on the persecution of Jews throughout history."

In 2005 Atzmon approvingly distributed Paul Eisen’s essay “Holocaust Wars” which the Socialist Unity website described as “a full-blooded exposition of Holocaust denial material and a tribute to notorious neo-Nazi Ernst Zundel.”
Atzmon said he had only“slight differences” with Eisen’s article.

In 2006 he wrote an article called “Beyond comparison”for Al-Jazeerah (August 12) about Israel and Nazism:

“Nazis were indeed proper expansionists, they were trying to take towns and land intact…unlike the Nazis who had respect for other national movements including Zionism, Israel has zero respect for anyone including its next door neighbours. The Israeli behavior should be realised as the ultimate vulgar biblical barbarism on the verge of cannibalism.

“While Nazism was a nationalist expansionist movement with extensive yet limited ambitions, the Jewish State and its Zionist lobbies are trying to revive the spirit of a global crusade in the name of a bizarre religious war.

“It is about time to … say it all loudly... We have to admit that Israel is the ultimate evil rather than Nazi Germany”.

Since the early 1980s the Jewish Socialists’ Group has worked closely with Palestinian organisations and solidarity campaigns and more recently with Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Just Peace UK and European Jews for a Just Peace in the struggle against occupation and for equality and self-determination forPalestinians. We have challenged Jewish communal “leaders” when they denounce opponents of Israel as antisemitic and Jewish opponents of Zionism as“self-haters”

At the same time we remain vigilant about antisemitism and other forms of racism. We agree entirely with the view of Britain’s former PLO representative, Afif Safieh, who frequently told pro-Palestinian demonstrations and meetings that antisemitism was an enemy of the Palestinians as well as the Jews. As Jewish socialists and outspoken opponents of Zionism, racism and fascism, we cannot understand how it benefits the Palestinian struggle to invite and promote an individual who speaks as Atzmon does, regardless of his origins.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has long had a clause in its aims to oppose antisemitism and all forms of racism. We cannot understand why SPSC seem intent on exposing the pro-Palestinian movement to charges of antisemitism.

We appeal to Scottish PSC to rescind the invitation and we appeal to Palestinian organisations and solidarity organisations to make their views on this known to Scottish PSC.

Yours,
David Rosenberg
(on behalf of the National Committee of the Jewish Socialists’ Group)

JSG BM3725 London WC1N 3XX

----------------------------

BY way of a PS: Last night I rather jumped the gun and forwarded a copy of this letter to various people and organisations, not realising it had not yet been signed and officially gone out. I received some messages of agreement and support, which I have passed on to Dave Rosenberg. But thanks to a kind soul who sent Atzmon a copy, I have had e-mails today from the man himself, thanking me for the publicity (he's welcome) but also enclosing comments by two loyal supporters. One, Paul Eisen (see above) says Pottins is "stupid and racist". Well, I plead guilty to the first, because when I heard that Eisen was campaigning for a Deir Yassin memorial, I invited him to speak at a Jewish Socialists' Group meeting so we could give support. It was not till some time later that, observing his politico-religious evolution, I realised "Deir Yassin Remembered" risked becoming Deir Yassin Forgotten, if it was left to people like him.

The second message is from Israel Shamir, who some while ago announced his conversion to Orthodox Christianity, and apparently with the enthusiasm of a new convert to some rather old-fashioned views on the ingrediants of Passover matzo. He now says "Gentlemen,
my support and respect goes to our wonderful Gilad Atzmon and Paul Eisen. Socialists have no need for Jewish separateness. Moreover, this Pottin anyway does not observe mitzvoth and thus only pretends being Jewish.
Israel Shamir".

It's always nice to be told what Socialists need, even by a man who has reportedly popped up under another name as a Swedish antisemite, tried to flog hooky Nazi documents to David Irving, and written for a right-wing nationalist Russian magazine. I can only marvel at Shamir's intelligence sources, who must have reported to him that I eat eggs and bacon, haven't donned tefillin since my Bar Mitzvah, and am indeed an epikoros. So, my fame, or infamy has reached Jaffa, or Stockholm (and there was Gilad Atzmon saying "no one has heard of you"!) I will leave it to others to decide whose sins are worse, and which of us is a pretender.
But I can assure messrs. Shamir, Atzmon and Eisen, the Holy Trinity, that neither I nor the Jewish Socialists' Group is "separate" from the wider labour, socialist and solidarity movements, in which we will make our views felt.