Talk:Gilad Atzmon/Politics draft

Politics
Atzmon describes himself as a political artist. He has said that his band, the Orient House Ensemble, plays music for the Palestinian cause. After Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the prime minister of Turkey, cited Atzmon during a debate with Israeli president Shimon Peres, music critic John Lewis wrote in The Guardian: "It is Atzmon's blunt anti-Zionism rather than his music that has given him an international profile, particularly in the Arab world, where his essays are widely read."

Atzmon has disseminated his political views through his performances, speaking engagements and publications like CounterPunch, Al Jazeera , Uruknet , Middle East Online and Dissident Voice. Many of his published papers are available on his personal website. He is a co-founder of and contributor to the web site Palestine Think Tank.

Atzmon has been described as an anti-Zionist. Atzmon attributes his opposition to Israel to his military service during the 1982 Lebanon War: "Watching my people destroying other people left a big scar. That was when I realised I was completely deluded about Zionism." He compares Israeli actions to that of the Nazis and has described Israel's policy toward the Palestinians as genocide. He believes Israel's actions are a "danger to world peace” and “sow hatred throughout the world.”

Atzmon says that he does not attack Jews or Judaism but Zionism and what he calls “Jewishness” which he say is "very much a supremacist, racist tendency." He blames “Jewish ideology” for Israel’s “brutality” against the Palestinians and says “I think Jewish ideology is driving our planet into a catastrophe and we must stop.”

In May 2005 the Board of Deputies of British Jews characterized as an example of antisemitism this comment of Atzmon's: "I'm not going to say whether it is right or not to burn down a synagogue, I can see that it is a rational act." Atzmon responded in a letter to The Observer that he meant “since Israel presents itself as the 'state of the Jewish people’” that "any form of anti-Jewish activity may be seen as political retaliation" for Israel's actions. ''

In 2007 the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism criticized the Swedish Social Democratic Party for inviting Atzmon to speak at a seminar, saying Atzmon had worked to "legitimize the hatred of Jews.” The party responded saying “when the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism starts calling Jews anti-Semites there is a risk that they undermine the term anti-Semite and do the fight against anti-Semitism a disservice." ''

Atzmon denies he is an antisemite. He and others characterize charges of antisemitism as an attempt to silence his criticism of Israel and Zionism. Atzmon labels the term "antisemitism" as an empty signifier, holding that "criticism of Jewish nationalism, Jewish lobbying and Jewish power can only be realised as a legitimate critique of ideology and practice." He states that "antisemitism is a spin, it is a myth...there is no such a thing as antisemitism."