Thoughts After Interviewing Gilad Atzmon: March 13, 2012, Geneva New York

http://www.deliberation.info/

by Pat Carmeli

From the wrath expressed by many in the solidarity movement at the mere mention of his name, I was expecting to dislike Gilad Atzmon or at least feel I would have to challenge much of his comments during our upcoming interview. Since my local group, CNY Working for a Just Peace in Palestine & Israel was first approached about sponsoring his concert in Geneva, NY, I’d done the crash course in Atzmon including reading his statements, the heated words of his detractors, and his new book The Wandering Who…(Zero Books, 2011). The man I found was pretty much a kindred spirit but with an exception: Although I often fail at it, I try to support anyone involved in the fight for Palestinian human rights and leave my harshest criticism for the “other side”. Atzmon seems very adept at getting under the skin of our friends.

Explaining his awakening to the “Palestinian diaspora” while a member of the Israeli Defense Forces in Lebanon, you could see the pain written on his face. Having been raised in a middle-class working family in Israel on the values of respect for others – values he felt his country shared – the shock of a new understanding was palpable. Gilad relayed seeing the inhumane treatment of injured Lebanese and Syrians by some Israeli soldiers. Once, he saw small concrete cubes out in the burning mid-day sun. He questioned the Israeli guard saying “How could you keep dogs in this weather?” When the guard answered that these were for Palestinian POWs to be kept in solitary confinement, he eventually had to ask himself, “What kind of people are we?” Gradually he decided to leave the land of his birth to settle in Europe and vowed not to return until Israel became a “land for all its’ people”. He now resides in London and tours on concert with his saxophone.