Gilad Atzmon on Israel. 2010. (2025-06)

The Jewish Solidarity Spin - Gilad Atzmon

• The Jewish Solidarity Spin - Gilad Atzmon
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J87Y139jlV0&t=5763s

Gilad Atzmon on Zionism and Jewish Identity

• Gilad Atzmon on Zionism and Jewish Identity
• by Santarchy
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F8044A803DCE67F
• Nov 19, 2010
• Anti-Zionist activist and Jazz saxophonist Gilad Atzmon spoke at ArgusFest at the Mercury Cafe in Denver on July 1, 2010.

who is Gilad Atzmon

2026-04-08 grok ai answer.

Gilad Atzmon (born June 9, 1963) is an Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, novelist, and political activist/writer.

Background and Music Career

• Born in Tel Aviv (Ramat Gan area) to a secular Jewish family, he grew up in Jerusalem. His father served in the Israeli military.
• He trained at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem (jazz and composition) and later earned a master's degree in philosophy at the University of Essex in the UK.
• Served in the Israeli military (including as a paramedic and in the air force band during the 1982 Lebanon invasion), an experience that contributed to his later disillusionment with Zionism.
• Moved to London in the mid-1990s (around 1994) and became a British citizen. He is known as a highly prolific performer, often playing over 100 gigs a year.
• Primarily plays alto saxophone but also soprano, tenor, baritone saxes, clarinet, flute, zurna, and other instruments. His style blends bebop/hard bop, free jazz, swing, and Middle Eastern influences.
• Notable achievements: His album Exile was BBC Jazz Album of the Year in 2003. He has led groups like the Orient House Ensemble and played with The Blockheads (since 1998). Collaborations include Pink Floyd, Robert Wyatt, Ian Dury, Sinéad O'Connor, Paul McCartney, and many others. He has released around 18-20 albums.

Writing and Activism

Atzmon is a vocal critic of Israel, Zionism, and Jewish identity politics. He describes himself as an "ex-Israeli" and "ex-Jew," advocating for Palestinian rights, the right of return, and a universalist/humanist approach over tribalism. His satirical novels (e.g., A Guide to the Perplexed in 2001 and My One and Only Love) and essays explore these themes, often with humor and philosophy. His political writings appear on his site (gilad.online) and have been translated into multiple languages.

Controversies

His views have made him highly polarizing. Critics, including the ADL and some scholars/anti-racism activists, accuse him of antisemitism, promoting conspiracy theories about Jewish power/influence, Holocaust minimization or denial, and appealing to fringe audiences. Supporters see him as a principled anti-Zionist and defender of free speech on Middle East issues. He has faced cancellations, protests at gigs, and debates within leftist and jazz circles.

In short, he is respected in jazz circles as a talented and hardworking musician but is far better known (and criticized) for his outspoken anti-Zionist activism and writings.

summarize Gilad Atzmon's views on israel, zionism, and related issues

2026-04-08 grok ai answer

Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli-born British jazz musician, novelist, and writer (born 1963 in Tel Aviv), positions himself as a fierce critic of Zionism, Israel, and what he calls "Jewishness." He became anti-Zionist after serving in the Israeli military band during the 1982 Lebanon invasion, where he witnessed the Ansar prison camp and concluded that "Israel was bad news" and he wanted nothing more to do with the state or Zionism.

Core Distinctions in His Thinking

Atzmon repeatedly draws a sharp distinction between three concepts:

• Jews (the people/ethnicity) — toward whom he claims no hatred or racism;
• Judaism (the religion) — which he says he largely avoids criticizing;
• Jewishness (the ideology/identity politics) — which he condemns as a "supremacist, racist tendency," an "ethno-centric ideology driven by exclusiveness, exceptionalism, racial supremacy and a deep inherent inclination towards segregation."

He describes himself variously as "not a Jew anymore," a "proud self-hating Jew" who "celebrate[s] my hatred towards everything I represent," a "Jew who hates Judaism," and a "Hebrew-speaking Palestinian." He writes that he deals only with ethics, identity, and the "Jewish Question," stemming from his realization that "my people are living on stolen land."

Views on Zionism

Atzmon argues that Zionism is not primarily a colonial settler project focused on Palestine. Instead, he sees it as a "global movement" and a "tribal Jewish preservation project" aimed at preventing assimilation and maintaining Jewish tribal solidarity. It is "fuelled by a unique tribal solidarity" and functions as an "international network" with no single geographical center (not even Israel). Israel itself is merely a "volatile territorial asset" or "Jewish national bunker" maintained by this broader network.

He views both Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews as participating in the same "Jewish identity politics," often calling Jewish anti-Zionists "crypto-Zionists" because they still operate in racially exclusive political cells centered on "what's good for the Jews." Zionism, for him, is just one expression of Jewishness; Jewish anti-Zionism is another.

Views on Israel and Palestine

Atzmon describes Israel as built on stolen land, racially driven, and engaged in ethnic cleansing with policies he has called genocidal toward Palestinians. He supports full Palestinian rights, including the right of return, and advocates a single secular democratic state in historic Palestine ("from the river to the sea") — essentially "One Palestine" — that would be "de-Jewishified" and become a state of all its citizens regardless of ethnicity or religion. He has said this would resolve not only the Middle East conflict but also "two millennia of mutual suspicion and resentfulness between Christians and Jews."

He frames Palestinian resistance (e.g., rockets) poetically as "love letters to their stolen villages."

On the Holocaust and Related Issues

Atzmon has referred to the Holocaust as the "new Western religion" or "core belief of the contemporary Jewish faith," arguing it receives exceptional legal and political protection that historical narratives do not need. He has questioned certain Israeli-taught atrocity stories about his own great-grandmother (who perished in the Holocaust) and suggested revisiting medieval blood libels for scholarly purposes. He maintains he lost relatives in the Holocaust and that internalizing its meaning turned him into an opponent of Israel and Jewishness.

He consistently rejects accusations of antisemitism, stating that he criticizes ideology, culture, and identity politics — not Jews as a race, biology, or ethnicity — and that the label is a tool "designed to stifle criticism of Israel and Jewish power."

These ideas are most fully developed in his 2011 book *The Wandering Who? A Study of Jewish Identity Politics*, along with his website writings, novels, and public statements. His positions have remained consistent over time: he frames the core problem as Jewish tribal identity politics (of which Zionism is a symptom), calls for its dismantling, and aligns himself ethically with Palestinian liberation.