'Gilad "Hitler might have been right after all" Atzmon is coming to Aberystwyth Arts Centre? How perfectly vile.'
So
tweeted academic Dr
James Vaughan, of the International Politics Department at the University of Aberystwyth (a department founded, incidentally, by the distinguished scholar Sir Alfred Zimmern (1879-1957), the pro-Zionist son of a German Jewish father, and recognised as one of the very best such departments in the United Kingdom).
Dr Vaughan continued that the local newspaper, the
Cambrian News,
which advertised the gig (it took place on 9 February), seemed to be
unaware of Atzmon's views when it wrote of the latter's "emerging
political awareness" and that he'd enlighten them.
In its current issue (14 February, page 7) the
Cambrian News reports:
'Aberystwyth University International Politics Professor James Vaughan said many people had concerns over Mr Atzmon's views, including those on the US Palestinian Community Network.
While Prof Vaughan insisted Mr Atzmon is entitled to criticise Israel and Israeli policy, he said there were concerns over his "obsessive fixations on Jewishness".
Prof Vaughan said he did not want to see Mr Atzmon stopped from performing, but wanted there to be a "broader awareness" about Mr Atzmon's views and how he is received by Palestinian activists."'
To the best of my own knowledge, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in the UK is squeamish about any hint of association with Atzmon and, not wishing to be associated with blatant anti-Jewish statements such as his, avoids recommending or linking to his anti-Israel diatribes.
However, the PSC's most westerly mainland branch, the Aberystwyth PSC, evidently harbours no such inhibitions.
This branch – of which, incidently the Aberystwyth Arts Centre (situated on the university campus) is a Twitter follower, a situation that I for one find eyebrow-raising since I should have thought a body like the Centre should not be seen to be partisan – has recently tweeted links to an article by Atzmon as well as one by ex-BBC man Alan Hart which contains, inter alia, the following pretty little piece of antisemitism:
"The Jews of the world are from MANY established or ancestral homelands, and almost all if not all of those who went to Palestine to give life to Zionism’s colonial enterprise had no biological connection whatsoever to the ancient Hebrews. The notion, still popular with the mainstream Western media, that at the root of the conflict there are two peoples each with a valid claim to the same land does not bear serious and honest examination. It’s more Zionist propaganda nonsense."
Does the PSC command centre approve of its West Wales branch's tweets, I wonder? I think we should be told.
As for Atzmon, he's quoted by the
Cambrian News as describing claims that he's antisemitic as "ludicrous and malicious":
"I am indeed an opponent of Israel, Zionism and also critical of the Jewish lobby within politics, media and finance ...."
Rather an own goal, wouldn't you say?