The Anti-Defamation League is condemning an appearance by Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli-born, London-based musician, author and activist who is scheduled to speak in Oakland Saturday, Feb. 25, on the grounds that Atzmon’s work and point of view are anti-Semitic.
“For over a decade, Gilad Atzmon’s writings have employed traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes while demonizing Israel, Zionism and Jewish culture and identity,” Nancy Appel, the ADL’s associate regional director, said in a press release, calling on “community leaders and people of good conscience” to speak out against the writer’s “hate-mongering.”
“Atzmon is a prolific promoter of classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories who has even gone so far as to distribute the writings of well-known Holocaust deniers and to claim that the Nazi death marches ‘were actually humane.’ ”
In his writing and in interviews, Atzmon has referred to himself as an “ex-Jew” and a “Jew who hates Judaism.”
Atzmon is to appear in conversation with KPFA radio host Dennis Bernstein at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland, as part of a fundraiser for the “Global March to Jerusalem.” That campaign seeks to coordinate anti-Israel groups from around the world to cross Israel’s borders into Jerusalem on March 30 and “demand [its] freedom.” The ADL noted in its press release that the campaign’s Facebook page is rife with anti-Semitic comments.
StandWithUs/San Francisco Voice for Israel plans to hold a vigil outside the event from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Vigil organizers say that signs offensive to any racial or ethnic group, including but not limited to Arabs, Islam, or Palestinians, will not be allowed. —emma silvers