Originally posted: October 1st 2008.
Saxman and composer Gilad Atzmon seems to be permanently on tour as inheritor of Coltrane's voice, although he often sounds closer to Charlie Parker, which he acknowledged in his recent appearances with a string section, reproducing 'Bird With Strings' - one of the landmark recordings in jazz history. He is also a novelist, though, and a scholar. Born an Israeli, he insists on being seen as a Palestinian, and never wastes an opportunity to speak out for the dispossessed Canaanites.
His exegesis of a new study of Jewish nationalism is vital reading, no matter what argument you start with. Here are parts of his analysis:
'A nation is a group of people united by a common mistake regarding its origin and a collective hostility towards its neighbours' (Karl W Deutsch)
"When And How the Jewish People Was Invented" is a very serious study written by Professor Shlomo Sand, an Israeli historian. It is the most serious study of Jewish nationalism and by far the most courageous elaboration on the Jewish historical narrative.
Though most contemporary Jews are utterly convinced that their ancestors are the Biblical Israelites who happened to be exiled brutally by the Romans, truth must be said. Contemporary Jews have nothing to do with ancient Israelites, who have never been sent to exile because such an expulsion has never taken place. The Roman Exile is just another Jewish myth.
"I started looking in research studies about the exile from the land," says Sand in a Haaretz interview, "but to my astonishment I discovered that it has no literature. The reason is that no one exiled the people of the country. The Romans did not exile peoples and they could not have done so even if they had wanted to. They did not have trains and trucks to deport entire populations. That kind of logistics did not exist until the 20th Century. From this, in effect, the whole book was born: in the realisation that Judaic society was not dispersed and was not exiled."
Indeed, in the light of Sand's simple insight, the idea of Jewish exile is amusing. The thought of the Roman Imperial navy working 24/7 schlepping Moishe'le and Yanka'le to Cordova and Toledo may help Jews to feel important as well as schleppable, but common sense would suggest that the Roman armada had far more important things to do.
However, far more interesting is the logical outcome: If the people of Israel were not expelled, then the real descendants of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah must be the Palestinians.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/09/02/gilad-atzmon-the-wandering-who
Saxman and composer Gilad Atzmon seems to be permanently on tour as inheritor of Coltrane's voice, although he often sounds closer to Charlie Parker, which he acknowledged in his recent appearances with a string section, reproducing 'Bird With Strings' - one of the landmark recordings in jazz history. He is also a novelist, though, and a scholar. Born an Israeli, he insists on being seen as a Palestinian, and never wastes an opportunity to speak out for the dispossessed Canaanites.
His exegesis of a new study of Jewish nationalism is vital reading, no matter what argument you start with. Here are parts of his analysis:
'A nation is a group of people united by a common mistake regarding its origin and a collective hostility towards its neighbours' (Karl W Deutsch)
"When And How the Jewish People Was Invented" is a very serious study written by Professor Shlomo Sand, an Israeli historian. It is the most serious study of Jewish nationalism and by far the most courageous elaboration on the Jewish historical narrative.
Though most contemporary Jews are utterly convinced that their ancestors are the Biblical Israelites who happened to be exiled brutally by the Romans, truth must be said. Contemporary Jews have nothing to do with ancient Israelites, who have never been sent to exile because such an expulsion has never taken place. The Roman Exile is just another Jewish myth.
"I started looking in research studies about the exile from the land," says Sand in a Haaretz interview, "but to my astonishment I discovered that it has no literature. The reason is that no one exiled the people of the country. The Romans did not exile peoples and they could not have done so even if they had wanted to. They did not have trains and trucks to deport entire populations. That kind of logistics did not exist until the 20th Century. From this, in effect, the whole book was born: in the realisation that Judaic society was not dispersed and was not exiled."
Indeed, in the light of Sand's simple insight, the idea of Jewish exile is amusing. The thought of the Roman Imperial navy working 24/7 schlepping Moishe'le and Yanka'le to Cordova and Toledo may help Jews to feel important as well as schleppable, but common sense would suggest that the Roman armada had far more important things to do.
However, far more interesting is the logical outcome: If the people of Israel were not expelled, then the real descendants of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah must be the Palestinians.
http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/09/02/gilad-atzmon-the-wandering-who
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