Two great new posts on Palestine Think Tank: Atzmon on Sabra, Shatila and Collective Amnesia and Chris Searle on Atzmon, Jazz and Liberation

[mary <humdrum2 at libero.it>]

Today

www.palestinethinktank.com has a fantastic Atzmon Double Bill: The
first is an analytical review of a new film on Israeli Collective Amnesia
and how the depiction of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre is represented
today. He investigates the psychological milieu behind all of it, but
even more provocatively, states that this too is useful to scrutinise.
Check out this excerpt: 

I went to see the first London screening at the London Jewish
Festival. The Festival is sponsored by the Israeli Government, amongst a
very long list of rabid right wing Zionist organisations. One may rightly
wonder why Zionist institutes support such a harsh Israeli critique. I
can only suggest one possible answer. Israel loves to portray itself as
an open, liberal society. If I am correct here, this is indeed a very
clever, sinister and calculated decision. It presents the Israeli not
only as a humanist, it even manages to plant rabid Zionist institutions
at the heart of the Palestinian solidarity discourse.  

Moreover, as long as Israel manages to generate some harsh form of self
disapproval, not much room for critical maneuvering is left for Israel’s
real enemies. As much as we happen to despise Israel and Zionist
institutions, we’d better learn to admit their sophistication.

An enjoyable and very enlightening read. 

http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/15/gilad-atzmon-sabra-shatila-and-collective-amnesia/

and, an articulate and fascinating, as well as moving investigation of
the history of recorded Jazz and its deep ties to liberation. In this
case, Jazz critic and leftist writer Chris Searle has written a new book
entitled Forward Groove: Jazz and the Real World from Louis Armstrong
to Gilad Atzmon. We publish an excerpt of the introduction, where
Searle illustrates the artistic career of Gilad Atzmon and how it is a
living example of entanglement with issues of freedom, struggle and
humanity, with its pivotal, watershed experience the identification of
his personal struggle for beauty and growth with the absolute need for
Palestinian liberation.  

Details are contained for the book launch with the author, Atzmon and
others. 

http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/11/15/chris-searle-forward-groove-jazz-and-the-real-world-from-louis-armstrong-to-gilad-atzmon/