In Memory of Martin Luther King

by Gilad Atzmon / January 23rd, 2010

I also have a dream that one day the Jewish state, a state sweltering in the heat of injustice, sweltering in the heat of oppression; will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and fairness.

I have a dream that in the ‘Jew-Only State’ people will not be judged according to the blood of their (Jewish) mother, but rather by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Israel in spite of their racist Foreign Minister, mass-murderer Defense minister and Jewish supremacist Prime Minister, one day right there in between the river and the sea boys and girls will be able to join hands as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every ‘Separation Wall’ will be rubble. The horror of the refugee camps will be made plain and the crooked Israeli town will be made straight by Palestinians returning to their homes, villages, fields and orchards. “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.” God Almighty, we are free at last!

I have a dream today and this dream will become true. However when this happens the Jewish state will be called Palestine and it will be one and a state of its citizens.

Inshallah

Gilad Atzmon, now living in London, was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military. He is the author of The Wandering Who and Being in Time and is one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe. He can be reached via his website. Read other articles by Gilad, or visit Gilad's website.

This article was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 8:59am and is filed under Human Rights, Israel, Racism, Zionism.

13 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. Gary Corseri said on January 23rd, 2010 at 10:17am #

    Amen, Gilad. Amen. …

    But, let’s call the state “Israel-Palestine” one year and “Palestine-Israel” the next (choose some random method–a coin toss?– to see which comes first!). That nomenclature would make such a state more palatable to the majority of Jews who identify with the historical Israel of King David, etc., but not with the Zionist policies of the modern state.

    Such a state would have a rotating presidency–one year Palestinian, one year Israeli–after the European Union model (which rotates the presidency every 6 months among its several members).

    It would be a Republic in which the rights of all its citizens were vigorously defended. Individual and minority rights would be enshrined in a Bill of Rights. An pro-active document–not like the one continuously encroached upon in the U.S. That Bill of Rights would include–as the U.S. most certainly does not–an Economic Bill of Rights.

    The Constitution of such a Republic would not be based upon the archaic, horse and buggy days of the U.S. Constitution–and it must be free of corporate meddling, as ours clearly, and as of this week’s Supreme Court decision, very clearly, is not.

    Such a state will be free and democratic, without nuclear weapons or WMDs–but with a free citizenry armed as the Swiss are armed. That new Palestine-Israel or Israel-Palestine (perhaps we’ll just call it Pi–to represent the impossibility of coming to an exact, numerical equation for it!) that state will serve as a model for a new Green world, based on cooperation, not competition; compassion, not exploitation.

    TIME IS UP Kenneth Farnish tells us in his new book on global climate change, etc. James Hansen and other scientists have been saying so for years. Great religious leaders, including Hillel, Christ, Muhammad, Buddha, Gandhi and King have been saying so for millennia. Have we the guts, wisdom, courage to heed the call now before the final curtain descends?

  2. kalidas said on January 23rd, 2010 at 11:20am #

    “the majority of Jews who identify with the historical Israel of King David, etc., but not with the Zionist policies of the modern state.”

    What majority? Perhaps I’ve misunderstood.

    Haven’t the majority of “Israelis,” time and time again voted as a majority in comprising a consensus FOR violence in its most awful expression, collective punishment, as an answer to the “Palestinian problem?”

  3. MichaelKenny said on January 23rd, 2010 at 11:39am #

    I think Mr Atzmon’s dream may come true sooner than he thinks! Re Gary Corseri: it’s nice to see the EU held up as an example and it has certainly succeeded in bringing together people who spent the first half of the 20th century slaughtering each other, but the six-month rotating presidency is really suited to a confederation of sovereign states and not to the government of a single state. Equally, of course, the EU has recently felt it necessary to have a more permanent president. I wouldn’t envisage Tony Blair as president of Palestine, although many people would happily trade him off for a peace agreement but a permanent coalition of the major political parties on both sides, such as the Northern Ireland Executive, might be a good idea, combined with Switzerland’s idea of an annual, rotating presidency.

  4. bozh said on January 23rd, 2010 at 12:05pm #

    Very good piece by gilad. I have often stated that what gilad wishes is the best solution. Or if not the best then much better than anything ‘zionists’ [means: have no connection with zion or hebrews] want.

    For the ‘zionists’ [land robbers with intent to murder-expel] ominous events r arising: world-wide fascists, headed by US, r uniting; rendering israel even less of strategic value to asocialists now uniting in order to maintain or augment their wealth and the grip on power over serfs.

    If palestinian leadership, now strongly fascist, continues to behave like amirs, aghas, princes, US/nato, my interests in palestine wld wane.
    I also think that vast majority of pal’ns r not like that! But surrounded by the ocean of fascism and having present leadership, one theocratic, the other secular, may also become fascist. tnx

  5. Ismail Zayid said on January 23rd, 2010 at 1:34pm #

    That is a dream that all, who care for peace and security with justice, for all the people in that tortured land, hope to be achieved, and the injustice, ethnic cleansing and oppression will come to an end.

    But, alas, will it come in our lifetime? Let us hope that the optimists are right. I doubt it, seeing what the current leaders, in power and in control of that land, are doing and planning.

  6. jon s said on January 23rd, 2010 at 11:04pm #

    The “one state” solution is both wrong and impractical, and is more like a recipe for a bloodbath. Israel is here to stay, and so are the Palestinians, who are entitled to a state of thir own. We need to achieve a two-state solution, and soon.

  7. Maryb said on January 24th, 2010 at 7:37am #

    Which little Bantustan would you like to see established as the Palestinian state?

    http://www.ccmep.org/delegations/maps/palestine.html

  8. jon s said on January 24th, 2010 at 8:45am #

    Maryb, In my opinion the only borders both sides could live with- just barely – are the pre-1967 lines , perhaps with minor-and mutual -adjustments.

  9. bozh said on January 24th, 2010 at 9:11am #

    Had nato/US prevented and is now preventing setup a state for ‘jews’ only and israel as a state of its citizens?
    Aren’t both the mizrahim-shephardim and pal’ns being used? And for what? Well, as far as i can see, israel had never been much of a strategic import; valuable tho in certain ways; such as getting arab nobility onside.
    With the exception of syria, all other arab fascists r uniting with nato/US/Israeli.
    it is now one big ball of hatred for oppression of own people and maintainance of power over ‘lowlif’.

    In any case, white jews are making lotsof money in europe and americas. Most of them hate semites of whatever cult. Israel for them is just a feelgood thing. When israel is gone, we won’t find one ‘zionist’ among them. Most wld say, i was against israel, anyway!

  10. Maryb said on January 24th, 2010 at 10:19am #

    jon s That is most generous of you. Don’t you feel the slightest bit of guilt or discomfort when you look at those maps?

  11. jon s said on January 24th, 2010 at 1:35pm #

    I feel a great deal of sympathy for the Palestinian people and their tragic plight, which is one of the reasons I advocate ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state.
    As for “guilt” – it’s not as if we came as an alien entity and stole someone else’s country. We don’t have to apologize or feel guilty for being here.
    And as for the maps: I notice that the 1946 map shows the entire south, the Negev, as being Palestinian, even though it was mostly empty. I understand that what was government land is shown as “Palestinian”.
    The maps also need to be updated: since Sharon’s “disengagement” there is
    no longer a Jewish presence in the Gaza Strip. And you could find a more up-to-date map of roadblocks .This one is from 2001, at the height of the second intifada.

  12. Mulga Mumblebrain said on January 25th, 2010 at 2:47am #

    maryb, don’t you just love how the Zionists misrepresent their mythical history, where the coldly calculated, infinitely racist,long planned carnage of massacre and terror that they launched in 1947 to ethnically cleanse Palestine of the ‘two-legged animals’ that they despise, is completely erased from memory, as fact? It’s a form of denialism at least as shocking as ‘Holocaust Denial’, even more so in its impertinence and arrogance,but unlike those lies, it is promulgated in the Zionist controlled Western media with cynical hypocrisy. We all know what a ‘Palestinian state’ to be granted, out of the kindness of their hearts, by the Supreme Beings will look like. Netanyahu outlined it last year, clearly and unequivocally. No external borders, no return of the illegal colonies, Israeli troops in the Jordan Valley. No armed forces, a calculated insult from a terror state armed to the teeth. Zionist control of the electronic realm and of airspace and a Zionist veto over foreign relations. In other words an electronic zoo where the ‘two-legged animals’ are treated like garbage by their super-human keepers. Of course this archipelago of Bantustans must be ruled by Quislings from the Abbas (President-for-Life, already) mould, with ‘elections’ as’free and fair’ as any in Egypt, Kuwait or the Gulf.
    Let us talk about a real ‘two-state’ solution. Israel returns to its only legitimate borders, those of the1947 Partition. The ethnic cleansing of 1947-8 must not stand no matter how arrogant, how brutal, how powerful the aggressors. The Right of Return must be recognised as it is International Law. And Israel must compensate the Palestinians for the years of suffering that they have inflicted. After all the Israelis have extracted billions from Europeans for the suffering they incurred in the 1930sand 1940s, so why not the Palestinians? That would be a good starting point for real peace in the Middle East, but we know, with absolute certainty, that that is not Zionism’s Messianic Plan for the Middle East. No, that forsees eternal war, eternal land theft, eternal interference and aggression, and endless arrogance and bluster by the Zionist elect.

  13. Maryb said on January 25th, 2010 at 4:38am #

    I’m with you 100% here especially what you say in the second para Mulga.

    A good illustration here of Zionist Israel’s true intentions. Note the final affirmation of support from ZBC.

    ‘All settlements in the the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.’

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8478022.stm
    02:24 GMT, Monday, 25 January 2010

    Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel will never quit settlements

    Mr Netanyahu’s comments have angered Palestinians

    The Israeli prime minister has taken part in tree-planting ceremonies in the West Bank while declaring Israel will never leave those areas.

    Benjamin Netanyahu said the Jewish settlements blocs would always remain part of the state of Israel.

    His remarks came hours after a visit by US envoy George Mitchell who is trying to reopen peace talks between Israel and Palestinians.

    A Palestinian spokesman said the comments undermined peace negotiations.

    “Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here. This place will be an inseparable part of Israel for eternity”, the said.

    Mr Netanyahu’s comments have angered Palestinians, who want a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

    “This is an unacceptable act that destroys all the efforts being exerted by Senator Mitchell in order to bring back the parties to the negotiating table”, Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told the Associated Press.

    Meanwhile, in the Jordanian capital Amman, Mr Mitchell emphasised the US commitment to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

    “We intend to continue to pursue our efforts until that objective is achieved”, he told AP.

    US attempts to revive peace talks have stalled over the Jewish settlement issue and the Palestinians’ refusal to return to peace talks.

    The Palestinians insist that Israel has a long-standing commitment under an existing peace plan to stop settlement growth.

    But the Israeli government says it has temporarily curbed construction as a goodwill gesture.

    The two sides appear no closer even to sitting in the same room, says the BBC’s Tim Franks in Jerusalem.

    All settlements in the the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.