For many years now, Gilad Atzmon, a musician born in Israel and currently living in the United Kingdom, has taken on the self-appointed task of defining for the Pales­tin­ian movement the nature of our struggle, and the phi­los­o­phy under­pin­ning it. He has done so through his various blogs and Internet outlets, in speeches, and in articles. He is currently on tour in the United States promoting his most recent book, entitled, “The Wandering Who.”

With this letter, we call for the disavowal of Atzmon by fellow Pales­tin­ian orga­niz­ers, as well as Palestine sol­i­dar­ity activists, and allies of the Pales­tin­ian people, and note the dangers of sup­port­ing Atzmon’s political work and writings and providing any platforms for their dis­sem­i­na­tion. We do so as Pales­tin­ian orga­niz­ers and activists, working across con­ti­nents, campaigns, and ide­o­log­i­cal positions.

Atzmon’s politics rest on one main over­rid­ing assertion that serves as spring­board for vicious attacks on anyone who disagrees with his obsession with “Jew­ish­ness.” He claims that all Jewish politics is “tribal,” and essen­tially, Zionist. Zionism, to Atzmon, is not a settler-colonial project, but a trans-historical “Jewish” one, part and parcel of defining one’s self as a Jew. Therefore, he claims, one cannot self-describe as a Jew and also do work in sol­i­dar­ity with Palestine, because to identify as a Jew is to be a Zionist. We could not disagree more. Indeed, we believe Atzmon’s argument is itself Zionist because it agrees with the ideology of Zionism and Israel that the only way to be a Jew is to be a Zionist.