Invitation to Learn

Invitation to Learn runs occasional exhibitions and and lectures and it advertises other events which are consistent with its philosophy. In this connection we recommend the series Philosophy in Pubs which take place in the Park View pub on Preston Drove, Brighton UK on the second Sunday of the month at seven - remember SSS! Their website is www.philosophyinpubs.org.uk.

An IL series of discussions on the concept of antisemitism is envisaged shortly.

Gilad Atzmon’s talk to ‘Invitation to Learn’ in Brighton on 7th January 2008 was a great success. He spoke on ‘The Primacy of the Ear - The Road from Music to Ethics (An Alternative Take on the Israeli Palestinian Conflict)’ to an audience of around sixty, just over half of them face to face and the remainder watching on a video link downstairs. The meeting had been moved to Francis Clark-Lowes’s private residence - a small terraced house - following an announcement of a picket of the original venue, Brighthelm Church and Community Centre. It had been alleged that Atzmon is a racist, but those who attended his talk testified, on the contrary, to his humanity, whether or not they agreed with everything he said.

As Gilad remarked, the confined space into which we had been squeezed reminded one of the siege of Gaza, and there was a common factor. This was the accusation of ‘anti-Semitism’ which was used in this case to prevent a meeting taking place in a public venue, just as it is used in another arena to prevent those in power from imposing effective sanctions against Israel for its oppression of the Palestinian people.

Gilad illustrated his talk with extracts of jazz and Arabic music. He told us that his encounter with the latter had taught him the ‘primacy of the ear’. In order to ‘get’ Arabic music he had had to learn to listen properly. By extension, what the West, and particularly Israelis, needed to learn was how to listen to the other.

The whole proceedings, which lasted over two and a half hours, began with a twenty minute introduction by Francis Clark-Lowes, and ended with an hour long question and answer session, was recorded and has been turned into a DVD. This is available for £5 from Invitation to Learn. You can access an audio version at http://www0.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/388930.html?c=on#c187336.

Some background notes on Gilad Atzmon: Gilad Atzmon is a jazz musician, author and anti-Zionist. He was born a secular Israeli Jew in Tel Aviv and trained at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. He then studied philosophy at Tel Aviv University and later at Essex University before moving to London at the age of thirty-two. Atzmon has been accused of anti-Semitism, but responds by questioning the concept itself: “Because ‘anti-Semite’ is an empty signifier, no one actually can be an anti-Semite and this includes me of course. In short you are either a racist, which I am not, or have an ideological disagreement with Zionism, which I have.” He describes himself as a Hebrew-speaking Palestinian.