Bob Vylan interview / British Airways

[justanotherpassword]

Seems like BA have now entered the debate.

https://news.sky.com/story/british-airways-pulls-louis-theroux-podcast-funding-over-bob-vylan-interview-13457331

This is so random. Bob Vylan to Herzl to Ben Gurion.

@SharonEllisbecause it’s always the same laboured points to get to…. Nothing.
Educated people know a small percentage of people don’t make a football club.
Maccabi Tel Aviv aren’t even in the top ten of violent clubs (unlike Millwall who travel freely)
’ultras’ could be banned. Lots of countries/ clubs stop fans from travelling. All the news from the time confirms it was a small minority.
Ajax and the Dutch at least had the balls to ban protest outside the game. Ajax is a Jewish club. The Israeli government had already told the Dutch it was on social media sites that fans would be abused. ‘Jewcancer’ featured quite heavily.
This is what Aston Villa / the police wanted to avoid:

In the nights following the attacks, people thought to be Jewish continued to be targeted, including being forced out of taxis and ordered to show their passports to check if they were Israeli. On 11 November, four days after the attacks, Amsterdam police made multiple arrests after clashes in Amsterdam's '40–'45 Square between dozens of rioters and officers. One person was filmed shouting "cancer Jews", and an empty tram was damaged by fireworks. Amsterdam police said it was not clear there was a direct connection to the previous week's unrest, and some arrests were made separately from the tram incident.

Several people were arrested and went to prison.

Which says more about the area they are visiting than the fans… that’s why people have said it’s antisemitic including Dave Rich. It’s obtuse to keep avoiding that.

Pascal-Robinson (his birth name) was not challenged by a man who notoriously challenges people: he said he had refused any other interviews but would be interviewed specifically by Theroux. I wonder why? It’s very….. strange.

@Thedawnchorusdo you think the eight Muslim countries who expelled and deported Jews on masse post 1948 would have their arms twisted to have them back? Or quibble about percentages? Or is it excepted fact you aren’t welcome there? Tbf there are plenty to chose from.

Well it’s not really random. I started by questioning whether Bobby Vylan was antisemitic because he’s a little too radical about his views on Zionism and has absolutely made some stupid statements. The point is though, being against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians does not equate to antisemitism. Unfortunately, to recognize the Zionist dream, which Herzl espoused, in Palestine, requires the dispossession and removal of Palestinians from the proposed homeland as per plan Dalet. This was exactly what Ben Gurion started in 1948 and is still being attempted today. Like many people, Bobby Vylan is very against this and as such, he is attacked as antisemitic for being anti the Zionist project. Not all Jews are Zionist and ironically, not all Zionists are Jewish.

I know right...but that meanie Dave Rich writes an 'angry blog' and hey those pesky 'zionists' from the 18somethings time travelling to 2025 and a Mumsnet thread near you.

Honestly its embarassing.

Oh dear, oh dear.

BA up in estimation, Theroux gone down, and Vylan has always been vile, i can’t understand anyone making him right

You know what. I’m just going to point you to a book. Avi Shlaim’s 3 worlds, memoires of an Arab Jew. He explains perfectly what happened in countries like Iraq and why the Farhoud happened. Quite enlightening.

Guess we’re done then.

If only I could turn back the hands of time and have him playing at Nova. Not that they would have had him because his music is shite, but still, it's a lovely dream.

What a weird comment.

Well, I liked it 🤡

Someone spouting fashionable vitriol, urging violence and fawning over the idea of a so-called "armed resistance"? Let him have a taste of what that "resistance" was. I'd pay to see it.

Gosh! Says a lot.

@Thedawnchorus

There was a violent pogrom against the Jewish community named the farhud. The Jews were seen as friends of the British. 179 Jews were murdered and several hundred injured. It was completely unexpected and unprecedented. There had been no other attack against the Jews for centuries. Avi gives many examples of Muslims assisting their Jewish neighbours.

The writing was on the wall. This is pre not post Israel. I have read the book and he talks from a very privileged position. He writes from a secularized, wealthy, westernised view. He laments the loss of Wealth not culture. That was absolutely not the case for lots driven out of other countries. This is echoed in the case of German Jews who thought because of acceptance in upper society through wealth they would be accepted. They were soon shown a Jew is a Jew.

‘’We didn’t really know very much about my father ... In Iraq, he was an extremely wealthy merchant, living in a palatial villa with a lot of servants. Many ministers in the Iraqi government were his clients. When he came to Israel, he had to leave everything behind."

I do think he has excellent things to say on being a refugee in a country. He also has shown the rise of anti semitism and the links to Zionism. That’s hardly earth shattering.

I like the quote from Kissinger when talking to Golda Mier

‘Golda first I am an American, second I am the Secretary of State, thirdly a Jew’
‘Henry, you forget in Israel that we read left to right’

Golda first I am an American, second I am the Secretary of State, thirdly a Jew’
‘Henry, you forget in Israel that we read left to right’

As do Arabs.

Interesting post and you’re right on many points. I don’t think all Jews were classed as friends of the British though. Sassoon Eskell really annoyed the British. He did more for Iraq than anyone else. The Farhud plus the other attacks on Jews in the Arab world were as a direct consequence of European Zionism.

Whoosh!

You tried it, with the victim blaming and holding Jews, no matter where they are, accountable for attacks against them elsewhere.
You have a way of interpreting history, I'll give you that.

Meanwhile, Primal Scream displayed images of Swatztikas inside the Magen David at a gig in London. Seems they still want to Make Israel History.

Also makes better sense if you change it to "right to left"

It was meant to "provoke debate" apparently. Like fuck it was.

I almost missed this story but it's an amusing one. Not least because it will put the Irish MNs in a spin deciding who to support in the legal case reported in The Guardian and other sources - Bob Vylan to sue Ireland’s RTÉ for defamation over Glastonbury coverage.

The British punk-rap duo Bob Vylan have launched defamation proceedings against the Irish broadcaster RTÉ over its coverage of their performance at Glastonbury. The good news for the rest of us - one side has to lose.

The legal action alleges Ireland’s national broadcaster defamed the group by claiming they led antisemitic chants at the festival last June.

The group’s lead singer, Pascal Robinson-Foster, known as Bobby Vylan, led a chant of “death, death to the IDF”, a reference to the Israel Defense Forces, making global headlines and prompting a British police investigation.

RTÉ’s allegation that the band made antisemitic chants were “categorically denied” and “entirely untrue”, Phoenix Law Solicitors, a Belfast-based firm hired by the band, said in a statement.

Despite requests for a retraction and apology, RTÉ had failed to “address the harm caused” and proceedings had been issued to seek redress for the “significant reputational and emotional damage” to Bob Vylan, said the firm. The broadcast’s wide dissemination to a national and online audience had aggravated the impact on the band’s reputation and professional standing, it said.

In other words, they are probably running out of money. But then again, so are RTE apparently.