Sunday, January 11, 2009

Brian Eno, Annie Lennox at London Protests Yesterday

Yesterday in London, an estimated 20,000 (BBC) or 100,000 (the organizers) marched in protest against the Israeli offensive on Gaza. Among the marchers: the venerated musician, Brian Eno, who is presented as one of the many British Jews who participated in the march.

This is not the first time Eno has been involved in protests of this sort. He played in a benefit concert on the same bill with Rachid Taha, Nitin Sawhney, and Imogen Heap back in November 2005, to support England's Stop the War coalition.

Check out the footage from the BBC, with comment from Brian Eno, here.

Annie Lennox was there, too, like last week, and she addressed the crowd:



The main issue that Annie raises is of the children killed in the Israeli invasion, and she holds up a poster with some of the more grisly photos that are circulating. So beware, when you watch the vid. (They are real, they are not phony.) At the end, she calls what is going on "genocide." Please see Juan Cole's post for a defense of this claim. (I learned about Annie's address courtesy of Juan's post.)

UPDATE:

I've just read John Hutnyk's post on the London demo, and his comment on the Observer's account of the violence that occurred at the Israeli Embassy. As Hutnyk says, the main factor was "anger at the atrocities and at the introduction of riot cops and mounted police." And Hutnyk includes this photo of one of the young protesters, down for some action. (Thanks, John.)

I learn from the article in the Observer that Bianca Jagger was in attendance, again, and that she addressed the crowd. As did Rev Garth Hewitt, canon at St George's Cathedral in Jerusalem. I didn't meet him, but I'm glad to say that when I was in Jerusalem for two weeks this past June, I stayed at the St. George's Cathedral Guesthouse.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a really cool picture of the guy with the mask and stick! I hope he went up to Barnet and used it on some Jews!

http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/c-10918/attempted-arson-at-london-shul-as-hate-soars/

Ted Swedenburg said...

What makes you assume that someone protesting the Israeli assault on Gaza is necessarily anti-Semitic? It's a canard.

On the other hand, the anti-Jewish activity (attempted arson, hitlists) discussed in the URL referred to: I condemn and I consider such actions extremely harmful to the cause of peace and justice in Palestine and Israel.

Ted Swedenburg said...

I may post on this later, but it seems likely now that the 'hitlists' are a hoax. See http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/islamophobia-watch/2009/1/10/bloggerheads-exposes-glen-jenvey.html

Anonymous said...

I wish the vandalism, violence, beatings, and intimidation of European Jews were a hoax too. But they're not

Anonymous said...

The pic of the militant youth I posted is from a video you can see here


Trinketization

Anonymous said...

Annie Lennox's ex-husband, Uri Fruchtmann, has dismissed her activism. Speaking from his home in Israel, he said" this is all about her desire to get even with me for a custody deal."

Women!