8 May 2024

Tony Greenstein ‘An Ordinary Rebel’ - A film by Helena Aksentijevic

Aksentijevic's Film at the P21, May 17 examines the Role of Zionism during the Holocaust as well as my journey from Zionist Youth to Prominent anti-Zionist


You can book a ticket for £5 here

https://p21.gallery/news/162

It was about 6 months ago that I was approached by Helena Aksentijevic as to whether I would agree to her making a half hour film about my role in the Palestine solidarity and anti-Zionist movement.

Tony Greenstein ‘An Ordinary Rebel’ 

Confrontation with the Police on Demonstration Against Israel's Invasion of Lebanon in 20026 in Brighton

Helena had already made a number of similar films about people in Palestine solidarity and in opposition to Zionism such as Moshe Machover, Sabby Sagall, Ghada Karmi, Naomi Wimborne Idrissi, Bernard Regan and Stephen Kapos.

I was more than happy to cooperate as it a way of explaining why I have been active on the issue of Palestine and Zionism for over 50 years and how I became an anti-Zionist.

Tickets will cost £5 to defray the costs to P21 Theatre who have kindly allowed us to use the venue. There will be light refreshments and I am also happy to reduce the price of a signed copy of my book from £12 to £10.

In younger days

The evening will start off with the film and then I will have a discussion with Luca Salice, who is a translator and visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster, as well as co-chair of Camden PSC, before opening up to the audience for a Q&A.

Below are some of the more recent talks and interviews I have given on the subject of my book or related  topics.

Repression of Palestinian solidarity in the global North: A conversation with anti-Zionist Jews – South Africa Jews for a Free Palestine 

How Israel Weaponises the Holocaust – Rania Khalek


Zionism During The Holocaust Part 1: Pre-War Years

A Discussion with about 300 Twitter Users, 5 May 2024

Tony Greenstein interviewed on the Patrick Henningsen Show - 27 April 2024 – TNT Radio

How Zionists collaborated with the Nazis, in conversation with Tony Greenstein | EI Podcast

extract from Lucy Dawidowicz's War Against the Jews

8 comments:

  1. Good Luck with the film showing…

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can't get to London Tony, but hoping the film is eventually online 'cos I'm looking forward to seeing it. On another topic, the similarity between Nazi antisemitism and the Zionist phobia of the 'Ghetto Jew'. I do understand how the two attitudes are so similar but isn't the motivation significantly different and crucially so? In the one case, the Nazis wanted to annihilate Jews altogether with no possibility of (in their eyes) redemption or salvage; whereas the Zionists wanted to create "the New Jew", polar opposite to the weedy, pale specimens in European ghettos. The one was total eliminationist, the other was, so to speak, therapeutic, the New (Israeli) Jew would be strong, toughminded, macho and so on. Best wishes for the film launch! All best. Brian Robinson.

    ReplyDelete
  3. bernie holland8 May 2024 at 19:45

    How about a second edition, with a chapter on Christian Zionism and US Foreign Policy during the Second Nakba with the complicity of UK Imperialism

    ReplyDelete
  4. Christian Zionism and Jewish Zionism happened in the same century. Was there a connection ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Christian Zionism pre-dated Jewish Zionism but yes there was a close connection. Herzl's closest travel companion and aide was a Christian priest William Hechler

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Anonymous" -- and your other readers -- are likely to be interested in a fascinating book which is out of print and as far as I know there are only very few copies to be had online that don't cost a fortune. I was lucky to find a copy several years ago -- but the complete text is available online at the link below. As far as I can see all the text is there even the website (a movement for "the Ten Tribes"!) might be, er, unusual. Details follow.

    https://www.britam.org/vision/Kobler.pdf

    Franz Kobler "The Vision Was There: A History of the British Movement for the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine" London, 1956

    From the end of the 16th century through the French Revolution -- Lord Shaftesbury - Robert Browning - George Eliot - Disraeli - Laurence Oliphant -- co-operation with the Zionist movement - Herzl

    It's not until Part 3 of the book that we get to "Jews join the movement" (1830s) long before Herzl et al got onto it.

    Franz Kobler was a Czech-born (1882) lawyer and historian amongst other things. After the Nazis came to power he emigrated to Switzerland and then to England where he became an adviser to the World Jewish Congress. For the book, above, he researched the British Movement for the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine -- from the Elizabethan era to the Balfour Declaration.

    During his research he discovered the text of the Proclamation of Napoleon Bonaparte to "the Jewish Nation" in 1799; Kobler writes: "The impetus given to the Restoration Movement by Bonaparte's Oriental Expedition continued to be felt in the first decades of the nineteenth century."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes this is all true. There was a Church Missionary Society to restore Jews to Palestine. Zionism was a Christian not a Jewish idea. Even the 1830s was early for Jews to join the movement although I'm sure the odd individual did.
      The first political Zionist was Moses Hess who brought out a book 'Rome & Jerusalem' in about 1862.

      Delete
    2. Id also suggest the book ‘Archaeology, Nation and Race’ by Hamilaks and Greenberg and American Biblical Archaeology and Zionism
      The Politics of Objectivity from William F. Albright to William G. Dever

      Delete

Please submit your comments below