So, here goes: first of all, Jello just recently came out with a new album, and this one is very different than anything that came before. It is titled A Walk on Jindal's Splinters', and was just released earlier this month.
Unfortunately, I have not actually gotten the album, although I did include a review (favorable) of the album by Dave Swanson, which you can read by clicking on the link below:
Album Review: Jello Biafra, ‘A Walk on Jindal’s Splinters’ by Dave Swanson June 5, 2015:
Next, Jello recently cancelled a planned show in Israel in response to the growing BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions) movement against Israeli policies. The BDS movement has been gaining considerable traction recently.
I just posted a blog entry earlier today about this same movement, and more generally about the controversial situation existing in Israel today, which has dragged on now for a very long time. Israel has had it's fair share of critics outside of it's borders, but the sudden successes by the BDS movement have garnered a lot of attention and gained considerable momentum recently.
So, Jello cancelled the show, but took a trip to Israel by himself, to check out for himself what was going on. And he posted his thoughts on the Alternative Tentacles webpage (see link below). Here are some of the major points that he made (highlighted in yellow) which I thought were particularly interesting:
Many people reading this know the uproar and complicated reasons my band, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School Of Medicine pulled out of a July 2nd show scheduled in Tel Aviv. In many ways I really wish we had played. But I also share most of the boycott's supporters' feelings about Israel's government, the occupation, and ongoing human rights violations.
He goes on to criticize the general prevalence of ignorance (and certainly not just about Israel) here in the United States, landing some well-placed blows on what passes for news and knowledge on this side of the Atlantic:
People outside America have no idea how dumbed-down, tightly controlled and creatively censored our mass media has become. Corporate McNews is more and more of a cartoon show with each passing year - no - each passing month. Less and less actual news stories get reported. The second flotilla was barely a blip on the radar screen, same for Israel's Summer of Protest. Obama vs. the Tea Party on taxes and budget cuts, Oil in the Gulf of Mexico, yet another sensational child murder in Florida. Sure these first two are important, but Cartoon McNews will stretch them out day after day, month after month and don't report on much of anything else. Unless, of course, it's Tiger Woods' penis or Charlie Sheen is drunk again.
People outside America have no idea how dumbed-down, tightly controlled and creatively censored our mass media has become. Corporate McNews is more and more of a cartoon show with each passing year - no - each passing month. Less and less actual news stories get reported. The second flotilla was barely a blip on the radar screen, same for Israel's Summer of Protest. Obama vs. the Tea Party on taxes and budget cuts, Oil in the Gulf of Mexico, yet another sensational child murder in Florida. Sure these first two are important, but Cartoon McNews will stretch them out day after day, month after month and don't report on much of anything else. Unless, of course, it's Tiger Woods' penis or Charlie Sheen is drunk again.
He also speaks about comparisons of the current BDS movement against Israel with similar efforts to force change during the days of apartheid South Africa. Here are some of his thoughts:
South Africa never had anything like the AIPAC lobby, (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) who now are considered more of a lobby for Likud than for the Israeli people. Nevertheless they have a stranglehold over almost every member of Congress of both parties, using Joe McCarthy-type tactics to smear anyone they don't like as anti-Jewish and get them voted out of office. The ever-toothless Obama was sure to try to make nice at their national convention. There are also several groups operating on college campuses targeting and smearing academics and even students who question Israel's government or dare to network with campus Muslim groups. Several professors have been fired.
South Africa never had anything like the AIPAC lobby, (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) who now are considered more of a lobby for Likud than for the Israeli people. Nevertheless they have a stranglehold over almost every member of Congress of both parties, using Joe McCarthy-type tactics to smear anyone they don't like as anti-Jewish and get them voted out of office. The ever-toothless Obama was sure to try to make nice at their national convention. There are also several groups operating on college campuses targeting and smearing academics and even students who question Israel's government or dare to network with campus Muslim groups. Several professors have been fired.
There was not heavy-duty religion involved. There were not millions in America and worldwide so emotionally attached to the other side for that reason. There was not a powerful Americans for Apartheid lobby in Washington D.C. or Students For A White South Africa on campus. Investors who pulled their money out did not risk an even bigger backlash from pro-Apartheid stockholders and customers.
He expresses his feeling of solidarity with those inside of Israel who are themselves offended by the excessive brutality of the methods employed by the Israeli government in it's stated mission to keep the country secure:
I also feel solidarity with the brave Israelis who are not in denial and desperately want to stop the apartheid occupation and rejoin the civilized world. What about them? Isn't that what political and resistance art is for? The reports that some people at a Napalm Death concert at the Barby Club were singing, "Death to Arabs!" during a cover of my old song, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off", tells me I would not simply be preaching to the converted if I play here. Nor would I be playing into the hands of Netanyahu and Liberman and wind up exhibited as a government propaganda tool, like some people on Facebook have claimed.
I also feel solidarity with the brave Israelis who are not in denial and desperately want to stop the apartheid occupation and rejoin the civilized world. What about them? Isn't that what political and resistance art is for? The reports that some people at a Napalm Death concert at the Barby Club were singing, "Death to Arabs!" during a cover of my old song, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off", tells me I would not simply be preaching to the converted if I play here. Nor would I be playing into the hands of Netanyahu and Liberman and wind up exhibited as a government propaganda tool, like some people on Facebook have claimed.
Jello mentions that segregation and some oppression are not just between Israeli and Arabs, but that there is a sexual segregation that exists as well:
Segregation and subjugation of the sexes here seems to rival hardline Islam. Heads must be covered, often by wigs, and marriages are arranged. Israel's progressive-leaning daily paper, Haaretz, reports a recent marked rise in discrimination, with women being forced to eat at separate tables in separate rooms, and even walk behind the men or on separate sidewalks. The fastest growing settlements are ultra-orthodox.
Jello then shares his thoughts on the growing Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, and shares his impressions of the country of Israel, cities within it, and his impressions during his visit to Palestinian territories:
Impressions of Tel Aviv - Yet there was still this haunting feeling inside that seemed to hang around no matter where I went. People here affectionately call their city "The Bubble" for good reason. Just an hour's drive away from this vibrant ball of energy is one of the most notorious ongoing human rights violations in the world.
He speaks about how surprising it seems that such a small place has produced perhaps the most explosive and polarizing situation in the world today:
It still blows my mind that such a tiny area in such a small sliver of a country would be ground zero in the hair-trigger fuse of world peace. Israel is about the size of New Jersey. The occupied West Bank is a speck inside that, bigger than I thought with 2 million people, but still about the size of Rhode Island.
It still blows my mind that such a tiny area in such a small sliver of a country would be ground zero in the hair-trigger fuse of world peace. Israel is about the size of New Jersey. The occupied West Bank is a speck inside that, bigger than I thought with 2 million people, but still about the size of Rhode Island.
His thoughts on occupation and segregation in Israel today:
Settler's Homes - The big ones are not hard to spot. Many hills in and outside Jerusalem are over-run with big red-roof settlements of suburbia-style town homes—like a swath of San Jose or Irvine, CA smeared all over the hillside like hummus on pita.
Our guide from Settlement Watch pointed out how the Israeli side of the wall was nice and decorative, complete with fancy stone tiles, while the side the Palestinians saw was just ugly cement. I also found to my horror that these settlements were being built by Palestinians so desperate for work they took the only job they could get. They had to park their cars, identified by white license plates, outside the gate at the bottom of the hill.
How people inside the country feel about the situation in Israel today:
What really struck me the most about all of them was the sheer depth of hopelessness and despair. "Why do you keep talking about politicians and parties when they're all shit? They're all bad. It's just going to get worse and worse." One woman who wanted us to play just screamed over and over again how much she hated her country and how bitter she was that she couldn't leave. I asked the boycotters that if the wall fell and peace came, what would they want? They said there was no point in talking about it because it will never happen anyway.
Several felt guilty and angry that they were living in such privilege while people suffered so badly right next door. As I listened, I tried, but could not come up with any quick advice to offer in the way of hope, or step-by-step ideas to lift their own situation and build a future.
This is the Fortress Israel mentality in a nutshell. The most frustrating thing about it is that deep down large parts of it are grounded in reality and not entirely wrong. "We can't just take down the wall and say 'peace and flowers' and get hit with more rockets and bombs." "The wall really isn't all bad because it did in fact stop the suicide bombings. We hate it, but we can't take it down yet."
Finally, Jello's concluding points to wrap up his writings about that recent trip to Israel:
Let's not forget that the Palestinians and Arabs have rolled their demands way back from the "destroy the Jewish State" rhetoric of earlier decades. Yasir Arafat agreed to a Palestinian state defined by the pre-'67 borders clear back in 1988. It is now ten years since all 22 nations of the Arab League offered peace and full recognition of Israel if Israel would agree to a solution based on the pre-'67 borders.
I hope that is where we are today. Because the occupation, the wall, and the settlements must go. As horrible as the Arab extremists have been, it does not justify this. I support the people of Palestine in their fight to be free and the many brave Israelis who are totally fed up with their government's human rights violations and want to live in peace.
Here, you can view the entire segment that Jello wrote on his trip to Israel, which is actually very long and includes quite a few pictures, as well as a lot more insights and opinions. I strongly recommend taking a look:
Jello Biafra - Thoughts On Visit To Israel
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