Audience applause
without my realizing it
It was a beautiful fall day on the shore of Lake Michigan, perfect for the Evanston Folk Music Festival with several stages and many performers for music lovers to enjoy (scroll to the end for a listing of talent). Here is the view I had from my post next to the path leading to the entrance.
The performer at the time I was present was, I think, Jobi Riccio. I was too far away to make out the words she was singing or anything that she spoke to the audience. It’s folk music after all and not highly amplified.
My being ignorant in this way, it was a big surprise when a woman came up to me and said, “She mentioned to the audience you demonstrating for Palestine and got applause.” I did not think to ask the name of the singer! I had to fall back on the program for the day to identify her by time and place as Jobi Riccio. My guess is she could see the Palestinian flag I was flying as she did not come past me, nor could I get into the fenced off performance area (without a ticket) which you can see is lined by parked bicycles.
As I expected, standing by the main path to the entry point allowed many people to pass right by me in the two hours I was there. Many nodded approval. One man told me he had seen me at the Taste of Armenia gathering (see earlier post on that) and that he approved of my appeal. My new sign displayed: “TRUMP IS A WAR CRIMINAL FOR ISRAEL - BREAK THE GRIP OF ZIONISM - $$BILLIONS 4 BUTCHERY”.
Fist bumps, smiles, nods, I got very little heat. One woman called me an antisemite. An elderly man tried to tell me the Palestinians are getting what they deserve because of the Oct 7 attack by Hamas. When I told him that he showed no knowledge of history; that Zionism is at fault for all that has happened since 1948 to the Palestinians, ethnic cleansing as surely as was done to the American Indians, he denied any similarity and the conversation ended.
Then a 30-something man came up and asked me, “what is that flag?” which I know from experience is a favorite question for Zionists to ask. When the expected answer is “it’s the Palestinian flag” the rejoinder is that there has never been a state of Palestine. Not willing to go into such nonsense, I remained silent. He then said, “Oh, so you don’t talk to anyone”. I told him that he knew exactly what flag it is, and he left.
How to counter Zionist arguments? Use the undeniable truth of history. Israel is a colony as odious as any other before it and just as incapable of being defended with reason, though certainly with US arms! The remarkable thing is that Americans were so easily deluded by the propaganda Zionism has bathed us in for so long. Israel’s success in America was due to American ignorance of the truth about Israel (essentially no Arab presence here) and great wealth eager to produce top quality propaganda on the stage, the screen, in print. The present truth of genocide is undeniable. I think it is prompting at least some to discover the historical truth of the ugly project. I hope I am helping on that.
For the curious, here is the line up talent for the festival. I’m afraid I don’t know even those shown in the largest type.
I went to the festival today to see Ezra Furman sing and she also got a rousing applause after stating free Palestine and how she was taught to take the history of Jewish people and use it so that no others suffer the way they did.
The needle is indeed moving, due in no small part - locally, even beyond - to you! Of course the flotsam and jetsam of Zionism is still to be found, the combination of arrogance plus ignorance in equal measure adding up to a noxious, odious mixture. Yes, the antidote to their ahistorical ranting and smugness is... historical fact. That's been Norman Finkelstein's winning formula. But note - even when confronted with historical fact, aka inconvenient truth, the Zionist reaction will proceed along this line, as their frothing at the mouth successively fails: first, denial; then deflection; followed by disparagement of the source; ultimately winding up with tortured logic attempting to justify "Hey, we can't possibly be to blame!" Never will a Zionist admit to a non-Zionist fact.
"The remarkable thing is that Americans were so easily deluded by the propaganda Zionism has bathed us in for so long. Israel’s success in America was due to American ignorance of the truth about Israel..."
Ever so true, due in large part to the behind-the-scenes maneuverings and bribes of Abraham Feinberg (see www.israellobby.org/feinberg/). Further, and this is historical fact. the entirety of the State Dept. and foreign policy establishment in the Truman administration was opposed to the recognition of Israel, instead proposing a UN protectorate, otherwise untold grief would ensue. It is said that Secy of State Marshall threatened to resign if Truman assented (for more see https://library.marshallfoundation.org/Portal/Default/en-US/DownloadImageFile.ashx?objectId=4919&ownerType=0&ownerId=15327).
In any event, you know how things turned out.