Gahda Karmi had already said she was pulling out. She’s the one who thought that “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s UN speech on 21 April struck many as obnoxious, but in terms of understanding the 1948 roots of the Middle East conflict he was spot on.” She also thought that after ‘the Holocaust and all this business’, as she put it, masses of ‘alien’ Jews started to pour in to Palestine. These Jews were nothing like the Jews they were used to: these new Jews were pale and blue-eyed, but most of all they were ‘complicated’, ‘very difficult to deal with’, and they were bringing ‘their miserable lives’ with them.
John Rose had also said he was pulling out. Remember John Rose, brought up in a “Zionist home”?
Alan (“some of my best friends are Jewish“) Hart was also billed to speak.
The star of the show was to be the antisemitic saxophonist, Gilad Atzmon.
The event had been promoted by groups including the Stop the War Coalition, the white nationalist Stormfront movement, and the Real IRA, according to the Jewish Chronicle report here.
Engage 
April 28, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Extraordinary that even for these ferocious anti-Zionists, Gilad Atzmon is too much. But, as I commented on the Green Engage site, Karmi and Rose are just as destructive as Atzmon and need to be delegitimized accordingly.
April 28, 2011 at 10:16 pm
[…] Update 4: the University of Westminster has cancelled the event (reasons unclear – necessary procedures were not in place). Update 5: David Hirsh summarises the panel […]
April 29, 2011 at 3:35 am
I just checked on Atzmon’s website, and he claims that the event is still happening at Westminster with other participants. He writes: “Resisting Zionist tactics then, the organisers of the event and the venue are undeterred, standing strong, and determined to continue with the original plan: a list of Palestinian intellectuals and journalists stepped immediately in place of Ghada and John. I advised the organisers not to publish their names for the time being, simply to save them from the unnecessary irritation, annoyance and abuse. However, I myself made sure that they are fully aware of the possible trouble ahead.
This event is promising to be a turning point — The relentless attempts by Jewish political bodies to gate-keep the discourse needs to be confronted and exposed.”
May 2, 2011 at 5:27 am
I’m a bit disappointed by this, actually. I was kind of looking forward to seeing what kind of fringe maniacs Atzmon had managed to find to fill the empty spots with.
May 2, 2011 at 6:41 pm
The event is going ahead, but not on university premises. See updates to the Greens Engage post.
May 2, 2011 at 10:54 pm
In the update, there is a link to Tony Greenstein’s blog. He offers us the following, in passing:
“Unsurprisingly the Zionists have picked up on this meeting, including one Mira Vogel of Green Engage. Unfortunately, as a minor derivative academic, Mira is extremely dishonest” The only possible response is “miaow”: it is a sign of an inability to find any real grounds of criticism when someone resorts to insults. This comment actually tells us more about Greenstien than it does about Mira. A c
“But it would be easier to take Mira seriously if she had, even once, condemned fellow Zionists for demonstrating alongside the fascist EDL.” I won’t disagree with Greenstein’s description of the EDL, but readers new to these columns might need a degree of explanation. Sometime last year, there was a pro-Israel demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy. The EDL had promised/threatened to attend in support. This led to a letter, signed by many of the usual BDS suspects, attacking the demonstrators for, among other things, appearing alongside the EDL. Both a senior representative of the Zionist Federation (organisers of the demonstration) and the Metropolitan Police denied that the EDL had been anywhere near the event.
Fact-checking was in order, but plainly not carried out. It also suggests the level of weight that can be placed on Tony Greenstein’s blog and its level of veracity.
May 2, 2011 at 11:42 pm
I suppose I’d better point out that when you’re a member of support staff as I am it’s quite galling to be referred to as an academic and then insulted for being a bad one. It’s the second time he’s done that. After the first time, I had an invitation to be a keynote speaker at an elearning conference. I wonder what will happen this time.
May 3, 2011 at 7:38 am
Following the links on his blog, we find that Tony Greenstein lists himself as a legal advisor, whatever that means – following the link offers no further details and we might what to ask what his qualifications are, and does he have anything against lawyers? – and working in a “non-profit industry”, as though this were some kind of good deed in a naughty world. In case he hadn’t noticed, the overwhelming majority of us (academics, support staff, cleaners, etc) in higher education are/were working in a “non-profit industry”. He then goes on write that his interests are, inter alia, “Opposing Zionism & annoying pompous Zionists…”
Given Mira’s comment above, I suggest that all this reinforces the last sentence in my comment above.
May 3, 2011 at 10:42 am
I just got an email from one ‘frank spence’ on Berks Anti-War who writes:
‘Adrian Windisch is factually incorrect on a number of points and I think that advertising this event is quite appropriate.’
Of course, that needn’t mean much more than any one can get onto the thread (e.g. me) and advertise what they want.
May 3, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Careful what you say.
There are those who report Tony G.’s kicking those he disagrees with http://hurryupharry.org/2008/10/25/tony-greenstein-man-of-violence/
Needless to say, Tony G himself got a good kicking when he tried to raise Atzmon’s antisemitism at the SWP.
It is people like Tony G who Atzmon refers to as “Jewish gatekeepers” and as a hindrance to the anti-Zionist movement. No doubt, Tony will be outraged at this misuse of his name and site and demand its withdrawal. I won’t hold my breath.
More generally, the trouble with Tony is that over the past thirty or so years ago he has never lost his ardent Zionism, poor love. Like all other ardent Zionsts, Israel is at the centre of his “thoughts” night and day and the core of his political activity. Quite sweet when you think about it.
No one takes Tony G seriously, in fact, no one ever took him seriously, but sssshhhh, don’t tell him that.
May 3, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Tony Greenstein is so outraged at the presence of neo-Nazis who try to usurp Zionism for their own disgusting ends. Indeed, he is so disgusted by it, he even joins in the EDL’s nasty little game. One whould have thought that he would have learnt by now that nazis lie about all things, especially about things Jewish. No doubt, though, he hates Zionists more than Nazis; a rather safe position considering he lives in the UK. What a brave little boy he is.
(Btw, is he disgusted at many of his comrade’s support of Hamas, the party which includes the Protocols in its Covenant, or, like them, explains it away? just curious)
September 30, 2011 at 2:31 am
Atzmon is anti-Semitic because he speaks the truth? Can anyone speak out against Israel without being labeled such? If you’re Jewish, you’re a self-hating Jew or just a plain anti-Semite. Everyone else is automatically an anti-Semite too. Sigh, is there no way we can speak out against human rights violations without being derided and attacked?