Words

Band Biography please?

Marek Vermin (MV): We’ve been around since 2001, but we’ve been through a number of line-ups. The only members of the band that have been with us since the beginning are myself and Casey. The band was founded as a collective, but lots of bands say that and no one ever seems to know what exactly that means. We were the same. It was basically a position about our ideological stance. A loose consensus was the formula for band decisions, but there was no formal structure with a constitution or anything.
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Despite what ideological affiliations someone might think are associated with punk, there is one thing that is common to all – a spirit of rebellion. But the one thing that separated punk rebellion from the rebellion of the first wave of rock n roll was that punk took a cue from the rebels of the 60s and punk rockers set their sights on the ruling elements of their own societies. Sure, punks questioned and thought (sometimes), but what it really all came down to was that they, like the rock n rollers of the ‘50s, were railing against a society that they felt was stale, boring, rigid and false.
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“To the psychologists first of all, presuming they would like to study ressentiment close up for once, I would say: this plant blooms best today among anarchists and anti-Semites – where it has always bloomed, in hidden places, like the violet, though with a different odor. And as like must always produce like, it causes us no surprise to see a repetition in such circles of attempts made before… to sanctify revenge[1] under the name of justice[2] – as if justice were at the bottom merely a further development of the feeling being aggrieved-and to rehabilitate not only revenge but all reactive affects in general.”[3] – Friedrich Nietzsche.

“…sociality, and its necessary accompaniment – mutual aid, characteristic of the vast majority of animal species and so much more of man, – were the source of moral sentiments from the time of the very first appearance of man-like creatures on earth, and that social sentiments were further strengthened by the realization and understanding of the facts of social life, i.e., by the effort of reason. And in proportion to the development and increasing complexity of social life, reason acquired ever greater influence upon the moral make-up of man… And this moral feeling might have withered altogether if the very nature of man, as well as of the majority of the more highly developed animals, did not involve, aside from the herd instinct, a certain mental bent which supports and strengthens the influence of sociality.”[4] – Peter Kropotkin.

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Introduction

There is little doubt that Zionism still occupies a place of prominence in the construction of Israeli and Palestinian identities and lies at the core of the current conflict that emerged as a result of its introduction to Palestine in the late 1800s. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, Zionism has positioned itself as the ever-increasingly salient marker for the status quo of Jewish identity and has managed to intellectually, emotionally and politically bind the existence of a state, Israel, to the health, well being, and even the existence of the Jewish people as a whole. However, since the introduction of the post-Zionist debate emerging from within Israel itself, the strength of Zionism’s ability to represent the Jewish people as a whole has begun to show signs of cracking. The significance of the post-Zionist discourse has partially been that the critique of Zionism, and the state of Israel in particular, have come under serious scrutiny from intellectuals, activists and subcultures within Israel, and the considerable volume of work produced and engaged in by these people has made it more difficult to dismiss than critics living outside of Israel. Important thinkers such as Maxime Rodinson[1] and Noam Chomsky, while themselves Jewish, have traditionally been dismissed as “self loathing” by defenders of Israeli practices and (mostly) right-wing and labour Zionist ideologues. Additionally, non-Jewish intellectuals and authors have been charged with anti-Semitism over even minor criticisms of Israel that if leveled against other states, would be thoroughly uncontroversial. Of course, this is not even to mention the Israeli non-Jewish Arab population, who has been very critical of the state, especially since 1967, but whose voice has never been given any serious consideration.

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