Pro-Pal pianist gets a slot on Australia’s ABC

Pro-Pal pianist gets a slot on Australia’s ABC

News

norman lebrecht

August 21, 2024

The anti-Israel propagandist Jayson Gillham, who caused a crisis at the Melbourne Symphony, is telling his followers:

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has shown support over the past week. Your kindness and encouragement truly mean the world to me – I can’t stress enough how much it’s appreciated.

A quick update for you all: I know many are eager to hear ‘Witness’. Connor and I are actively discussing how to release the track. For a sneak peek, tune in to Late Night Live on ABC Radio National tonight at 10pm AEST (repeated Thursday 3pm). I’ll be speaking with David Marr, alongside some brilliant guests, about whether art is political…

Your ongoing interest and support continue to touch me deeply. Let’s keep this important conversation going.

Opponents are branding him Al Jays-zeera.

Comments

  • Andrew says:

    Jihad Jayson more appropriate
    In his tweets he justifies the hamas kidnappings.

  • Carl says:

    Not sure what the dig at Al-Jazeera is about. It’s one of the few networks that has provided deep coverage of the war from within Gaza, and without the blatant pro-Israel bias of most American TV news. I watch it regularly for this reason.

    • yaron says:

      TV “without bias”? Qatar keeps Hamas alive. Funds it. If you watch them regularly you are as likely to know the trouth as you are watching Putin TV.

    • Gerry Feinsteen says:

      Tell us you were born yesterday without telling us you were born yesterday.
      Consider the Wikipedia article: ‘Al Jazeera controversies and criticism’ as a launch point for your enlightenment.

      For social media they use AJ+—be careful.

      Al Jazeera is essentially Qatar state media; AJ is very pro-Hamas (that doesn’t mean Pro-Palestine), the terrorist organization backed up by Qatar. AJ denies the Armenian Genocide—and continues its tradition of never uttering a word about or critical of ongoing Middle Eastern oppression of Christians.

      It amazes many of us to see DEI, [LGB]TQIAA+, aligning with Hamas; hop on the terrorist bandwagon where “greatest hits” means something totally different.

      Anti-Semitic pianists belong in Qatar, Iran, and everywhere else that forbids Beethoven and peace.

      • David says:

        Defending the rights of Palestinians does not mean supporting Hamas or all the values they represent. We do not support Ukraine and criticize Russia because Ukraine is less homophobic than Russia. It’s because Russia broke international law and invaded Ukraine. In a similar manner, people do not support Palestine because they are LGBTQ friendly or what have you. It’s because Israel has been condemned by the international court for their crimes against humanity. I hope this logic is clear to you and that you can relax a little now.

    • James says:

      The dig at Al-Jazeera might be about the fact that it lives to parrot Hamas propaganda and the Hamas line (not surprisingly as it is funded by Hamas’s protectors, Qatar – have you ever seen the live interviews where interviewees who dare to even slightly criticise Hamas are physically pushed away from the camera by the presenter?). I know from people who’ve worked there how riddled with anti-Semites their Qatar main office is. Are you also aware that quite a number of AJ ‘journalists’ have been found to themselves be Hamas terrorists, including ranking officers, and some of them even took part in the horrors of October 7th? This is part of the reason that AJ has been banned in several countries including India, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and the UAE.

      Hardly a bastion of journalism, but a very effective terrorist propaganda arm.

      If you want to watch a news network that reports from the Arab world’s point of view, maybe try Al Arabiya.

  • Andrew J Clarke says:

    This gentleman’s appearance on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National service comes as no surprise. They are famous for this sort of thing: indeed, hardly anything else gets broadcast, as its ageing presenters waddle about Sydney’s swisher inner suburbs, still brandishing the Little Red Book. Mercifully, Radio National’s audience is minute and continue to decline, just like the rest of the ABC’s radio and television networks, so hardly anybody is likely to listen to him, except possibly Conor. Maybe the pair of them would like to further demonstrate their solidarity with the Palestinian cause by moving their menage to Teheran?

  • Enid P says:

    I think it’s amazing that Jayson and Connor are going to donate all the proceeds from “Witness” to the cause!

    Go Jason!

  • Peter says:

    Is anyone claiming his statements were false?

  • Aaron Axelrod says:

    I prefer Jayson Gillhamas

  • Lucas says:

    Streisand Effect strikes again!

  • Rafael says:

    It’s incredible I haven’t heard of this pianist until the blow up of his political opinions. If that is all that merits writing about him, maybe you shouldn’t give him a stage. If his playing is uninteresting, his personal views and opinions certainly to not justify publishing.

  • Robert says:

    Nice smile and toes.

  • Apples says:

    Any criticism of Israel brings out the predictable claims of antisemitism. Jayson Gillham clearly stated he was against the deliberate targeting of journalists by IDF. Crimes against humanity must be called out from whatever platform possible. I’m not sure how any reasonable person could support the murder of journalists.

  • V.Lind says:

    People of any taste and consideration stopped using terms like “Jap” and “Paki” and “Eye-Tie” some years ago — decades, even. Why is “pro-Pal” considered acceptable?

  • Andrew J Clarke says:

    Connor D’Netto’s website makes interesting reading, for all kinds of reasons: it displays all those qualities which led ABC Classic to call him a “perfect” modern composer. It goes without saying that Mr D’Netto agrees that “Australia was, is, and always will be Aboriginal land” – except, presumably, the bit he lives on.

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