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WATCH: Johnny Rotten Goes Punk on Jeremy Corbyn

‘I am Jew!’

by
Liel Leibovitz
August 08, 2018
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Johnny LydonShutterstock
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Johnny LydonShutterstock

In 1977, Johnny Lydon helped define British punk when he and his band released “God Save the Queen,” which rallied against her majesty’s “fascist regime.” Earlier this week, Lydon helped redefine British punk when he took the stage and let Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, know exactly what he thought of his anti-Jewish bigotry. YouTube has removed the original video of the performance, but thankfully the ever-vigilant Aussie Dave captured it and uploaded it to Facebook. Here it is, for your Wednesday morning enjoyment, culminating in Johnny “Rotten” shouting “I am Jew!”

And if you need another dose of Lydon being a righteous dude, as well as a reminder that the punk energy these days has no greater enemy than the dogmatic and mirthless left, here’s the man again, chewing out anyone who succumbs to the pressures of the BDS movement. “I am here to say,” he thunders, “people of Israel, I support you 100 percent”:

Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.