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February 14, 2003
Movie takes aim at Israel
Film is propaganda, not a documentary, says local critic.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Israel was equated with Nazi Germany, apartheid South Africa and
the Indonesian oppressors of East Timor at a public meeting last
week at Langara College. Speakers at the meeting, which was sponsored
by the Canada-Palestine Support Network, also defended suicide bombers,
called Israel a terrorist state that practices "ethnic cleansing"
and called Zionism a "representation of the bankers' interests."
The centrepoint of the event, on Feb. 6, was the screening of filmmaker
John Pilger's Palestine is Still the Issue. The film was
billed as a documentary, but reflected a completely one-sided view
of the Middle East conflict, with Israel depicted as the sole cause
of all the problems faced by Palestinians. The 1948 war – which
began when the new state of Israel was attacked by all adjacent
Arab countries – was recast in Pilger's film as being motivated
by Arab reaction to Israeli aggression in forcing Palestinians from
their homes. The 1967 Six Day War was similarly revised to again
paint the Arab peoples as victims of Zionist aggression, with the
only reference again being to Palestinians forced from their homes.
Suicide bombers are depicted in the film as victims whose murderous
acts are driven by "an expression of despair" created
by Israeli humiliation of Palestinians. Israel's various historical
offers of a bi-national state were dismissed as Bantustans (puppet
states created by the apartheid regime in South Africa to give the
appearance of black self-determination) and "stateless states"
by Pilger. The violence incited by Palestinian leaders and executed
by individual zealots will be justified when history is written,
the film stated.
"History will certainly call it a war of national liberation,"
said Pilger.
Palestine is Still the Issue makes no attempt at nuance or balance,
despite good production values that make the film appear like a
news segment. An example of the black-and-white perspective of the
film and its subjects is an employee of the Palestinian ministry
of culture who, speaking of Israelis, states, "They don't respect
anything. They just come and destroy."
Israelis who appeared in the film all expressed shame over their
country's behavior, with the exception of a spokesperson from the
Israeli prime minister's office, whose comments defending Israel,
in the context of the film, served to make the spokesperson appear
comically idiotic.
In his film, Pilger makes a direct comparison between Israeli treatment
of Palestinians and the Nazis' treatment of Jews, suggesting that
Israelis should have learned from the Holocaust experience.
Anti-American attitudes also permeated the evening. Activists handed
out pamphlets linking the Palestinian issue with the looming American
conflict with Iraq and Israel was characterized, throughout the
evening, as America's outpost in the region.
"In the Middle East, Israel is America's deputy sheriff,"
said one person in the film. The audience booed when a clip of U.S.
President George W. Bush emerged on the screen.
The film described Zionism as the belief that God decreed in the
Bible that Jews should have the land of Israel. While this is the
view of some Zionists, the film ignored the broad spectrum of Zionist
views that do not reflect the biblically ordained state.
The screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring William
Cleveland, a Simon Fraser University professor of Middle East history;
Nora Patrich, a Vancouver artist; and Noha Sedky, a member of the
Canadian Arab Justice Committee.
Audience members were also invited to express their opinions. One
speaker, responding to Pilger's comment in the film that "Few
people have been betrayed so many times as the Palestinians,"
noted that the Palestinians should place some of the blame on the
Arab states, who have used them as a pawn to attack Israel, and
on the Palestinian leadership, which has always chosen violence
over negotiation. The speaker was listened to respectfully by most
of the people in attendance.
The crowd booed down a speaker who attempted to differentiate between
"Orthodox Jews," whom the audience-member apparently viewed
as decent people, and "Zionist Jews," whom he claimed
are the "representation of the bankers' interests." As
he attempted to express his theories of Zionist control of the interest
rates, others drowned him out and he sat down.
Another audience member, who was one of a clutch of Jews sitting
awkwardly in the back row of the large, packed auditorium, was shouted
down when he attempted to describe Israel as the region's underdog
and as a victim of Arab aggression in 1948 and 1967. A German-born
Jew gained huge applause, however, when he said he hates to see
the walls between Palestinians and Israelis, just as he abhorred
the Berlin Wall of his homeland.
Mordecai Briemberg, a member of the Canada-Palestine Support Network
(CanPalNet), had opened the evening's event by comparing Israel
to Indonesia, which for decades kept the East Timorese people under
oppressive colonialism, and with apartheid-era South Africa.
CanPalNet spokespeople said their goal is to alter Canada's foreign
policy relating to the Middle East, which Briemberg referred to
as supporting "Israeli colonization and apartheid structures."
Anne Roberts, a Vancouver city councillor and an instructor in Langara
College's journalism department, was one of the introducers of the
film. She said the recent city council vote opposing war in Iraq
cemented Vancouver's place as the "peace capital" of Canada.
The newly elected councillor also said that charges of anti-Semitism
are "chilling" valid debate over Mideast affairs.
Roberts went on to criticize the control Winnipeg's Asper family
has over Canadian media and then told the audience that Greg Felton,
a graduate of her journalism department, had been fired as an editor
of the Vancouver Courier newspaper for writing anti-Israeli
columns.
In a later interview with the Bulletin, Mick Maloney, managing
editor of the Courier said Roberts is wrong. Though Felton's
columns caused controversy, Maloney said he and the paper's publishers
strongly defended Felton's right to express his views. Felton's
dismissal from the paper had nothing to do with political views
or Felton's Middle East writings, he said.
Contacted by the Bulletin on Monday, Roberts said she had
heard from Maloney earlier that day and accepted his version of
events. She apologized for not confirming the accuracy of her comments
before discussing the matter at the meeting.
Sally Rogow, a retired academic who was asked by the Israel Action
Committee to attend the screening, was highly critical of the film.
"I thought it was very manipulative," she said. "It
took things out of context. There were fabrications."
Rogow, who last year completed a study of anti-Semitic learning
materials in Palestinian and other Arab school systems, said the
film blatantly distorted historical realities.
"It is not a documentary. It was a propaganda film," she
said.
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and
commentator.
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