Israel Lobby Attacks Pro-Palestinian Film Staring Frida Pinto
Pro-Israel Lobby: Black Jews Are "Backward"
Pro-Palestinian Peace Activist Antonio Arrigoni Killed By Palestinian Extremists
Cartoon And the Israel Lobby
Israel Vs. Palestinian Students
What else is new?
I know, shocker!, the mob of Israel lobby types are outraged that there is a new film with a -gasp!- critical lens on Israeli occupation and crimes. A few years back a Palestinian director another mildly pro-Palestinian film, Paradise Now, and was attacked by pro-Israel types. After the film won the Golden Globe a campaign was launched, including a pre-Oscar press conference, to see to it that it would not win the Academy Award (it lost, though the campaign may not have been decisive).
Now an even more high-profile film on Palestine is being released next Friday: Miral. This is no foreign picture in English subtitles at your local independent cinema, but a well-funded picture by acclaimed film-maker Julian Schnable with the backing of legendary Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Think about it! This is the same Hollywood which gave us that awful Exodus and an unceasing collection of anti-Arab trash, and now two men at their top of their career are promoting a film with a refreshing pro-Palestinian perspective. And both are Jewish, for whatever that's worth. They recently wrote:
our film Miral—a sober and deeply emotional portrayal of Arab and Muslim issues—may not reach the audience we think it deserves in this climate. Its message may be drowned by controversy and muffled by anti-Muslim rhetoric....
Indeed, before making Miral, we ourselves knew very little about the experiences of Palestinians and their history. Having grown up Jewish in the U.S., our families had deep connections to Israel and Zionism and we were rarely, if ever, exposed to the other side. It is ironic that perhaps only a Jewish filmmaker could make such a film about Palestinians in the political climate of the U.S. today....
It would seem that any film that treats Palestinians as three-dimensional characters is bound to be smeared by those who insist on reducing this conflict to us vs. them. Such a worldview demands that the Palestinian story, told through Palestinian voices, remains taboo. Indeed, just this week we appealed the MPAA's R-rating of Miral, which we were convinced was a result of the film's political content—and its unapologetic portrayal of the Palestinian point of view—and little else. [Those bastards in official Hollywood.] Had we not succeeded in overturning the decision we could have been left with a situation in which a 16 year old is able to pick up a newspaper and be exposed to hate-filled anti-Muslim views but would not be able to go to a neighborhood multiplex to see the true-life story of another 16 year old, whose nonviolent struggle for freedom and dignity stands in stark contrast to the vile rhetoric about Arabs and Middle Easterners.
Unless the Palestinian narrative is finally understood and acknowledged by Israelis and their American supporters, there will never be peace in the Holy Land.
...When an Israeli or a Jewish American can watch a film that features a Palestinian father sick with worry over his young daughter's future and they identify with that father, with his concern, we are one small step closer to peace. ...
In the early days of Hollywood, many Jewish filmmakers and movie-industry executives felt compelled to change their names and disguise their Jewish identities in response to widespread anti-Semitism. Like many American Muslims today, they came to this country in search of a better life for themselves and their children, attracted by the noble American values of freedom and tolerance. Regrettably, the spectacle of anti-Muslim sentiment that we are witness to today is an echo of the anti-Semitism of yesterday.
Not surprisingly the film has been attacked by the Zionist groups American Jewish Committee and the lousy phonies at the Anti-Defamation League, who have protested its premier at the UN General Assembly:
"It is particularly unfortunate that the film is scheduled to be shown on the day following the funerals of five Israeli victims who were murdered in a heinous attack in which it was reported that the Palestinian terrorist group Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades has claimed responsibility," [Abe Foxman of ADL] added. "The terrorist murder of five members of the Fogel family is a stark reminder of the truly devastating nature of the conflict and the toll of human lives it has taken," the ADL wrote. The AJC said the same stupid Zionist shit.
And look at the ADL's sabotage of the poster, staring the Indian actress from Slumdog Millionaire Frida Pinto:
Can you imagine if someone took a film poster with a Jewish girl on it (or a actress playing a Jewish girl) and exclaimed it to be the face of a terrorist? And the ADL pretends it seeks to fight prejudice. A double bigoted whammy against Arabs and Indians in this shtick.
Go tell these monomaniacal Zionist hoodlums where to get off, that their vile anti-Palestinian propaganda is a has-been, and that the new American liberal spirit embraces Palestine and the Palestinian narrative:
