Jewish Film Festival reveals 2010 lineup — readers begin sounding off

Peter Stien still won’t admit what a colossal foul up last summer’s Rachel was? To say nothing about him having his job still? I encourage everybody to avoid the SFJFF this year until Stien submits a public apology or steps down.

Peter Stein’s description by implication of the film “Corrie” as “challenging” is completely dishonest.

A movie is challenging if it makes one think and perhaps reassess one’s views. 

“Corrie”  was just the opposite - it was shabby propaganda expressing mindless bigotry.  It’s object was to suppress thinking and replace it with half-truths and outright lies.

That Peter Stein could characterize it that way, suggests that he is so egocentric that he learned absolutely nothing from the entire scandal he and SFJFF provoked. 

Maybe Peter Stein should do some thinking and reassessing of his views.

But don’t count on it.

What were they thinking - that a cinematic “flotilla” would go unnoticed?

To best understand why this film is just another tool for the de-legitimize Israel campaign you need to read this interview with Ayed Morrar (nom deguerre Abu Ahmed) - http://www.justvision.org/en/portrait/96511/interview 

“Budrus” is a feature documentary film about Ayed Morrar who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to “save” his village from the separation barrier.

While I don’t question the motivation to use non-violent means to achieve political goals, I remind myself that the non-violent struggle of this village was a singular demonstration of those tactics during a period of bloody attacks against Israel’s civilian population and that the separation wall, as ugly as it may be, brought those attacks to an end. To focus on the events at Budrus and deny the overwhelming violence perpetrated by the PA is hypocrisy and shallow and only serves to make this movie a set-piece designed to not only de-legitimize Israel, but to de-humanize Israelis as well.
This film has no place in the film festival and I predict it will be a magnet and rally point for all the usual anti-Zionists who can’t wait to portray as immoral beasts—- once again!

Budrus was one of the featured films at the San Francisco Film Festival. This was an inspiring film of how non-violence which involved Palestinians, Israelis and internationals worked to move the wall away from the village of Budrus. Perhaps Jews will be unhappy as I was to see giant Israeli bulldozers uproot hundreds of ancient olive trees, the source of the economy for many in the village. Budrus is only one village where the residents have chosen non-violent resistance to the theft of their lands. So far several of the protesters have been killed or maimed including Emily Henochowicz,a young Israeli=American woman who lost her eye when a member of the border police aimed a tear gas canister directly at her face when she was non-violently protesting the killings on the Mavi Marmara.

Palestinians and those who want peace and justice would have raised no objection to the building of the wall had it been built on the Green Line. But this wall was meant to grab territory and to pen the Palestinians into small ghettos.

I am sorry that there are those who will boycott the film festival because it dares to show some of the warts that some do not want the world to see. Nevertheless, the warts are there and they are ugly.

Janice—I also saw Budrus at SFIFF.  One interesting point about the films is the part where the protagonists daughter says something to the effect that “she did not realize that some ISraelis were like that (i.e. believe in their cause and be willing to help).  That part alone says plenty of how Israelis are viewed by Palestinians—in other words Jews/Israelis are constantly vilified and portrayed as evil by the Palestinians—the people are indoctrinated to hate Israel. So naturally it comes as a surprise to this young lady that not all Israelis (in fact none of them really are as evil as portrayed by the Palestinians) are as “bad” as she had been told all of her life.
Very important point, which I am not sure many people picked up on.
It would also be refreshing to see a film that exposed the “warts” on the Palestinian side—oh, I forgot there is no free press on the arab side of the equation.

This is not the first film that the festival is presenting by a “Just Vision” filmmaker, they previously presented “Bilin My Love” by Shai Carmelli Pollak who is credited as filmmaker on” Budrus”. Were these productions shot and edited simultaneously? Pollak is up front about his motivations—“I did not come to Bil’in as a filmmaker, but as an activist, to take part in the protest against the land theft caused by the separation barrier.” Well I wonder if Mr. Pollak was able to set aside his mindset when making “Budrus”,
I doublt it. I think he (they) found an obscure story in which Israelis behave badly so as to suggest that it says something terribly negative about Israeli society as a whole.

Anti-Israel propaganda works by shining a hostile light that is so intense it’s sole purpose to create emotive and politically charged language that contributes to it’s demonization. Just Vision is able to produce films and (from their website): “.....increase media attention and international support for Palestinians and Israelis working nonviolently to resolve the conflict. In six years, she and her team have created a far-reaching and ever-growing network of peace builders, community leaders, educators, journalists, film enthusiasts, activists and organizations eager to support the Palestinian and Israeli civic leaders profiled by Just Vision.” Wow! The fact of the matter is that Just Vision is deeply entwined in the NGO networks that have associations with organizations that exist to de-legitimize Israel, look at the links they present on their web-site.

A question the SFJFF and inquiring Jewish minds might want to ask—So who funds this network building and film production?

There is a vast international funding network traceable back to Saudi and Kuwaiti money through “C-100 Projects” see:  http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities/FaithCommunities/c100/Projects/index.htm
That ultimately reaches NGOs that shield the donors from their anti-Israel operations. Here’s an example: The benignly sounding “UN Alliance of Civilizations” see: http://www.unaoc.org/  whose purpose supposedly is to counter western misconceptions about the nature of Islamic and Muslim societies through education and dialogue. Who heads the UNAC? Why that paragon of interfaith cooperation none other the Turkish PM and anti-Semite Recep Tayyip Erdogan. What has any of this to do with a Jewish Film Festival? Ordinarily the answer would be “nothing” but dig into Just Vision’s key personnel as listed on their site and you come across Lucas Welch, Founder/Executive Director of Soliya - an NGO listed in the C-100 link above.  Maybe all these associations are merely “innocent” but when I see Wissam Nasr (the same Wissam Nasr that runs NY CAIR??? - I note Just Vision conveniently does not provide his affiliation) warning lights go off.

OK, there’s smoke, but is there fire? I don’t know but lets at least take a hard look.

The bigger question is why is the SFJFF either knowingly or unknowingly being a conduit for voices that align themselves against our own best self-interest and self-preservation?

Janice regularly spews her anti-Israel venom on J’s commentary on line pages and it is instructive that she should praise, among others, Women in Black who call for BDS against Israel.

Tell us, Janice, why do you praise an organization which demands hurtful economic sanctions against the Middle East’s sole democracy? And why do you never criticize the Palestinians? Certainly, since you are a female you can’t possibly share the Palestinian penchant for suppressing their women. Or do you yourself actually concur with the manifest Palestinian’s acute practices of misogyny?

As for the screening of the film, Budrus, why does it have to be presented at the SFJFF? Surely, no pro-Palestinian group has ever screened a film showing anything positive about Israel or negative about the Palestinians. Let Israel-loathing groups like JVP, ISM, and SJP show this film, as they probably will.

Thanks for the good work, calilefty, for digging up the genesis of the overtly anti-Israel producers of this dreck…

It is easy to anticipate the usual drivel arising in “J” about the SFJFF’s right to choose. But what is key here: why does the SFJFF regularly permit itself to serve as a venue for pro-Palestinian propaganda and the castigation of Israel?

As noted, since there are plenty of other forums for such filmfare, it’s not as if those who wish to see such anti-Israel fodder screened won’t have opportunities to do so. For the SFJFF to annually present such films is a slap in the face to most of the Bay Area Jewish community…

First of all I will agree that Israel is a democracy - a democracy for Jews while those who are not Jewish are second class citizens. But more than that, Israel is a theocracy where in many instances secular Jews must bow to the dictates of the religious Jews.

Aside from that I think that those who damn the Jewish Film Festival for showing Budrus should know that on July 9 and 10 Budrus will be shown at the Jerusalem International FIlm Festival. Why are Jews in SF so afraid of having Budrus shown in San Francisco while at the same time it is being shown in Israel? Will you also damn the Jerusalem Film Festival as well?
Maybe so.

In Jerusalem, nobody is as ignorant as Janice, who calls Israel a “theocracy.” What a bloody joke such a comment tenders and the source of it must be rightly deemed a delusional fool.

Israelis, however, know the truth: that they have a free and open society, whereas the Palestinians-particularly in Gaza- operate on as much as Hamas can generate of Sharia-theocratic Islamic Law.

In sum, no one in Israel need be concerned at a Jerusalem-based film festival that pro-Palestinian propaganda will do harm, for the Israelis are fully aware of the truth of their situation. After all, they’re living it.

On the other hand, Americans have been bombarded by such rubbish as Janice herself has exhibited on this page that such propaganda which Budrus can engender might do some very real harm in it’s promulgation of untruths.

Janice, there is no reason why JVP, ISM, or whatever Israel-hating organizational rock you’ve climbed out from under cannot show Budrus. Of course, your minion, which sits around ratifying one another’s opinion, is free to do so.

But the SFJFF also has a free and open choice on whether to screen such cinematic rubbish and Mr. Stein and his board should have made the choice to let Israel’s enemies, some of whom as we’ve seen hilariously dub Israel a theocracy, show the film to their goose-stepping Amen Corner…

Dan Spitzer -
Israel is free and open you say. Lets say an Israeli wants to marry someone who is not Jewish. Can they have that ceremony in Israel? Why did my Israeli sister-in-law have to have a religious “get” in order to divorce her husband? Why is 93% of the land of Israel off bounds to Israeli Arabs? Why is it almost impossible for Israeli Arabs to live in certain areas in Israel? Why are Israeli Arab homes routinely demolished while those of Israeli Jews are not? Why is it almost impossible for Israeli Arabs or Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to get building permits? How many Israeli Arabs are allowed to live in the settlements?

Dan, the fact that I do not like Israel’s policies is due to the fact that I was brought up long ago with the idea that one people has no right to oppress another or to take their land. My dad back in 1947 raised tens of thousands of dollars to help the Jews drive out the British occupiers. He was told by a few members of the Yishuv who came to ask him to raise the money that the new state would be a bi-national one with Jews and Arabs having equal rights and equal representation. But, sadly,  that was never the intention of Israel’s founding fathers.

A few years later, in the early 1950s, several disillusioned Israelis came to visit my dad to tell of the racism against the Arabs who survived the ethnic cleansing of 1948, an ethnic cleansing in which my now deceased American born brother-in-law participated as a member of the Palmach. When I asked him why he helped to drive the Arabs out at gunpoint from their homes in northern Israel across the border into Lebanon he responded, “We wanted their land and we didn’t want them on it.” I didn’t ask him if he killed anyone. I guess I just didn’t want to know.

Of course, in order to cover up the ethnic cleansing, the Israeli officials had to put out the story that the Arabs were told by their leaders to flee. This lie was demolished when the Israeli archives were opened in the 1980s and Israeli historians revealed the truth.

Finally, the fact that I criticize Israel does not mean that I embrace the policies of Hamas, an organization that would not exist had it not been for Israel’s brutal occupation. I find their actions around women and dissidents to be abhorrent.  Perhaps you are unaware of the fact that before the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza the Palestinians were among the most secular in the Arab world. The brutality of the ongoing occupation shoved many Palestinians into the world of fundamentalism.

What I don’t understand is why you expect the Palestinians to just take it as their lands and water resources are confiscated for the benefit of another people.

What I notice from all those who Stand With Israel No Matter What is that there is been no response when I write about the destruction of homes, the bulldozing of ancient olive trees, or the brutality of the occupation.  I guess you think that brutalizing the Palestinians is OK but one should remember that Never Again applies to everyone.

There are more and more Jews around the world and in Israel who feel as I do. Our numbers are growing.

Israel has indeed some archaic marriage and divorce laws, not just for marrying outside of the faith but also for non-orthodox Jewish unions. But this pales in comparison to the horrific suppression of women by the Palestinians, the commonplace “honor murder” of daughters who are thought to transgress the wishes of their fathers, the outright brutalization of gays, the torture and murder of dissidents.

Janice, you know quite well the truth of these realities manifest in both the West Bank and Gaza and such cultural practices are not the cause of anything the Jews have done, although you ridiculously place the blame the Israeli Jews. In fact, they have been the monstrous realities of Palestinian culture and most Arabic societies for centuries.

None of these horrific Islamic cultural consequences hold for Israel, one of the freest countries in the world for the rights of women, gays, and dissidents. If you don’t acknowledge this, Janice, it simply speaks once again to your seemingly unbounded ignorance.

So to remotely compare the lot of Israelis and Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza when it comes to freedoms is absurd in the extreme. Moreover, Israel’s Arab citizens are accorded the same laws as its Jews, with the obvious and understandable exception of serving in the military.

And to say 93% of Israel is out of bounds to its Arab citizens is a falsehood of the worst order and typical of the propaganda your ilk disseminates. Indeed, how many Jews do you believe would be welcome to live in Palestinian controlled realms of the West Bank or Gaza? The answer is, of course, none: any attempt to do so would result in their immediate murder.

Ever the pathetically indoctrinated propagandist, you say the Israelis are engaged in “ethnic cleansing,” a term about as inapplicable as is your lowlife fellow propagandists’ indiscriminate use of the term “apartheid.”

Indeed, there is no hiding the fact that if the Israelis had wished to engage in the ethnic cleaning of the Palestinians, it has the firepower to do it in a heartbeat—yet in the face of the most murderous provocation, Israel has not done so.

Conversely, should-perish the thought-your beloved Arabs ever triumph militarily, even the a mentally-challenged Janice knows what the outcome would be…

Speaking of ethnic cleansing, Janice, why do your Palestinian pets advocate the genocide of Israeli Jews in the covenants of both Hamas and Fatah? Why are Palestinian children taught from primary school on to grow up to become the Shaheed martyrs of Jews? You find nothing of this sort in any aspect of Israeli governance and education.

So please in the future keep your toxic idiocies within the septic tanks of your JVP and ISM fellows. I think the decent thinking readers of this site have had a bellyfull of your bilge; I know I have… 

Of course, you and your ISM comrades oppose the destruction of homes whose lower levels are used to tunnel munitions just as you oppose the security barrier which has been so effective in halting Palestinian suicide bombings of Israeli civilians. I bet that chafes you just as it does the Palestinians.

Have the Palestinians lost some homes, olive trees, in order for the Israelis to safeguard their people from Arab terrorists? Are Palestinians inconvenienced by checkpoints? Of course. Are all these measures worth the life of a single Jewish life? You bet. And if you spend any time in Israel, Janice, the life that is saved could be your own. Your fine Palestinians don’t care who they murder, so long as it is a Jew. What a sick society…

“Janice” has effectively misdirected this conversation away from the SFJFF and into generic anti-Israel polemics. Don’t fall for these tricks - use the ignore button.

Janice provides a cogent example of how and why the SFJFF shouldn’t present anti-Israeli propaganda and speakers, such as Cindy Corrie, who spew it.

Films like “Rachel” and “Budrus” demonstrate how indoctrinated, delusional Israel-haters such as Janice can take misinformation and later try to promulgate it to others who also don’t know any better…

Janice ignores many facts—she ignores the facts that the Palestinians demonize Israel/Jews on a continuous basis, in schools , in the press etc.  She naturally blames Israel for their treatment of the Palestinians(BTW, one thread running through all of her posts is that Israel is always to blame).  She then asks whether a jew can marry a non-jew is Israel. The question should be can a Jew live in any muslim country in the Mideast. I think we know the answer to that.
Janice is a anti-Israel propagandist who would be welcome in Hamas circles. I wonder if this Janice is the same Janice who used to runthe festival.

To pi

No, I have never run the festival.

As for the other Arab countries, lets remember that before the Palestinians were driven out of their lands and homes and not allowed to return, there were many Jews living in Arab countries. Many of them were quite successful in business and lived better lives than do the Arabs of Israel and certainly better lives than do the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Israel was more than happy to see the Jews leave Arab countries so that they could have more people to fill the lands that they took from the Arabs of Palestine.

Because i criticize Israel does not mean that I let Arab countries off the hook. There are many things that go on in Arab countries that I do not like. But, as my good friend has often told me, because we are Jewish it is our duty to criticize Israel when it says it acts in our name.
Also as an American taxpayer whose taxes make Israel the largest recipient of US aid in the world, aid that goes to build illegal settlements and to perpetuate the occupation, I have a right to speak out.

BTW, there are about 25,000 Jews living in Iran - the country that Israel would love to bomb.

Also read what one Israeli had to say about the emigration of the Jews from Iraq.

THE JEWS OF IRAQ
By Naeim Giladi
“I write this article for the same reason I wrote my book: to tell the American people, and especially American Jews, that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews; and that, to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors. I write about what the first prime minister of Israel called “cruel Zionism.” I write about it because I was part of it.”

You can finish the rest of the article, if you dare, at http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/ameu_iraqjews.html

Janice is a major proponent of revisionist history regarding the jewish exodus from arab countries—not that it matters, but she may want to read:

http://www.meforum.org/263/why-jews-fled-the-arab-countries

http://middleeastfacts.com/Articles/history-of-jews-in-arab-countries.php

In addition she states:
“BTW, there are about 25,000 Jews living in Iran - the country that Israel would love to bomb.”

The president of Iran threatens to wipe out Israel, but Janice has no problem with that.

In general, I would take anything that Janice says with a grain of salt—she claims to have been a teenager in 1948—that would make her pushing 80 years. She has plenty of stories about her brother, her brother-in-law, her father etc. None of them having anything good to say about Israel, just postings with venomous attacks on Israel.

Her latest post from Naeim Giladi is false also, besides the fact that he is a notorious anti-zionist, he is not Israeli. He renounced his citizenship decades ago.

the question is, is Janice even Jewish or some anti-Semitic rabblerouser who uses this forum to slam Israel while supporting Palestinian terrorism.

I wonder if Janice is familiar with the recent story of the destruction UN supported day camps for children in Gaza—apparently Hamas was upset since at their daycamps, the children are taught to hate Israel while taking party in military-style activities. At the UN camp they are taught to try to co-exist—Hamas would not have that.
Any comments, Janice? I doubt it.

I think that what was done to the day camps is horrendous and sickening. There is no excuse for it and I would punish anyone involved with the destruction of the day camps. What I have read is that the destruction was carried out by Islamists who did not want boys and girls to mix and who want the kids to spend the day reading the Koran. But there is little I can do about this since my country is not funding these people and is funding Israel, the country that has long oppressed the Palestinians.

As for teaching hatred, there is plenty of that among Israeli kids. My good friends recently went to Israel to visit their children and grandchildren. On a walk with their 7 year old grandson they were horrified when they passed an elderly Arab man and the boy pointed at him and said “all Arabs should be killed.” Where did he learn this?

I am certain that you know that Israeli school kids are not taught to love or even respect those from who they took the land. Why do you expect Palestinian kids to love Israelis when Israel gives them every reason not to?

And, yes, I am not far from 80 and I remember how thrilled I was when the state of Israel was declared. I did not know at the time that the Arabs of Palestine had been pushed out to make room for the Jews of Europe. There was no CNN to show the long lines of refugees carrying their heavy bags or showing Palestinians fleeing into the sea or showing the Palmach,  and Haganah attacking Arab villages. The cameras were not there when the Irgun and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin murdering over 100 men, women and children. That massacre made many Arabs fear that the Jews would do the same to them and so many fled
.
Actually, I probably didn’t even think about it at the time. Life was too full with school and teen age live.

As far as my information I have received most of it from the Israeli press and from Israeli historians. I also have Palestinian friends who were ethnically cleansed from their homes in Palestine but who, unlike me, cannot return.

I see nothing wrong with being anti-Zionist. That does not make one anti-Semitic or “self-hating” any more than being opposed to U.S. policies makes one anti-American or “self-hating” or opposing China’s occupation of Tibet “anti-Chinese.”

Nowhere is it written that because I am Jewish that I have to swear allegiance to Israel. When Israel merits my allegiance by ending the occupation and returning to the 1967 line, they will get my allegiance.

As far as Iran goes, I have read the accurate translation of Ahmadinejad’s speech. What he said was that the Zionist regime would be wiped away. That is like Bush saying that we would wipe away Saddam Hussein. As nuts as is the Iranian leader, he is not that nuts that he would risk losing his country which he would do were he to attack Israel and find his country the recipient of one of Israel’s 200+ thermonuclear bombs. I remember my brother-in-law standing in my kitchen back in the late 1960s telling me that if Israel went they would take the world with them, including the United States. My brother-in-law was an IDF officer and he knew of what he was speaking.
BTW, he never spoke ill of Israel. He only told me what he did and told it pridefully. His kids woke up and have made their home in California. Other than saying that they didn’t like the racism and didn’t want their children to serve as oppressors in the IDF, they said nothing bad about Israel.

Finally the fact that Naim Giladi is no longer an Israeli and that he is an anti-Zionist does not make what he wrote untrue.

Remember pi.  that had the Jews not driven the Palestinians from their homes and lands, the Jews of Arab countries would still be living in their homes. This was a case of tit for tat.

And you must know that in order to have a Jewish state, the Arabs had to be driven out. How else could there have been a Jewish state?

Janice,
Keep in mind that Muslims already have 56 states. I wouldn’t call any of them Jew friendly. You are much too arrogant in your postings and it is quite clear that you don’t have a grasp on the historic, religious, moral, and legal ties Jews have to Israel - the only place in the world that Jews can call home. I hope you will take a better look at all that Israel has offered to the Arabs for a peaceful solution, to support the creation of the 57th Muslim state and that has been rejected by the Arabs. Also, were you aware that 900,000 Jews were expelled from Arab lands between 1945-1970? If you are, its time to start mentioning that in all your postings. If not, better go study up.

Janice keeps on repeating “stories” from her other posts on this forum:

“As for teaching hatred, there is plenty of that among Israeli kids. My good friends recently went to Israel to visit their children and grandchildren. On a walk with their 7 year old grandson they were horrified when they passed an elderly Arab man and the boy pointed at him and said “all Arabs should be killed.” Where did he learn this?”

Interesting how she has a story or incident that puts a bad light on Israel for every horrifying occurrence you point out to her about her buddies in Hamas.

Are these stories of hers true? I have my doubts.
But about that story of hers—yes they are some children that may hear that from their parents, but that is an isolated incident. With Hamas and many of the arab countries—it is government sponsored “education” that teaches hatred of the Jews/isreal.

It is obvious that nothing will stand in the way of Janice spouting her anti-semitic, anti-jewish, anti-zionist diatribes (certainly not the facts).

Look how she now is defending the president of Iran, claiming he does not want to destroy Israel.

Read this, as an example Janice:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080300629.html

Clearly Janice is not to be taken seriously and while she is entitled to her opinion, it is clear that she is an anti_israel rabble rouser who hated Israel and would like nothing more than to see it destroyed.

I would like to hear if anyone either at the film festival or supporting organization has raised this issue.