{"id":99,"date":"2005-10-02T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-02T16:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/?p=99"},"modified":"2021-04-04T11:59:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T16:59:53","slug":"bnai-brith-attacks-the-canada-palestine-film-festival-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/2005\/10\/02\/bnai-brith-attacks-the-canada-palestine-film-festival-again\/","title":{"rendered":"B’Nai Brith Attacks the Canada Palestine Film Festival … Again!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Originally published on the Electronic Intifada<\/a> website on 2 October 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TO\u00a0PROFESS\u00a0\u201cNEUTRALITY\u201d\u00a0IN\u00a0THE\u00a0FACE\u00a0OF\u00a0INJUSTICE\u00a0IS\u00a0TO\u00a0SIDE\u00a0WITH\u00a0THE\u00a0OPPRESSOR,\u00a0SAYS\u00a0CANPALNET-WINNIPEG<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a press release dated September 28th, 2005, B\u2019Nai Brith Canada claimed<\/a> that the 2nd Annual Canada Palestine Film Festival, which opens today at Winnipeg\u2019s prestigious Cinematheque theatre, is \u201cabout propaganda not art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The implication, of course, is that defending the State of Israel \u2014 regardless of its behaviour \u2014 can be \u201cobjective\u201d and \u201cartistic,\u201d whereas criticizing Israel\u2019s actual human rights record, or portraying Palestinians as human beings with legitimate claims to self-determination, is by definition \u201cpropaganda,\u201d or worse: anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CanPalNet-Winnipeg rejects such simple-minded claims to \u201cobjectivity,\u201d as well as chauvinistic double-standards which suggest that Jews and Israelis alone can express \u201cartistic\u201d views and sensibilities in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict; Palestinians apparently cannot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their press release, B\u2019Nai Brith legal counsel David Matas repeats his annual claim that \u201cthe very title of this year\u2019s festival, \u2018Occupation Will Still Be Televised,\u2019 denotes an attitude that is a priori prejudicial and harmful to Israel, and blatantly misrepresents the facts on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never mind the fact that many Israelis, including the \u201crefusenik\u201d soldiers interviewed in the Israeli documentary \u201cOn the Objection Front,\u201d believe that it is the Occupation itself that is \u201cprejudicial and harmful to Israel.\u201d But David Matas is clearly implying by this sentence that there is no such thing as \u201can Israeli occupation,\u201d a statement that flies in the face of aggressive Israeli colonization and military rule in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem since 1967, not to mention 38 years of United Nations resolutions (going back to Resolution 242), and repeated violations of assorted international legal covenants, including (but not limited to) the Geneva Conventions, which specifically prohibit the transfer of \u201csettlers\u201d into occupied territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear that it is Matas himself who has little real knowledge of the \u201cfacts on the ground\u201d in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and little awareness of (or concern about) the human rights abuses of the Israeli State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Matas goes on to decry the fact that \u201ca public venue [Cinematheque] is being used to host an event that has as its raison d\u2019etre the promotion of vicious anti-Israel propaganda.\u201d Interestingly, this past year when Concordia University balked at hosting a speaking engagement with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Matas (on behalf of B\u2019Nai Brith Canada) threatened legal action against the university administration for not allowing that \u201cpublic institution\u201d to be used by local Zionist groups to advance their political agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is crystal clear from these two examples that David Matas is a hypocrite when it comes to Israel-Palestine. Evidently, he does not care one iota about a \u201cpublic institution\u201d hosting talks or events about the Israel-Palestine conflict, so long as Matas agrees with the content. It is also clear from such examples that Matas \u2014 representing a human rights group that is only concerned about certain kinds of victims, and unwilling to consider the possibility that Israel can do wrong – has a clear conflict of interest when it comes to advancing the cause of human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether Israel engages in massive human rights violations or war crimes is an empirical question \u2014 not a matter of faith or definition. Matas should know better, as he has done good work related to human rights and immigration in other areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u2019nai Brith is correct about one thing: we do not claim to be \u201cneutral.\u201d It is our view that to profess \u201cneutrality\u201d in the face of injustice, is to side with the oppressor. This is an elementary moral truism, whether we are talking about Israel-Palestine, or Apartheid South Africa, or the Nazi occupation of Poland, or for that matter, historical and ongoing Canadian colonialism and treatment of First Nations peoples. And no, we are not suggesting \u201cequivalency\u201d through the use of such comparisons. We are rejecting the myth of \u201cneutrality\u201d and the mindless calls for \u201cbalance\u201d that plague any discussion of the Israel-Palestine conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We agree with Canadian historian Irving Abella (author of the classic book \u201cNone is Too Many\u201d) when he scoffed at a CBC journalist for suggesting that they needed to find someone to represent \u201cthe other side\u201d in the debate about Zundel and Holocaust denial. Abella rightly exclaimed: \u201cWhat\u2019s to be said for the other side? The other side was the killing side!\u201d Palestine is not Nazi Germany, but serious human rights violations are occurring, and Palestinians are slowly being dispossessed of their ancestral homeland in the name of ethnic-religious exclusivity. Abella\u2019s principled indignation at the notion that \u201cbalance\u201d requires a forum for someone to defend military occupation and ethnic cleansing, is a universal moral principle that B\u2019Nai Brith Canada has yet to grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an article in the September 29th Winnipeg Sun,<\/em> Pat St. Germain states that even using the adjectives \u201cbrutal and illegal\u201d to describe Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestinian lands \u201cdoesn\u2019t suggest organizers are wide open to debate.\u201d Germain also lets Matas dominate the article, with a brief sound byte in the middle by one of CanPalNet\u2019s members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, Matas once again admits to having not seen 95% of the festival\u2019s content, and completely mischaracterizes Michel Khleifi\u2019s award-winning feature \u201cWedding in Galilee\u201d as a film that \u201cblames Israel for the impotence of Palestinian men.\u201d (Last year, he admitted on CBC radio that he had not seen any of the films he was attacking.) He also re-hashes his tired refrain that \u201cResistance is a code word for endorsing terrorism, and Occupation is a code word for Israel should not be there.\u201d (See Pat St. Germain, \u201cPalestine Film Fest Slammed,\u201d Winnipeg Sun,<\/em> Sept. 29, 2005, p.28)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u201cresistance\u201d is not a code word justifying \u201cterror\u201d as Matas suggests. It is true that \u201cresistance\u201d can be both violent and nonviolent. But even \u201carmed struggle\u201d against a foreign occupation is a right guaranteed under international law \u2014 so long as it does not violate the Geneva Conventions itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Targeting civilians is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, not to mention immoral and generally counter-productive. Our organization opposes all forms of terrorism, whether they are committed by non-state actors like Palestinian suicide bombers, or by the military of a country like Israel. David Matas clearly only opposes terrorism that is directed at Israeli civilians. Our organization is categorically opposed to terrorism, regardless of the perpetrator or the victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More to the point about the Canada Palestine Film Festival, however, is that the films themselves do not even promote armed resistance to Israel of any kind, discriminating or non-discriminating – though one of the documentaries (\u201cWomen in Struggle\u201d) does interview Palestinian women who have engaged in armed resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the films we have shown in the past, and are showing this year, offer example after example of nonviolent resistance: simply going outside to buy groceries during curfew, trying to cross checkpoints to get to school, or violating foreign military decrees prohibiting the building of homes, or the harvesting of crops, on land that has been owned by one\u2019s family for generations, even centuries. These are all examples of what we mean by \u201cresistance.\u201d Matas would know this if he actually bothered to watch the films before condemning them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who want to know what the Canada Palestine Film Festival is actually about, and who might care to view some of the film submissions before they condemn them, the festival aims in part to raise awareness about the nature of Israel\u2019s brutal military occupation, and the daily reality for ordinary Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, or within Israel proper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We try to include films by Palestinians, as well as by Jewish Israelis, that don\u2019t typically get shown in Canada, or films that offer critical perspectives that you won\u2019t see or hear in the mainstream, corporate media. The festival is about letting such marginal voices speak for themselves, and letting Winnipeggers decide what to do with that information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do not necessarily agree with everything that is argued or said by the filmmakers, or their subjects, in the films we choose to screen. But we do think they are nevertheless worth seeing, discussing, and debating in public forums, in universities, in churches and synagogues, and in people\u2019s homes, and that grappling with such perspectives is a necessary prerequisite for understanding the nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict, not to mention achieving a meaningful, lasting, and just peace in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, I think it is important to re-emphasize that Palestinians are no less entitled to cultural, artistic, aesthetic, cinematic, and yes, political expression than any other people on the planet. Apparently, there are people and organizations who think otherwise, and who believe that any and all criticism of the State of Israel is either \u201canti-Semitic\u201d or a defence of terrorism. This is complete and utter rubbish. Thankfully, increasing numbers of people in Winnipeg, Canada, and around the world (including more and more members of the Jewish community in both Israel and the diaspora, who are saying \u201cNot in My Name\u201d to occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing) \u2026 thankfully, such people are beginning to lose patience with the bullying tactics of Israel\u2019s apologists. They are beginning to lose patience with the threats and all-too-common charges of \u201canti-Semitism\u201d from those, like David Matas, who cannot handle criticism of their favoured State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, audience-goers at last year\u2019s first Canada Palestine Film Festival were not intimidated, and feedback from people who actually bothered to watch the films was almost universally positive. Honest, ordinary Canadians are beginning to open their eyes to the fact that there are serious issues of human rights, dignity, self-determination, and liberation that need addressing in the Israel-Palestine conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of how loud the hysteria, how prevalent the non-sequiturs, and how thick the mud and name-calling hurled by the likes of David Matas and B\u2019Nai Brith, the truth about Israel\u2019s actual behaviour is evident to those who care to see. Like it or not, Mr. Matas, the Occupation will still be televised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Burrows is a member of the Canada Palestine Support Network (Winnipeg), ISM-Winnipeg, and an organizer with the Canada Palestine Film Festival.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on the Electronic Intifada website on 2 October 2005. TO\u00a0PROFESS\u00a0\u201cNEUTRALITY\u201d\u00a0IN\u00a0THE\u00a0FACE\u00a0OF\u00a0INJUSTICE\u00a0IS\u00a0TO\u00a0SIDE\u00a0WITH\u00a0THE\u00a0OPPRESSOR,\u00a0SAYS\u00a0CANPALNET-WINNIPEG In a press release dated September 28th, 2005, B\u2019Nai Brith Canada claimed that the 2nd Annual Canada Palestine Film Festival, which opens today at Winnipeg\u2019s prestigious Cinematheque theatre, is \u201cabout propaganda not art.\u201d The implication, of course, is that defending the State of Israel \u2014 regardless of its behaviour \u2014 can be \u201cobjective\u201d and \u201cartistic,\u201d whereas criticizing Israel\u2019s actual human rights record, or portraying Palestinians as human beings with legitimate claims to self-determination, is by definition \u201cpropaganda,\u201d or worse: anti-Semitism. CanPalNet-Winnipeg rejects such simple-minded claims to \u201cobjectivity,\u201d as well as chauvinistic double-standards which suggest that Jews and Israelis alone can express \u201cartistic\u201d views and sensibilities in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict; Palestinians apparently cannot. In their press release, B\u2019Nai Brith legal counsel David Matas repeats his annual claim that \u201cthe very title of this year\u2019s festival, \u2018Occupation Will Still Be Televised,\u2019 denotes an attitude that is a priori prejudicial and harmful to Israel, and blatantly misrepresents the facts on the ground.\u201d Never mind the fact that many Israelis, including the \u201crefusenik\u201d soldiers interviewed in the Israeli documentary \u201cOn the Objection Front,\u201d believe that it is the Occupation itself that is \u201cprejudicial and harmful to Israel.\u201d But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[53,52,48,24],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-writings","tag-bnai-brith","tag-canada-palestine-film-festival","tag-israel","tag-palestine","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackcatredriver.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}