MIDDLE EAST: Israeli and U.S. Jewish groups lobby organisers of upcoming Oscar's not to glorify a nominated film about Palestinian suicide bombers and not designate it as coming from "Palestine"

Record ID: 449463

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Israeli and U.S. Jewish groups lobby organisers of upcoming Oscar's not to glorify a nominated film about Palestinian suicide bombers and not designate it as coming from "Palestine"
  • Date: 23rd February 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ATTENDING CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA82LTSFG443YBMFBWN1TPKO1T8
  • Story Text: Israel and U.S. Jewish groups have lobbied organisers of next month's Academy Awards not to glorify a nominated film about Palestinian suicide bombers and not designate it as coming from "Palestine.
    With Israelis and Palestinians locked in conflict over national claims on the same land, the provenance of "Paradise Now" is as combustible an issue as its plot in the run-up to the March 5 ceremony, which will be watched by millions worldwide.
    A drama about two men from the occupied West Bank recruited to blow themselves up in Tel Aviv, Paradise Now is considered a top contender for the Oscar in the "best foreign film" category.
    Many Israelis were irked when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in publishing the nomination, said Paradise Now came from "Palestine" -- a state that does not yet exist.
    Some cinema goers in Jerusalem thought the director may be attempting to make a political point to draw the world's attention to the existence of the entity.
    "The film represents Palestine and obviously there is no Palestine, obviously there is no Palestinian state. So that's an obvious contradiction but the director put it in to represent Palestine so he's obviously trying to make a political point," said Gram Lawsen after watching the screening of the film in Jerusalem's Cinemateque.
    Resident of Jerusalem, Liron Gur, on the other hand, did not think the label 'Palestine' mattered to audiences.
    "I don't think it's a problem, I don't think it's an issue, it's a movie and it's important but I don't think it's important if they have a state now or not, I wish they will..but," she said.
    Fringe cinemas across Israel screened the film but major Israeli cinema chains have shunned the film, with distribution experts citing concerns of low audience turnout given its generally sympathetic portrayal of suicide bombers.
    While that tag remains on the academy Web site, a Jewish leader from the United States said he expected the Academy to withdraw the nomination or at the least describe it as coming from the "Palestinian territories or Palestinian Authority" during the awards ceremony.
    "I think it's regrettable that the Academy has chosen even to nominate a film that glorifies suicide bombing that at a time when we have seen what the price of terrorism is to give it this kind of attention and to seemingly reward and to extol those engaged in it I think is most regrettable," said Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein during an address by Labour party leader Amir Peretz in Tel Aviv.
    "There are many people who have written to the Academy or who have expressed publicly, including members of the Academy, their opposition to this nomination and our hope is that it won't win the award and that even the designation of it coming from Palestine is inappropriate, it should be from the Palestinian territories or Palestinian Authority," he said.
    Labour party parliament member Yitzhak Herzog contended that any film that depicts suicide bombers is not a decent argument.
    "The story of suicide bombers, of suicide terrorists is something that is a challenge to the western world, to liberal democracies, such as ours because at the end of the day, we fight according to values, human values," said Herzog during the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Tel Aviv.
    "Suicide bombing is something that undermines what you would call a decent argument or a decent case. It's vicious, it's violent, it kills innocent people. It has no justification under any circumstances and therefore anything that insinuates justification is dangerous and very very problematic," he said.
    The academy could not immediately be reached for comment.
    Paradise Now was a broad coproduction involving an Israeli Arab director and actors, Palestinian crew and locations, a Jewish Israeli producer, and private European funding.
    Palestinians have mostly responded well to Paradise Now, although some voiced misgivings at its depiction of one bomber who undertakes his deadly mission because of social pressure as well as the call to avenge the travails of Israeli occupation.
    Prominent Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi said Israel's protest over the representation of the film as coming from Palestine is an attempt to politicize the event to delegitimize Palestinian arts and culture.
    "Israel is trying to determine single handedly to the rest of the world how to address Palestine and the Palestinians. Palestine existed long before the state of Israel and we continue to exist," said Ashrawi form her office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "It seems to me the question is Israel trying to deny the Palestinians any kind of political legitimacy and of course any kind of cultural, artistic and creative recognition and by politicizing things, like the creative endeavours and filmaking and so on and the awards. They are trying to say that the Palestinians have to remain outside human and artistic considerations".
    Palestinians seeking independence in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel captured in a 1967 war, won limited self-rule under interim accords that formed the Palestinian Authority. Some Jews opposed ceding the land, seeing it as their biblical birthright.
    Fighting that erupted in 2000 and last month's victory in Palestinian elections of the Islamic militant group Hamas have dimmed hopes for peaceful two-state co-existence.
    "It seems to me that if Israel wants it's own recognition and it's own legitimacy, it has to understand that there is a legitimacy and a recognition for Palestine as well. We are opposite sides of the same coin," said Ahsrawi.
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