Newspaper Article

Robert Kotyk, “Controversial film festival draws criticism: Jewish group protests "propaganda" screenings (The Manitoban, Sept. 29, 2004)

A controversial film festival premiered in Winnipeg this weekend, angering members of Winnipeg's Jewish community who say that the film screenings were scheduled on days when they would be unable to attend.

The festival, called “Images of Occupation and Resistance in Israel-Palestine,” ran at Winnipeg's Cinematheque theatre and featured several documentary and fictional films that depict life in the Middle East throughout the Israel-Palestine conflict.

However, festival organizers failed to notice that the first day of the festival also marked the first day of Yom Kippur, the most sacred holiday of the year for Jews. One group has come forward to protest the festival, saying that the films are propagandistic and could lead to violence against Winnipeg's Jewish community.

B'nai Brith, a Jewish organization whose mandate is to combat racism against Jews, has heavily criticized the festival throughout the week leading up to the screenings.

“Films like this become part of the building block of propaganda,” said David Matas, a representative for B'nai Brith. “We see violence where people express the sort of motivation that these films propagate, so they certainly don't help.”

Matas pointed to the violence against Jews in Canada over recent years, such as the fire-bombing of a Jewish school in Montreal last April, as being related to the messages conveyed in the festival's films.

He also pointed out that practicing Jews will also not be able to attend the screenings, and will therefore not be able to engage in any debate about their content.

“The people who are most likely to know about the issue and would be best able to attend and comment are not going to be there,” he said. “It's a date when they can't be there.”

However, festival organizers have apologized for the scheduling, saying that the real intent was to show the films as close as possible to the anniversary of the second infitada, a conflict that took place between Israelis and Palestinians in late September of 2000.

Krishna Lalbiharie, one of the festival planners, said that the scheduling was nothing more than a gaffe on the part of organizers.   “We severely apologize for inadvertently booking this festival in congruence with Yom Kippur,” he said. “It certainly wasn't our intention to prevent members of the Jewish faith from witnessing or seeing these films or from criticizing the content.”

In answer to the controversy raised by the festival's dates, CanPalNet, the advocacy group behind the festival, has scheduled a separate screening of two of the films later in the week at Mondragon Café and Bookstore. The films will be followed by a discussion.

Jason Bernstein, a member of the University of Manitoba's Jewish Students' Association, said that the fact remains that the festival's scheduling made it impossible for many Jews to see the most of the films.

“I think it's very good that [festival organizers] are showing another side of it,” he said. “I'm interested to go and see some stuff, see what they say about it and see if they can back up their facts, but unfortunately I can't because they planned the festival over Yom Kippur.”

Lalbiharie said that the festival offers a different perspective than what is often shown about the conflict.

“I think this festival is controversial in the sense that it's the first of its kind ever in Canada which allows Winnipeggers a rare opportunity to see images of daily life in the occupied Palestinian territories,” said Lalbiharie. “It presents a side of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which is not shown by commercial, mainstream media.”

Over the coming months, the festival will be touring Canada, with possible stops in Calgary, Vancouver and Halifax.