It’s one thing to not get funding in the first place, but for the Israeli Film Fund, a state run agency, to take it away because the film compares the Holocaust to the Occupation?! The only “democracy” in the Middle East strikes again, proving that dissent will not be tolerated. Now, Israel that doesn’t seem very democratic of you!
Oh well, at least it gives me hope that there are emerging voices working for justice in Israel. And makes me wonder why the translation for Popsicle is Eskimo?
Israeli film comparing Holocaust to occupation loses state funds
By Haaretz Service and City Mouse
1/25/10
The Israel Film Fund has ended its financial support for director Yonatan Segal’s new piece Odem, after learning that it compares Israel’s occupation of the West Bank to the Holocaust. Segal is best known as the star of the 1978 Israeli film Lemon Popsicle (Eskimo Lemon).
In an article published last Friday in Yedioth Ahronot, Israeli journalist Yair Lapid cited a passage from the marketing brochure for Odem, in which Segal wrote: “It took a lot to convince the Israel Film Fund that the occupation is worse than Israel has ever admitted too and that it is possible to compare the occupation to the Holocaust.”
Lapid took issue to this comment, and criticized the fact that such a film was receiving financial support from a government body. In the wake of Lapid’s article, the executive director of the Israel Film Fund announced that support for the film has been cut off.
Odem, which is currently being filmed, is a story that jumps in time and tells of two Palestinian women who decide to sneak into Jerusalem one night.
The Israel Film Fund pledged NIS 1.3 million for production of the film, and has already invested NIS 850,000 of that sum.
3 responses so far ↓
B.Witt // 28 January, 2010 at 10:17 am
Democracy in scare quotes?
Classy. Very classy.
ihearthamas // 28 January, 2010 at 11:17 am
Opressing 3 million+ Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel and completely suppressing any open discourse or dissent is also incredibly classy.
Eurosabra // 10 February, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Brand names often wind up in Hebrew as the name for an entire item. “Eskimo” = “popsicle.”
Anti-occupation sentiment in Israel is alive and well, and you might be surprised what you find.