Israeli cinema will show
Gibson film
Controversial blockbuster rejected
by other distributors in country
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Posted: April 23, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Comparing "The Passion of the Christ" to Nazi propaganda, a Tel Aviv film distributor nevertheless has agreed to screen Mel Gibson's blockbuster after the controversial film was rejected by other companies in Israel.
"Even if the film is problematic, it still must be shown," Alon Garboz, manager of Cinematheque, told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, according to Israeli Insider.
Some Jewish groups in the U.S. have sharply criticized the movie on the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus, but Garboz said,"Even if the film has an anti-Semitic message, it is worthy of being screened."
"When we screened Nazi propaganda films, it wasn't because we supported Nazi policy," he told the paper. "It was meant to show how far the propaganda machine can go to serve awful causes."
Objections to the film by politicians will only increase interest, Garboz said.
"I don't think anyone has the moral authority to prevent someone from seeing a work of art," he asserted. "Objections will only increase the size of the audience, as was the case with 'Jenin, Jenin,'" a Palestinian "documentary" banned by the Israel Film Board.
In February, the head of the religious Shas Party, Eli Yishai, charged: "The movie repeats a blood libel from the dawn of history."
Garboz plans to show Gibson's movie just one time, within the next few months, accompanied by a debate with scholars focusing on the boundaries between anti-Israeli criticism and anti-Semitism.
He said the film's cost, $150,000, is more than twice the typical price to release a film in Israel, which made it an even greater risk for distributors worried about protests and boycotts.
Pirated copies of "The Passion" are being snapped up in the Palestinian territories. PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, who got hold of a copy, called the film "historic and impressive.
worldnetdaily.com
[I wonder which is more likely to result in anti-semitism, the movie itself, or the comparison of it to nazi-propaganda] |
