We Don't Feel Like Celebrating with Israel This Year

When I heard the Toronto International Film Festival was holding a celebratory "spotlight" on Tel Aviv I felt ashamed of my city. I thought immediately of Mona Al Shawa, a Palestinian women's-rights activist I met on a recent trip to Gaza. "We had more hope during the attacks," she told me, "at least then we believed things would change."

Ms. Al Shawa explained that while Israeli bombs rained down last December and January, Gazans were glued to their TVs. What they saw, in addition to the carnage, was a world rising up in outrage: global protests, as many as a hundred thousand on the streets of London, a group of Jewish women in Toronto occupying the Israeli Consulate. "People called it war crimes," Ms. Al Shawa recalled. "We felt we were not alone in the world." If Gazans could just survive them, it seemed these horrors would be the catalyst for change.

But today, Ms. Al Shawa said, that hope is a bitter memory. The international outrage has evaporated. Gaza has vanished from the news. And it seems that all those deaths -- as many as 1,400 -- were not enough to bring justice. Indeed, Israel is refusing to co-operate even with a toothless UN fact-finding mission, headed by respected South African judge Richard Goldstone.

Last Spring, while Mr. Goldstone's mission was in Gaza gathering devastating testimony, the Toronto International Film Festival was selecting movies for its Tel Aviv spotlight, timed with the city's 100th birthday. There are many who would have us believe that there is no connection between Israel's desire to avoid scrutiny for its actions in the occupied territories and this week's glittering Toronto premieres. It's quite possible that Cameron Bailey, TIFF's co-director, believes it himself. He is wrong.

For more than a year, Israeli diplomats have been talking openly about their new strategy to counter growing global anger at Israel's defiance of international law. It's no longer enough, they argue, just to invoke Sderot every time someone raises Gaza. The task is also to change the subject to more pleasant areas: film, arts, gay rights -- things that underline commonalities between Israel and places such as Paris and New York. After the Gaza attack, this strategy went into high gear. "We will send well-known novelists and writers overseas, theatre companies, exhibits," Arye Mekel, deputy director-general for cultural affairs for Israel's Foreign Ministry, told the New York Times. "This way, you show Israel's prettier face, so we are not thought of purely in the context of war."

Toronto got an early taste of all this. A year ago, Amir Gissin, Israeli consul-general in Toronto, explained that a new "Brand Israel" campaign would include, according to a report in the Canadian Jewish News, "a major Israeli presence at next year's Toronto International Film Festival, with numerous Israeli, Hollywood and Canadian entertainment luminaries on hand." Mr. Gissin pledged that, "I'm confident everything we plan to do will happen." Indeed it has.

Let's be clear: No one is claiming the Israeli government is secretly running TIFF's Tel Aviv spotlight, whispering in Mr. Bailey's ear about which films to program. The point is that the festival's decision to give Israel pride of place, holding up Tel Aviv as a "young, dynamic city that, like Toronto, celebrates its diversity," matches Israel's stated propaganda goals to a T.

It's ironic that TIFF's Tel Aviv programming is being called a spotlight because celebrating that city in isolation -- without looking at Gaza, without looking at what is on the other side of the towering concrete walls, barbed wire and checkpoints -- actually obscures far more than it illuminates. There are some wonderful Israeli films included in the program. They deserve to be shown as a regular part of the festival, liberated from this highly politicized frame.

This is the context in which a small group of us drafted The Toronto Declaration: No Celebration Under Occupation, which has been signed by the likes of Danny Glover and Ken Loach (we will be unveiling hundreds of new names on the first day of TIFF). Contrary to the many misrepresentations, the letter is not calling for a boycott of the festival. It is a simple message of solidarity that says: We don't feel like partying with Israel this year. It is also a small way of saying to Mona Al Shawa and millions of other Palestinians living under occupation and siege that we have not forgotten them, and we are still outraged.

It's not too late to add your name.

Comments

[HelloFunnyWorld]

Hello Naomi,
Not sure whom we admire more, between you & Arianna...­.. You two are formidable­....

With the recent invasion of Gaza; the on going, long standing Blockade; that humongous-ly ugly wall that Israel's building around Arab neighbourhoods and continued Settlement activity in Jerusalem & other contested areas - Some thing has gone terribly wrong with the Israel/Palestinian situation that seemed to be on track to get better.

So it's time to protest - "TIFF's complicity with the Israeli propaganda machine.” or anything else that comes up now. Too bad - but Israel seems to have lost it's conscience.

[ModernTimes1]

The peace will come when Palestinains are able to have as much freedom of speech and press as Israelis,

[ModernTimes1]

then don't celebrate with Israel. Celebrate with Hamas instead.

[messy]

Yes, Hamas LOVES what Israel is doing to Gaza. They really do.

[courtb]

I wonder if we should have the same discussions about international film festivals that we do about the olympics-whether it is appropriate to politicize it.

For instance, the celebration of Tel Aviv. This is a city that should not be in dispute. It turns 100 years old this year, which is 40 years older than the state of Israel. It was not created on the rubble of Arab villages. In fact, Tel Aviv was a safe haven for the Jews who faced violence and persecution in Jaffa in the early twentieth century. Anyone who has visited Tel Aviv can attest to its vibrant culture. On top of that, the films that come out of Tel Aviv and Israel itself are oftentimes thought provoking pieces about the history and culture of Israel, including explorations of war, conflict, and occupation.

If anyone is interested, here is the statement of the co-director of TIFF: http://tiff.net/livefromthefestival/openlettercitytocity

[Wisdo]

"young, dynamic city that, like Toronto, celebrates its diversity"

Unless that diversity extends to you being arabic.

These "celebrations" should be shunned. Just as the Munich olympics in 36 should have been.

[cakejab]

Ms. Klein: I think what you are doing is great to bring attention back to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people. What you are doing is part of a healing that has to take place if there is ever to be peace in the region.

[Bloodhound41]

I think a lot of you, including Ms Klein, need to go back to your history books. You might start with the period when a large group of Arab countries got togather and decided they were going to destroy the fledgling country called Israel because it had no right to even exist. Well, they got their butts kicked and they've been crying about it ever since. Over the years since then Israel has returned much of the land that it took during that war and has made peace with much of the Arab world. Meanwhile the Palistinian people of Gaza and the West Bank continue to pay the price of their own foolishness and the never ending terrorist acts of the fanatics amongst them. The Palistinian governments fight amongst themselves while the fanatics continue to fight a war with Israel that was lost long time ago. If the Palistinians really want peace, they need to clean up their own house and stop throwing rocks at the lion. They're only giving him more excuses to come and eat them.

[Wisdo]

They were right - it didnt have a right to exist.

-Anymore than i have a right to walk into your house and declare it belongs to my friend Pete, who doesnt have a home of his own. If i tried to do that you'd kick me out, no?

[alsm9]

Agreed.

[Bloodhound41]

I guess you need to go even farther back in the history books. The time when most of that area was known as Judea, the home of the Jews. It was the Arab come latelys who invaded Judea and sold the Jews into slavery and took THEIR lands. But lets get back to a little more modern history. The original Palistine not only consisted of tiny Israel but large chunks of what are now Syeria and Jordan. I don't hear anyone on your side of the argument saying those countries have no right to exist and their lands should be given back to the Palistinians. A member of Hamas was once quoted as saying, "there would be no peace in Palistine so long as a single Jew lived there". I didn't hear any mention of Syrians or Jordanians at the time. As for accusations of genocide, if that's what the Israelies realy wanted, they could taken the other side of Hamas' philosophical coin long time ago. Who do you think would be left in a "peaceful" Palistine/Israel now?

[anniecanuck]

I just wonder why people have to be so vehemently pro-Israel or pro-Palestine.
You rarely meet someone who is both interested and informed who sees it dispassionately.
Surely, it can't possibly be that black and white! And if it is, why?
China's acitivities are rarely met with such horror. Tibet, Falun-Gong, the Uighurs, China's economic colonialization of parts of Africa?--these seem to provoke far less heated comments.
There's just something about Israel!!

[triplbee]

The "something about Israel" is the fact that they receive more aid from the US than any other country on Earth.

[Hedonist]

Not true at all. Both Iraq and Afghanistan receive significantly more and Egypt receives essentially the same amount as Israel.

[myopinion2]

Or, one might wonder whether it's because Israel is a Jewish country. Europeans have a 1000 year history of being passionately negative about Jews, which cannot be explained as a reaction to US aid.

But actually, while I think the above has something to do with it, I think it has more to do with the Western leftist need to identify with a third world cause and condemn the West, while still remaining part of the West and enjoying its security, prosperity and privileges. Allows a lefty to have one's cake and eat it too. A politically correct Marrie Antoinette. LOL

[LMPE]

Is it a safe bet that Israel has played a role in implementing Friedmanism (which you described in "The Shock Doctrine")?

[alexa07]

Thank you, Naomi for all you do to promote peace & justice for all.

[Peabodies]

With Alexa, I thank you, Naomi Klein, for all you do to promote truth, peace & justice for all. There are many, many of us.

[alexa07]

Thank you too.

[abdallac]

Thank you for being a brave lady and saying what needs to be said in this vacuum of balanced information and against overwhelming marketing power and political forces

[Lutfi]

Thank you Naomi Klein, you have been warning us of the problem or reason for the Iraq war and our view on the Middle East , it takes carriage to stand up, so Many thanks from some one who was borne in Palestine and would like to see peace that would be fair and just for all in my life time

[Philbee1970]

Nobody should gloss over the outrage of last January (Gaza War) by helping the Israeli's cover this over with celebration.

[jordanispalestine]

Naomi... as you would personally know...mos­t folks in the film industry of a democracy are liberal and leftist. Why are you punishing THEM with your ideas ??/ Those involved may be for peace and in talking to Hamas and the PLO. Do you KNOW whether they are or not???Speak out all you want on the Rightest Israeli government­...but why act against those who may be thinking like you about peace opportunities???

[Wisdo]

its not punishment.

[jordanispalestine]

Naomi..so stay home...you will not be missed! This post will never see the light of day!

[Tzippi]

Oh, and when did Tel Aviv become your city? We don't want you to represent us with all of your North-Eastern intellectual knee-jerking. Perhaps you should read a bit about the history of the middle east. Are you aware that the Arabs already have 99.99% of the original area to be distributed? Are you aware of the fact that almost none of these countries existed before 1918 as they were all part of the Ottoman Empire? Are you aware that of that 100%, .01% was supposed to go to the Jews but half of that was taken and given to the Hashemites to form Jordan? And of what was left, Jews were to get half but due to Arab resistance instead they got a war? Which the Arabs started but Israel won and therefore became a country. The Arabs have been steadily attacking Israel ever since. What about that don't you understand? How did Israel become the villain when it is actually the Arabs who refuse to live with the Jews rather than the other way around. How about learning some history and not just believing every piece of Arab propaganda that comes out?

[alsm9]

"Oh, and when did Tel Aviv become your city?"

Um..she's talking about Toronto. That's her city. Maybe you should read a bit too?

[genofear]

Who's version of the history of the Middle East did you read? Maybe you should also read a source from the other side of the argument.

[Mortifyd]

The factual history is exactly as Tzippi stated. Maybe you should try to read a couple sources yourself..­.