You thought Gaza was under siege? San Francisco Chronicle says that the SF Jewish Film festival, oldest in the country at 29, is "under siege" for showing a documentary about Rachel Corrie and, worse, inviting the freedom rider’s mother to talk about the six-year-old case that will not go away, for a reason. An executive of the film festival stepped down over the choice, there has been a boycott, too. Chronicle:
At the core of the debate are questions about how broadly Jews can discuss Israel within their own community – and how Jews represent Israel to the broader world. It is also overlaid with accusations of the "new anti-Semitism," prejudice that is disguised as particular criticisms of Israel, the only Jewish state.
"The furor is much larger than this one film or this one speaker," said Peter L. Stein, the festival’s executive director. "It reveals a rift in our community that we all need to help understand and hopefully heal."
Good man, Stein. The new anti-Semitism. Yes, go to Gaza, where the people live under persecution, blockade, and siege, and tell me about it. The Chronicle passes along, as though it has any merit, the disgusting argument that Corrie naively helped terrorists–as if freedom riders aren’t always seized by conviction, as if she didn’t know what she was doing there, as if the house demolitions do not dispossess innocent people, and… as if Americans would not also resist the conditions of occupation, as Gazans do in countless ways.
