The LA Times’ Patrick Goldstein points out correctly that it will come as "a surprise" to an America indoctrinated in Quentin Tarantino’s righteous Jewish violence that Israel has become "something of a pariah" in international circles. But he’s against the Toronto protests. Remember what Paul Simon did during South Africa? he says, it got black South African musicians to work on Graceland?
Precisely. And what is the Toronto International Film Festival doing? It’s not promoting any knowledge of the Palestinian condition, it’s not highlighting Ramallah’s cultural scene, or Palestinian artists. It’s burnishing Tel Aviv’s image as part of the "Brand Israel" propaganda campaign. No wonder this has lit a "prairie fire," per the Times. Israel just slaughtered 300 Palestinian children in a ghettoized strip of land half the size of the New York county I’m writing this from, to which many Palestinians were forced as refugees when Israel took over Jaffa, Tel Aviv’s predecessor city, 61 years ago. There is something grotesque about Toronto’s cultural choice. And that is why TIFF has detonated something: "To celebrate Tel Aviv or any Israeli city for that matter is indefensible, particularly after this year’s lethal assault on Gaza, while Israel continues building its illegal Apartheid wall and settlements and extends its network of checkpoints that suffocate the Palestinian population."
