[Update: Ajami did not win, but....]
“Ajami” is the Israeli nominee for “Best Foreign Film” at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. However, what promised to be a public relations coup for the Israelis threatens to become a political embarrassment that exposes the wide rift between the country’s Jewish and Arab citizens. The film (the third consecutive Oscar nomination for Israel) has been applauded for its realistic view of life in an Arab slum neighborhood in Jaffa and also for the oft-mentioned multicultural feel-good component; the film was co-directed by two young filmmakers, Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti — one Jewish and one Palestinian-Israeli.
Jewish Israelis take pride in their successful artists, viewing them as a reflection of the nation’s creativity, sensitivity and sometimes even what some like to call a “nuanced” political understanding. On the international stage, these Zionist cultural ambassadors work well in obfuscating the image of brutality and repression that usually emerges from the news headlines, whether the subject is discrimination against non-Jewish citizens, the siege of Gaza, the West Bank settlers, the Judaization of East Jerusalem or a threatened attack of Iran. Especially among some Jewish occupation critics, the sensitive artist narrative serves as a useful argument against cultural boycotts, while layering illegal Israeli government actions and alarming popular support for racist policy with the illusion and comfort of hope.
A good recent example of this is “Israel in Focus,” by Eric Alterman in The Nation.
Israeli reality began to intrude into “Ajami’s” directors’ sweet dreams of Hollywood glory shortly after the film received the Oscar nomination a little over a month ago. During a violent confrontation between Arab residents and the police, Copti’s brothers, Tony (who had a minor role in the film) and Jeras were arrested in the Ajami neighborhood for which the film is titled. The brothers charged police with using excessive force, illegal arrest and abuse while being held. Both Coptis were released without charge after questioning.
This week in Jaffa, 300 Israel Arabs demonstrated against the police. In addition to his two brothers, Scandar Copti’s parents participated in the protest. According to Ha’aretz, Jeras Copti, in addressing the demonstrators, said that at the police station his eyes were sprayed with pepper gas while he was in handcuffs. Copti also told the crowd that he was threatened by police and told that what the Israelis did in Gaza was nothing compared to what they will do in Jaffa.
Just hours before the ceremony, Scandar Copti angered Jewish Israeli government officials by declaring, “I am not part of the national team…. I cannot represent a country that does not represent me.”
This quickly brought reaction from Jewish government officials. Limor Livnat, Minister of Sport and Culture, opined: “It is sad that a director supported by the state ignores those who helped him create and express himself…. Happily, the rest of the movie’s team see themselves as part of the State of Israel and are proud to represent it in the Oscars as ambassadors of liberated cultural expression.” Member of Knesset Daniel Hershkowitz eschewed the gentler and nuanced critical style of Livat and spoke directly to the fears of the cultural ambassador types when he warned, “the man who directed the film with Israeli funding might wrap himself with a Hamas flag tonight. If the movie wins an Oscar, it might be a Pyrrhic victory for Israel.”
The chances are “Ajami” will not win the Oscar. My bookie is laying 7 to 1. If it beats the odds and wins, we will then see a real Israeli mini-drama in Hollywood. The plot: will Copti accept the award saying he is not a representative of Israel and what will he say about the real life Ajami?
Huh. Maybe I will watch the Oscars after all, at least the foreign film award. Anybody betting on what he will do? I imagine he’s gonna get some threats regarding his future career and his family should the film from Israel win and he don’t tow the line (” Scandar, just say thanks and smile a lot if you know what’s good for you and your family.”)
The local residents of the hard knocks Palestinian crime hub are proud of their native son, but pissed that the film shows Palestinian criminals but not the reasons for the
shabby and crime riddled neighborhood–years of being treated shabbily–by guess who:
link to trueslant.com
The film took eight years to make and was very low budget.
Another take on the film here: you’re not watching Exodus:
link to huffingtonpost.com
The writer doubts it will help Brand Israel.
I say, maybe the status quo should take a hint what can be done with Jews and Arabs
working together.
Apparently the film location is one of the few places in Israel where Jews and Arabs do live
together. Plenty of real life poor Arab extras in the movie.
When you stand in the front rank with your toes on the line on the parade ground, you TOE the line.
And yes, I think you are dead right. If he doesn’t toe the line, his family is going to find life uncomfortable, and he will never get a chance to make another film in Israel.
It is sad that a director supported by the state ignores those who helped him create and express himself…. Happily, the rest of the movie’s team see themselves as part of the State of Israel and are proud to represent it in the Oscars as ambassadors of liberated cultural expression.”
Livnat with her bullcrap.
“Supported by the state”. Ha! What a joke.
That’s the same state that destroyed his homeland, deprives him and his family of equal rights, economic and educational opportunities available to Jews in Israel and refuses to allow Jaffa’s remaining Palestinian residents to renovate their crumbling homes while building new tourist traps and studio apartments for “Israeli artists”.
I can’t stand this TzVi’ut.
And is now supporting segregated Jewish housing in the same neighborhood.
link to ynetnews.com
“national-religious” means settler types
potsherd, there is no coincidence here, it is a concerted effort by the national-religious (fanatics) to place roots right in the heart of the palestinian neighborhoods, just like hebron or EJ. once they arrive the police then have to ‘protect’ them and the curfews and checkpoints abound. this ghetto is where the last remaining vestiges of the population historic jaffa live. most of the palestinians of jaffa ended up as refugees in gaza. here is a diary by a palestinian israeli about ajami w/a really good description/background of the ghetto.
And these projects are built on “state lands” which were originally confiscated from Palestinians.
There goes the neighbourhood.
this will be an interesting side-show to the main spectacle of a bloated awards show that celebrates uninteresting “stars” and mediocre films relative to past eras … at least there aren’t the usual 3 to 6 Holocaust™ movies this time around … and Tarantino’s version of a Holocaust™ film is a disjointed mess and was no doubt compelled upon him by Harvery Weinstein who said, “it’s time to do it,” so Tarantino made a film that starts out as a Jewish Revenge Fantasy and then turns to farce and silliness to the point where you think all the characters are pretty reprehensible (and our protagonist never does have her face-off to the last with her Nazi pursuer)
Hershkowitz: “the man who directed the film with Israeli funding might wrap himself with a Hamas flag tonight.”
This must be half a quote. Where are Ahmedinejad and Hitler? Amazing how a simple voice of dissent immediately brands the speaker a Hamas-supporter (i.e. terrorist). As for the “genteel” Livnat, to the extent that Ajami received state funding, the directors’ souls were not part of the deal. The all-important hasbara point Livnat was really trying to make is that Israel is a normal country and Copti is behaving in an abnormal fashion, when it is in fact the other way around. Among the goals of BDS, as explained by Naomi Klein, is to drive home the message that Israel is not a normal country. I think Copti has succeeded in doing that, and hope he gets the chance to say more.
I assume that all of you will voluntarily NOT watch Ajami as it is an Israeli product.
And, by association, you will not attend any Oscar-nominated film for its association with Israeli products.
Or, is constructive engagement more relevant, given the critical elements of at least the last two years Israeli films, and others prior. (“Waltz with Bashir” and “Ajami”).
Naomi Klein:
“This is not a boycott of Israelis. It’s a boycott of pretending that everything is normal in Israel, because that’s what cultural producers are usually invited to do.”
“It’s a boycott of Israeli institutions, it’s a boycott of the Israeli economy.”
Uniquely and opportunistically vague.
It’s a tactic, not a religious commandment. It’s supposed to be applied with seichel.
Or maybe an unprincipled and inconsistent expression of contempt.
Or maybe not.
——————
Prove it. I see the punitive so far, flirting with “Israel doesn’t have a right to exist and never did.” rather than the proposal.
Most of the adult world sees similarly. Some are angrier at the immaturity than I am.
Here’s the proposal: link to bdsmovement.net
And here’s Klein’s FAQs: link to naomiklein.org
you prove it richard, don’t ask shmuel to prove a negative. what is vague about boycotting Israeli institutions and the Israeli economy? it means if an israeli scholar comes to the US not in affiliation with nor funded by an israeli institution she/he is not part of the boycott.
I read the three demands.
These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
1. 67 borders (except for Jewish portion of the old city of Jerusalem), and test for property claims. Yes. (Or do you, and others, conclude that Israel itself is occupation?)
2. Rights to equal rights in Israel and due process under the law. Yes.
3. Respecting the rights of Palestinians to return to their homes from 1948. Physically impossible as in most cases the homes don’t exist. Its a small number now. There title claims and citizenship claims should be honored.
A child of a refugee born in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt should NOT be considered Israeli. A child born in the West Bank should not be considered Israeli.
Is that what is meant by right of return, or do you and others mean for anyone that claims they are a descendant of a “Palestinian” by any geographic definition has the right to return to Israel?
You do get that that is vague, and that vague statements facilitate opportunism and “never fulfilled” demands. It allows for the harboring of movements opposed to the existence of any Israel, regardless of 67 borders.
Hopefully, Palestinian society will also afford Jewish minorities in Palestine, equal rights. A right of return, unlikely, no?
Are you investing in punitive measures? Does Naomi Klein use that term assertively? Or does she shy away from it?
Annie,
Your definition is opportunistic and vague, how surprising.
Waskow’s valid point is that BDS is an attempt to punish a people, to collectively punish, to match a perceived wrong with a “hopefully” greater wrong.
To “teach them a lesson”, RATHER than communicate with them.
Richard we all know that the only ‘right of return’ which will be acceptable to our progressive friends is a full right of return for anyone who claims any sort of Palestinian lineage.
The only refugees in history who believe 5 or 6 generation refugees should have the same rights as 1st generation refugees.
And your idea of the ‘right of return’ for any Jews who were evicted from their lands during the same time period is laughable. We both know who we are dealing with Richard.
“The only refugees in history who believe 5 or 6 generation refugees should have the same rights as 1st generation refugees. ”
Funny, seeing how Zionists like yourself commonly base their endeavour’s legitimation on… what? 50th generation refugees? 60?
> …is that BDS is an attempt to punish a people, to collectively punish, to match a perceived wrong with a “hopefully” greater wrong. To “teach them a lesson”, RATHER than communicate with them.
You are confusing the Gaza siege by Israel with the BDS movement.
and for god sake fucking yonira why the right to return is guaranteed for European Jews? Even myself i can move out to Israel, a country which doesn’t represent me, nor the tradition of my family.
“Richard we all know that the only ‘right of return’ which will be acceptable to our progressive friends is a full right of return for anyone who claims any sort of Palestinian lineage”
Yes, image that? People expecting the right of return to a territory they have never even visited before! Where’s the outrage right Yoni?
“The only refugees in history who believe 5 or 6 generation refugees should have the same rights as 1st generation refugees.”
Indeed, they should definitely follow Isrsel’s example that differentiates between generations….oh wait.
“And your idea of the ‘right of return’ for any Jews who were evicted from their lands during the same time period is laughable.”
Laughable becasue it never happened.
“Are you investing in punitive measures? Does Naomi Klein use that term assertively? Or does she shy away from it?”
As you would say Witty, that would depend on the “tone” right?
“Are you investing in punitive measures? Does Naomi Klein use that term assertively? Or does she shy away from it?”
As you would say Witty, that would depend on the “tone” right?
Hopefully, Palestinian society will also afford Jewish minorities in Palestine, equal rights. A right of return, unlikely, no?
i would certainly advocate for any jews or their descendants who were displaced from their homes in hebron as a result of the founding of the state to be able to return.
transferring populations is illegal. israel must make amends. waiting til everyone is dead is a non starter. don’t tell me it would be physically impossible while the state of israel is bribing russians to move into the golan and the west bank.
so, i take it you were against the boycott of SA and believe ending apartheid would have been more effective had the world just communicated? israel’s not big on communicating, they relate more to slash and burn tactics. the israel way is “teach them a lesson” by bulldozing the house down. i’m not interested in teaching anybody a lesson i want results. i want this exposed, out in the open for all it’s ugliness to pour out onto the table top like cards in a poker hand w/the chips on the table. i have no faith is israel to make a decent deal, they have had 60 years. i want change. it’s put up or shut up time for israel, not more communication. if israel needs communication , you do it. tell them we are fed up, thanks.
the great thing about bsd is people can become active even if their congress people do not agree. i heard recently the bds movement only needs 400,000 plus signatures for a ballot initiative for the citizens of california to decide if the state wants to divest from israel in our state employees pension funds. we need to get israel on the ballot so people can have a voice. that or campaign reform. now that it costs an arm and a leg to run for office, opting out of voting for israel can be expensive in more ways than one.
ciao
I base Israel’s legitimacy on reality. The reality is there is a state in the Middle East, where Jews can go and not fear persecution. This can’t be guaranteed w/ a one-state solution.
” I base Israel’s legitimacy on reality.”
The matter of legitimacy is a red herring created by Israeli propagandists to stfle debate about Israeli policy, much the same way that “Israel’s right to exist” is employed. The matter of South Africas’s legitimacy was never questioned, even while harsh criticism was directed at them.
“The reality is there is a state in the Middle East, where Jews can go and not
fear persecution. This can’t be guaranteed w/ a one-state solution.”
If fear of persecution was remotely based on reality, most Jews would not insist on living outiside of Israel.
“The reality is there is a state in the Middle East, where Jews can go and not fear persecution.”
Yes, and it sure can dish out that persecution yonira. Whether the future holds a two-state or one-state solution it will not remain as the current Zionist entity it is today. The current course of Zionism needs to be decimated with no excuses admitted. This filthy settler state which murders with impunity, and acts like it represents the Jewish people as a whole (which you have just claimed by default yonira) will cease to exist.
Shingo?
are you trying to argue there isn’t a state of Israel with a Jewish majority in the ME?
No, Yonira, which is why I didn’t say that .
What I did say was that:
1. The debate about Israel’s legitimacy is one that only Israeli propagandists are having.
2. If there was any persecution of Jews, the majority would not be in the diaspora.
Do you need that translated onto Wittish?
“A child of a refugee born in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt should NOT be considered Israeli. A child born in the West Bank should not be considered Israeli.”
You will perhaps be surprised that I agree with you. In a two-state scenario, I would say that only those born in Israel, their spouses, and dependent children have the right to return to Israel. (Compensation to the descendants of the dispossessed for stolen property would be another matter.)
But of course, to be consistent with the this lex solis concept, you would also have to revoke the Law of Return and abandon the foolish notion that Jews are in any sense a “nation”. You would concede that Australian Jews are Australian, and Australia is their nation. And as soon as you have done that, you have admitted that the creation of Israel was just a land-grab by a bunch of European immigrants.
Wonderfully articulated Roga. Now sit back and enjoy the display of verbal gymnastics and literal vontoetions as Witty posts a response while simultaneously avoiding giving any coherent answer to your proposition.
We are a people. There is nothing to give up. As Palestinians that live in Saudi Arabia or the US name themselves as Palestinian.
Palestinian Americans, Jewish Americans, African Americans.
I would assume that it would be within Palestine’s right to offer return to any Palestinian that desired to return to sovereign Palestine.
Both communities would give up hopes, for practicality and maybe a future bi-national state if it evolved that way.
The big gamble is not in the cards.
Witty
In international law, refugees have the right to return. This is their right.
The words are misused. In international law, refugees have the right to return to THEIR homes, not some abstract national exageration.
Their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren aren’t refugees, unless the host country that they reside is archaic and doesn’t grant them citizenship by birth.
Palestine could offer that nationalist abstraction within the borders of their jurisdiction, as Israel can.
So long, as equal rights are practiced in real life, that is not a particularly valid question (especially for a parisian, that does offer a form of right of return).
in this case why Israel refuse to grant its citzenship for its African refugees and the Israeli citizenship to Israeli refugees children and the immigrants Israeli born children? Why Israel expel them?
“The words are misused. In international law, refugees have the right The words are misused. In international law, refugees have the right to return to THEIR homes, not some abstract national exageration.
You haven’t answered the question Witty.
Firstly, you are not a people, but a religion.
Secondly, land, being property, should be inherited by the children of those refugees, so like it or not, those homes have become their own too.
You don’t get to make up your own version of international law just to suit your racist and segregationist needs Witty.
Of course we are a people. Ask Phil if he is a Jew or religious.
Witty you didnt answer my question? maybe because you don’t understand it?
What question aparisian?
Say it again, and please not a speech, so it can be answered.
You said, i quote Their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren aren’t refugees, unless the host country that they reside is archaic and doesn’t grant them citizenship by birth. and i asked:
In this case why Israel doesn’t grant its citzenship for the African refugees and the Israeli born children from emigrant parents, or even sometimes with one Israeli parent,even worse Israel expel them?
”Ask Phil if he is a Jew or religious. ”
Has Phil said he is a people? Of course not.
I don’t know. I don’t know if you what are saying is true, or if it is why?
What does that have to do with anything?
Does that motivate you to a warring attitude, rather than a questioning or dissenting?
Phil describes himself in first person as a Jew. He is part of a family, part of a family of families (that I am also a part of).
It is a human family of families, and a Jewish family of families. Maybe literally genetic, in substance, community.
Accept it. Jews are a people.
Your description is vague and applies to all people.
So to correct you, Jews are people, not a people.
Jews are a people. We self-identify. And for those of us that it is important, we self-govern.
You don’t get to define what Jews are. The only thing that you can do is to accept or rant.
I describe myself as Catholic. Does that make Catholic a people? Better yet, I’m also gay. Should “the Gay People” of the world unite and claim a homeland? Would that fly with you, Witty? I mean, we’re at least 10% of the world’s population.
I m not native english speaker so sorry if you felt that i m having a warring attitude.
I don’t know. I don’t know if you what are saying is true, or if it is why?
You can learn by yourself at link to israeli-children.org.il
This is what they say on their Facebook group.
“We are a group of volunteer activists, Israeli citizens, migrant workers and refugees. Together we struggle for citizenship to the children under threat of deportation, to put a stop to the manhunt of innocent workers, and to stop the Spinning Door – deporting and bringing new workers in parallel, while extorting thousands of dollars from the workers”
Why Israel is not considering these children as Israelis knowing that they were born in Israel while you keep criticizing Arab countries for not granting their citizenship for the children of the Palestinian refugees?
“Waltz with Bashir”? Wasn’t that another example of oh-look-what-we’ve-become self-pitying omphaloskepsis?
Leaving your… disposition to think in rigid categories aside, what the hell is the buzz? This guy said: ‘I cannot represent a country that does not represent me.’ Any beef with that? I mean, Israel is, its government insists, the nation-state of the Jewish people. So it quite obviously doesn’t represent him, a non-Jew. But of course, they want to have their ethnically labeled super best friends club but when people actually point that out, they throw a fit.
Waltz with Bashir QUESTIONED.
Good work to do.
I have always liked As’ad AbuKhalil review of Waltz With Bashir, he gets down to the raw essentials. Excerpt:
“The film strives, as always happens in the liberal Zionist media, to introduce, up close, every soldier who appears in the film. You see the soldier as a child, helping his mother in the kitchen, you see him with his sweetheart, you see him sea-sick and vomiting, and there is nothing but for the viewer to lament and sympathize with the suffering Israeli murderer. There is a particular school in the Zionist Left that expresses its displeasure—nay, more—that some of the practices of Israeli wars and various aspects of the occupation are detrimental to “the Israeli spirit” or “the psychology of soldier.” In other words, for some of these people—like the thousands who demonstrated after the massacres of Sabra & Shatila—opposition to the slaughter came not out of sympathy with the victims or consciousness of the disaster that befell them, but out of support for the national (and, for some, even religious) fighting élan of the colonialist army. The humanization of the murderer and sympathy for him are both the flip side of the dehumanization of the Palestinian Other, for he is not a complete person in their view. Read Zionist literature from the beginning to find in their representation—if they were there at all—backward peasants or lowly bedouins or nondescript refugees without citizenship, later transformed into “saboteurs” (and this is the same name that the Phalangist “Voice of Lebanon” radio used in the course of the war) in the 1960s, until Zionist propaganda finally settled upon the description “terrorist”. The film doesn’t deviate from the formula, even with regard to that splendid boy when he fires an RPG launcher in the face of the occupier.”
“DANCE OF DEATH: WALTZ WITH BASHIR, AND SYMPATHY FOR THE KILLER”
I call the Waltz the Deer Hunter with a star of David stamped over it.
Also
‘Waltz in Denial’– Blankfort
Richard Witty, mind of twit, how ‘o how does your name include “wit?” You peck, you parse, with you logic indeed is sparse. You pout you ponder, you cause eyes to wander (as they roll up into one’s head while sighing). It’s hard to rhyme the word anachronism but I shall try dear Dick: Witty’s logic, it’s a schism, he views the world through the zionist prism, he’s a crier a trier, an israeli Pryor? Can you ever just stop your whine?
Radii, you probably could have saved a rain forest w/ the amount of time you spent on that piece of shit attempt at being ‘witty’.
Yonira, if you stopped stalking in this site you could have earned enough to get that brain surgery you so desperately need.
There is no surgical cure for stupid.
he is not just stupid ziocaine, but he is also hypocrite coward.
Funny, a Frenchman calling me a coward. now that is ironic.
That was unnecessary, Yonira.
ok, thanks Richard
Oh, but it wasn’t untrue? You’re such an asshole, Witty. You and yoniraspew deserve each other.
show the world how racist you are yoniraspew. You insult people because of their nationality, religion, you privilege excepationlism. You are all Israel, exactly the same image of the terrorist apartheid state.
And Klein on her decisions regarding the translation and promotion of the Hebrew translation of Shock Docrtine:
link to haaretz.com
Principled, consistent, constructive and mature.
Pingback: The real Ajima — War in Context
This story is reported on the CBC: link to cbc.ca
The most wonderful bit: check out the “Most Agreed” comments below the article. The first five pages or so are dominated by people with a sophisticated understanding of what’s happening to the Palestinians. And people are modding up those comments. People are wising up, en masse, to the situation.
Anyone else notice how insanely desperately yonira and Witty are to divert attention from the actual content of the article? Maybe they’re hoping we missed this section, which bears repeating:
Ooooh, those ungrateful colored people, huh, Witty? So uppity, aren’t they?
Finally, El secreto de sus ojos won the Oscar to the best foreign-language film. I’m happy for two reasons. First, I’m Argentinian. Second, if Ajami had won and Scandar Copti had begun to tell the story of his tear-gassed brother, his microphone would have been silenced, so rooting for the Israeli film wasn’t worth it.
THE REAL AJAMI
Brought to you by the auspices of the filthy settler state