Antonia Zerbisias, columnist for the Toronto Star on this amazing moment. Notice the remarkable sympathy for the Palestinian condition. Paradigm shift, in the media:
[I]s it not part of the city’s [Tel Aviv’s] very recent history that most of its Arab residents were driven out, "literally pushed into the sea," as Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has written? How does one deny this sorry record?
Even today, the expulsions continue. Most of the few thousand Palestinians who remain in Tel Aviv are fighting government eviction orders, all from their long-ago nationalized property, to make way for condo developments for wealthy Israeli and diaspora Jews.
But, if any City to City films mention any of these facts, let alone dwell on them, I can’t find them listed in the TIFF program guide.
[John] Greyson’s letter has been endorsed by hundreds of filmmakers, authors, artists and academics, many of them Jewish and some even from Israel. These latter signatories have been accused of selling out their people, and more.
They also stand charged with stifling debate, and of attacking freedom of expression.
Which is pretty Orwellian, considering that their speaking out has blown the debate wide open.
There’s a lot to discuss, starting with why Toronto is the reported test market area for the campaign to improve Israel’s "brand," one that has suffered horribly – especially since its invasion of Gaza last winter.
