Wednesday, September 19, 2007
The Muslim American Society is putting out the call to come meet Mohammed Bakri, director of the film Jenin, Jenin which peddles the long-discredited myth of the "Jenin massacre," and is pushing members to make a donation to his legal defense fund. You see, at long last the Israeli courts are going to hear the libel suit filed against the director by a number of IDF soldiers who claim damages.
First, the MAS email (forwarded from festival organizer, Katherine Hanna):
The Festival is about to begin September 29th with 9 days of great films by Palestinian artists. Sadly though, one of our featured actors/directors, Mohammed Bakri, is facing a crisis that requires our community's help. He's being sued by five Israeli soldiers as a result of his work, putting his family and home at risk.
Samia Halaby of the NYC Al-Jisser arts group writes: " I am writing on an important matter that is very painful to watch. Mohammad Bakri is being sued by 5 Israeli soldiers. This puts him and his family and the home, that he worked so hard for, in great danger. There is a small defense committee formed here in New York but not much has been done by us yet. The second day of his trial is on September 18th and he has written to us three times pleading for our help. He needs some money to pay his lawyer. Any amount would help get him going.
We as Arabs are besieged on all sides. The nasty journalism emanating from the New York Post is disturbing. The more endangered Israel feels the more vicious it becomes. I feel sad that one of our great artists -- actor, filmmaker, and story teller Mohammad Bakri --is being pushed to the edge. "
Despite the trial, Mohamed will be in Boston on September 29 at our Opening Party at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. He'll also be present to show his films, PRIVATE (3pm), JENIN,JENIN and SINCE YOU LEFT (5pm) at the Kendall Square Cinema on Sunday Sept 30...
The heart bleeds. The Film Festival is collecting donations on his behalf. Bakri is an Israeli "citizen," btw. You can read a review of Jenin, Jenin, and Pierre Rehov's response film, Road to Jenin, here.
The Jerusalem Post reports on the lawsuit here: 'Jenin, Jenin', now in court
Ofer Ben-Natan, Doron Keidar, Nir Oshri, Adam Arbiv and Yonatan Van-Kaspel sued Israeli Arab actor and director Muhammad Bakri for producing the film Jenin, Jenin, and the cinamatheques in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for screening them, even though the film had been banned at the time by the state censor...
...The movie touched a raw nerve among Israelis. It was released in the middle of the intifada, when Palestinian suicide bombers were murdering many Israelis. Furthermore, the army's incursion into the Jenin refugee camp came in response to a spate of suicide attacks in March 2002, culminating in the attack on the Park Hotel in Netanya on the night of the Pessah Seder on March 27, in which 29 Israelis were killed.
During the fighting in Jenin, Palestinian spokesmen, human rights organizations and foreign journalists accused Israel of conducting a civilian massacre. In the end, it emerged, according to Israeli figures, that 52 Palestinians were killed in the refugee camp, including 38 armed fighters and 14 civilians. Twenty-three IDF soldiers died in the fighting.
Basing itself mainly on interviews with Palestinians in the refugee camp after the fighting ended, but also on film clips, Bakri portrayed Israeli troops as committing a series of war crimes. Although he described the film as a documentary, he did not interview Israeli officials or give them an opportunity to refute the allegations contained in the film.
The lawsuit, which was filed of behalf of the plaintiffs by attorney Amir Tytunovich, provides a long list of alleged examples of these allegations...
Family? I thought Bakri was gay. I guess he could still have a family.
THE ISRAELIS SHALL FOREVER GO ON DEFENDING THEIR
BAD BEHAVIOR LIKE CHASING A TAIL FOEVER + EVER!!!!!!!!
elizabetla,
If Israel were the problem then Muslims would only be fighting, killing, bombing Israel.
But if you pay attention to the news you will learn that Islamofascists are at War with the entire World.
Every airport in the World needs metal detectors, scans luggage for bombs, to defend themselves against Islmaofascists.
Sites holy to non-Muslims are destroyed by Islamofascists as the 1,500 year old Buddahs of Bamiyan Afghanistan were destroyed by the taliban.
Shall I go on pointing out the crimes of "radical islam"?
London 7/7, Madrid 3/11, Bali, Beslan school massacre, Muslim doctor SUV attacks, Muslim convert sneaker bomber reid, bombing of PanAm 103, beheading of Daniel Pearl, kidnapping of journalists, Mohammed cartoons, Mohammed teddy bear, Bulgarian nurses falsely accused of injecting the AIDS virus...,
You get the picture elizabetta?