PARIS (EJP)— French-Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut has been discharged by a Paris court after being sued by an Israeli film director whom he described as “one of the current actors of Jewish anti-Semitism”.

Interviewed in 2003 on the French Jewish radio RJC about Eyal Sivan’s film, “Route 181, fragments d’un voyage en Palestine-Israel” (Road 181, Extracts from a Palestinian-Israeli journey), which was broadcast on a TV station, Finkielkraut called the film maker “one of the actors of today’s particularly hard and frightening Jewish anti-Semitism”.

The philosopher criticised Sivan for having made a link between the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and the Holocaust.

“But those who are sewing a Star of David on our chest want to claim the yellow star for themselves,” Finkielkraut said at the time.

Eyal Sivan, a leftwing militant, decided to sue Finkielkraut for his “slanderous words which constitute an infringement to my honour and consideration”.

In the past, Eyal Sivan has supported actively the boycott of Israeli products in order to denounce Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.

Israeli professor and former ambassador to France Eli Barnavi testified in court for Alain Finkielkraut while two other Israeli professors, among them Haim Bresheeth, testified in favour of Sivan...

...Finkielkraut, who also received the support of Claude Lanzmann, director of the famous film “Shoah”, said that he reacted to the “violent unilateral character” of Sivan’s movie which represents the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations “as the aggression of one people crazed by the Shoah against a profoundly peaceful people.”

“I don’t know why this man is indignant about being called anti-Semitic, that’s what he is,” Lanzmann said when he testified in favour of FInkielkraut...