May 24 2009
Liars, Damned Liars - and the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee
Ken Loach is a superb film director. I’ll never forget the time we viewed Raining Stones at The Cornerhouse, Manchester and were equally enthralled by the off-screen performance of a young woman sitting in front of us who ran out of the studio in floods of tears. Loach’s work has that effect on people.
But now I ask why he keeps pressurising Israel and her supporters? Is he just another over-eager leftie or are his motives more sinister? Whatever they are, the organisers of The Edinburgh International Film Festival, who succumbed to threats he lead to boycott the event, have now issued an umbrella apology to all complainants.
The trouble is that the disclaimer is such a tame, lacklustre attempt to please everyone, that those who maintain the website of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee have used it to their own advantage by omitting the opening paragraph which confirms that:
The programmed film screenings of Surrogate remain as advertised, and the filmmaker (Tali Shalom Ezer) will also attend the Festival as planned.
Instead, they simply quote Iain Smith, the EIFF chairman’s statement that:
“On behalf of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, I apologise sincerely for the distress many people have felt at changes in the arrangements for bringing the producer and director of the film Surrogate to the festival.
“Clearly, we didn’t appreciate enough that our festival cannot keep itself entirely detached from very serious geopolitical issues and I am instituting a review of our procedures to ensure there can be no repeat incident.”
Naturally Mike Napier, SPSC chairman, welcomed the announcement, saying: “I hope Mr Smith is referring to the distress he caused a lot of film-goers in Edinburgh and worldwide by allowing a public link to the Israeli government.
“I hope the lesson won’t be lost on the festival’s organisers. It is also naive to think that film and culture can be separate from world politics, as was shown by the attempts to keep sport separate from the atrocities of South Africa.”
The SPSC site note adds: “In 2006, the EIFF rejected money from the Israeli government, which was to have been used to send an Israeli film-maker, Yoav Shamir, to Edinburgh for the festival.”
This, of course, is the same website which wilfully and arrogantly accuses the Jewish National Fund of ‘ethnic cleansing’.
That’s funny, when I place my pre-Sabbath donation in the JNF Blue Box, I’m under the sad delusion that it’s going to help build roads, bridges, parks and replant forests which are for UNIVERSAL use throughout Israel.
msniw
