OPPOSE ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPAIGN TO HIJACK TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
SUPPORT TIFF EVENT SHOWCASING TEL AVIV
The anti-Israel campaign targets Toronto’s prestigious International Film Festival.
The Issue: This year’s annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) inaugurated a new “City to City” program that will showcase “young, dynamic,” multicultural Tel Aviv on its 100th birthday. In protest, a group of film artists condemned the choice in their Toronto Declaration (September 2), entitled “No Celebration under Occupation,” and plan to boycott the event.
Their Declaration is typical of the well-funded, well-organized, extremist anti-Israel campaigns that are trying to turn Israel into an international pariah so it will be excluded from all international cultural and academic events.
The Declaration distorts history, demonizes Israel and blames it alone for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The statement even attacks the legitimacy of Tel Aviv itself, falsely claiming it was built on “destroyed Palestinian villages.”
Jane Fonda and Danny Glover were among the over 50 signatories. Prominent Toronto filmmaker John Greyson withdrew his film from the Festival, writing that Tel Aviv should not be celebrated while the Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues, but he is actively supporting the Toronto Palestinian Film Festival scheduled for later this year.
Fortunately, Cameron Bailey, Co-Director of TIFF, defended the choice of Tel Aviv, and the City to City program will continue as planned during the Festival (Sept. 10-Sept. 19).
The TIFF will be under intense pressure from the anti-Israel campaigners who have scheduled a press conference for the first day of the Festival to publicize their opposition. SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE TIFF!
Action: WRITE TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE TIFF HIGHLIGHTING TEL AVIV
Write to Cameron Bailey, Co-Director of the TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL : proffice@tiffg.ca
Write to the Board of the TIFF:
Email: proffice@tiffg.ca
Regular Mail Address:
Mr. Pierce Handling
Mr. Cameron Bailey
Mr. Noah Cowan
Toronto International Film Festival
2 Carlton St., 13th Floor
Toronto, Canada M5B 1j3
· Write to Canadian newspapers and to film-related publications.
Sample Letter: (Also see SWU letter pasted below)
Dear Mr. Bailey, Mr. Handling, and Mr. Cowan,
We applaud the TIFF’s decision to showcase Tel Aviv in your inaugural City to City program. The city richly deserves this attention. As you noted, in just 100 years, Tel Aviv has become an electrifying, multicultural metropolis that is at the forefront of scientific, artistic, and cultural innovation.
We are deeply disturbed that activists in the film world are imposing their extremist, anti-Israel prejudices on the TIFF and boycotting the event. Only extremists who advocate the dismantling of Israel would call Tel Aviv “contested” and question its legitimacy. Whether knowingly or not, they are part of a well-organized, well-funded propaganda campaign that defames Israel and distorts facts and history in order to get the Jewish State excluded from international cultural and academic events. In effect, they are trying to import the Arab world’s cultural boycott of Israel into the West.
Thank you for standing firmly against this malicious effort to misuse the TIFF, to demonize Israel, and to undermine a peaceful solution to the conflict.
We fully support you and wish you the best of luck with the TIFF and its inaugural program.
Background Materials
John Greyson Protest Letter http://www.scribd.com/doc/19370927/John-Greysons-Letter-to-TIFF
The Toronto Declaration http://torontodeclaration.blogspot.com/
Cameron Bailey Letter to Greyson http://www.tiff.net/livefromthefestival/openlettercitytocity
Alan Dershowitz op ed http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/dershowitz/entry/filmmakers_and_writers_seek_to
Simon Wiesenthal Center Statements: http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441467&ct=7470439
StandWithUs Letter to TIFF and rebuttals to Toronto Declaration Factual Distortions
Dear Mr. Bailey,
We applaud your choice of Tel Aviv for the Toronto International Film Festival’s “City to City” inaugural. It richly deserves this attention. As you noted, in just 100 years, Tel Aviv has become an electrifying, multicultural metropolis that is at the forefront of scientific, artistic, and cultural innovation
We are deeply disturbed that a group of artists has publicly condemned this choice because it conflicts with their radical political prejudices and agenda. We fully support your letter of response to them.
Their “Toronto Declaration” reveals shameful ignorance about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It distorts historical facts beyond recognition and ignores all context in order to demonize Israel and blame it alone for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Only extremists who advocate the destruction of Israel would make the preposterous claim that Tel Aviv is “contested” or was built on “destroyed Palestinian villages.” Tel Aviv was built on empty sand dunes outside of Jaffa in 1909, and its population swelled in part because repeated Arab violence against Jaffa’s Jews in 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1936-1939 forced thousands to relocate to Tel Aviv. Only extremists would ignore Israel’s repeated efforts to make peace, and airbrush away the Arab wars and Palestinian terrorism that have required Israel to defend itself and have delayed a peaceful solution. Hamas, the Palestinians’ governing party, still calls for the murder of Jews, the “obliteration” of Israel, and its replacement with a Taliban-like theocracy. Only extremists who oppose a two-state solution would attack the legitimacy of Tel Aviv.
Whether knowingly or not, the Toronto signatories have now become part of a well-orchestrated, well-funded propaganda campaign to defame democratic, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Israel as an aggressive state, and exclude it from international cultural events. They are trying to import the 60-year-old Arab cultural boycott of Israel into the West. Their distorted facts are typical of this campaign which has already sparked waves of anti-Semitism not seen since the 1930’s. Unfortunately, the campaigners have now targeted the TIFF. We commend you for resisting their efforts.
Your letter underscored the paradox of the signatories’ stance. Fervent advocates of free speech and open-mindedness, they nonetheless refused to see the films or program before protesting the TIFF’s choice. Similarly, John Greyson withdrew his film from the TIFF, but has no qualms about enthusiastically supporting the upcoming Toronto Palestinian Film Festival. If he can divorce Palestinians from Hamas’ terrorism and totalitarian Islamist agenda and from Fatah’s continuing commitment to violent “resistance,” then surely he should be able to separate Tel Aviv’s achievements from Israel’s counter-terrorism operations—or support the TIFF doing so.
We hope the misguided signatories of the Toronto Declaration do not undermine the TIFF’s City to City program. It would be a shame to taint recognition of Tel Aviv’s extraordinary achievements. The city has a vast number of Jews and their descendents who fled persecution, violence, racism, and cultural exclusion such as that advocated by the Toronto Declaration, and who have had to defend themselves for 60 years from Arab states and groups that deny their very right to exist. Nonetheless, instead of focusing on self-pity or retaliation, they created a vibrant, world-class culture.
We wish you the best of luck with the TIFF and its inaugural program.
Below, please find a point-by-point refutation of the spurious claims in the Toronto Declaration.
Sincerely,
Esther Renzer Roz Rothstein Roberta P. Seid, PhD
President International Director Education/Research Director
StandWithUs StandWithUs StandWithUs
The Toronto Declaration is filled with misinformation, distortions, and lack of context:
· Tel Aviv is not “contested” ground. No proposed peace agreements ever envisioned including Tel Aviv, Israel’s second largest city, in a future Palestinian state.
· Tel Aviv was not built on “destroyed Palestinian villages.” It was built on empty sand dunes outside of Jaffa in 1909. Its population soared, especially in the 1920’s and 1930’s in part because the sizeable Jewish population of Jaffa moved to Tel Aviv when Arab violence against Jews erupted in 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1936 to 1939. In the 1921 Jaffa riots, 47 Jews were murdered and 146 wounded.
· Arab residents were not “exiled” from Jaffa in 1948. Arab and Palestinian leaders launched a war against the Jewish community after rejecting the 1947 UN Partition Plan which would have peacefully divided sovereignty in the land between Arabs and Jews. Arab Liberation Army forces took control of Jaffa and systematically shelled Tel Aviv. 20,000 of Jaffa’s 70,000 Arab residents, including notables and other civic leaders, chose to leave the city even before any fighting had begun. Despite Israel’s urgent plea that they remain, the others also left in panic when the battle for Jaffa escalated in April 1948, hoping that they would return once Arab forces vanquished Israel. The British helped them evacuate. Only 4,000 to 5,000 remained. Today, Jaffa’s Arab population is 20,000.
· Israel did not “exile” Palestinians from the three villages into which Tel Aviv expanded as its population soared. Like the Jaffa residents, they chose to evacuate to escape the fighting as the war escalated.
· Israel has not caused the suffering of Palestinian refugees. Israel has no control over how they aretreated in Lebanon, Syria, Canada or elsewhere. With the exception of Jordan, Arab countries had an inflexible policy after 1948 of refusing to resettle refugees in order to use them as a weapon in the propaganda war against Israel and to demand a right of return that would destroy Israel demographically. None of the other 40 million refugees between 1945 and 1958 have made such demands. All have been resettled.
When Israel did administer the West Bank and Gaza, it brought freedom and prosperity to the residents, including the refugees who live in UN camps run by UNRWA. The Territories became the 4th fastest growing economy in the world in the 1970’s and 1980’s. When Israel tried to improve the refugee housing in the UNRWA camps, the PLO and the UN denounced these efforts.
Israel has already absorbed and resettled over 600,000 refugees from the 1948 War: the Jewish refugees from Arab countries. In the wake of the 1948 War, over 850,000 Jews were forced out of Arab countries where some had lived for millennia.
· Israel did not commit a “brutal assault” on Gaza. Hamas, the Iranian proxy that calls for the murder of Jews, the “obliteration” of Israel, and its replacement with a Taliban like theocracy, had launched 7,000 rockets and mortars at civilians in Israel’s southern communities since Israel’s total withdrawal and uprooting of settlements in Gaza in 2005. Israel was acting in self-defense, and upheld the most stringent standards of combat. "I don't think there's ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza." British Colonel (ret.) Richard Kemp, BBC TV News, Jan. 18, 2009[i]
· Israel is the opposite of apartheid South Africa, even according to Jimmy Carter. Apartheid was a legal system of discrimination, segregation and domination based on race. Israel, like the United States, has a legal system based on equal political and civil rights for all. The Palestinians are not Israeli citizens, and wish to have their own state. Today, they have their own government, the Palestinian Authority, and are governed by its legal system.
Filed under Israel, Press Release, Media, Anti-Semitism, StandWithUs, Entertainment, Event Announcement on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 by Author: Admin.