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| Friday 3rd of September 2010 |
24 Elul 5770
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A blunt message about the anti-Israel Jewish left |
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By JOSEPH SERGE
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Friday, 08 April 2005 |
You’ve probably seen them at a recent Walk for Israel or at Israel Day festivities on campus. Groups of people calling Israel an apartheid or fascist state, waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans.
But shockingly you come to realize that these people aren’t Arab radicals or socialist protesters – they’re Jews.
These people – so-called “self-hating Jews” – are the subject of Igal Hecht and Talia Klein of Chutzpah Productions’ latest documentary Not In My Name, premiering at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, May 13 at 1 p.m.
In his previous efforts, such as last year’s Chosen People (about so-called Messianic Jews), Hecht has hidden his personal feelings, letting the subjects tell their story. This time, Hecht brings his opinion to the forefront, arguing that the radical Jewish left has hijacked the mainstream Jewish left’s agenda and is legitimizing the anti-Israel crusade.
Hecht and Klein do this with the use of a narrative voice-over to promote their own message above that of the protagonists.
Their message is blunt.
“The activists of the Jewish left stand shoulder to shoulder with those who demonize Israel and actively regurgitate the call for the end of the State of Israel,” Klein says midway through the 100-minute documentary.
“This is the first time I’ve used a voice-over,” Hecht says in an interview. “In my other films, my viewpoint was subtle. This time around, I wanted to make my viewpoint clear.”
The impetus for Not In My Name came when Hecht was documenting left-wing activism at York University in Toronto and was shocked by what he saw. “So many of the Jews on the left believe Israel has no right to exist.”
Another revealing moment for Hecht came when he was filming a group of young adults for the documentary at Camp Shomria, a socialist Zionist summer camp in Ontario run by Hashomer Hatzair.
“I wanted to show a positive side to the Jewish left,” Hecht says. Instead he found a group of people equating Zionism with colonialism and racism. One young man is seen in the film doodling a swastika into a Star of David.
“I was shocked.” Hecht says.
Equally shocking to some viewers will be scenes shot at an Israel Day Parade in New York. Heckling the paraders from the sidewalk are members of Neturei Karta, haredi Jews with black hats and beards, waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners decrying the State of Israel.
The group opposes Israel’s existence on religious grounds. As Klein says in a voice-over: “They stand side by side with anyone who would help them destroy the Jewish state. When outright lies, the propagation of Jewish anti-Semitic stereotypes and using God as their personal spokesperson are not enough, Neturei Karta uses the suffering of Jews to legitimize their position.”
Another controversial figure in the film is Norman Finkelstein, a professor and author of the book The Holocaust Industry, who argues that “because of the ‘Holocaust card,’ Jews have become immune to criticism.”
“When Talia Klein and I were interviewing him, we were shocked by what he said. He blames Jews for a lot of things. It was like hearing the Protocols of Zion,” Hecht says, referring to the 19th-century czarist forgery.
Hecht juxtaposes Finkelstein’s comments with those of Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz, author of The Case for Israel, and a vocal opponent of Finkelstein.
When Finkelstein calls Dershowitz a “fraud and a plagiarist,” Dershowitz counters that it is Finkelstein who makes things up.
“I’m telling the truth, he’s lying. I would tell him ‘You stop lying about me, and I’ll stop telling the truth about you.’”
In the midst of all the radical voices, Dershowitz, a supporter of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is a voice of reason.
“When you point out only Israel’s faults and imperfections and fail to point out the gross violation of human rights that exists in most Arab countries, you lose your credibility,” Dershowitz says in the film.
Hecht, who considers himself a moderate leftist, says he and Klein made the film for two main reasons.
“Israel has a right to decide what is good for Israel [before Diaspora Jews do],” he says. “And the Diaspora Jewish left needs to take a hard look at itself.”
He says that in the past five years, the mainstream Jewish left has allowed the radical left to make Israel’s right to exist a legitimate subject for discussion among Jews.
“If we don’t counter this with the truth, by the next generation, [the radical left] may become the established Jewish community. That scares me. I don’t want them speaking in my name.”
As Klein says in the closing voice-over. “Where are the voices of the moderate left? The voice of reason sits idly by while the hoards of this radical, anarchic, left-wing movement has hijacked this debate and is speaking in our name.”
Film times are subject to change. Visit www.tjff.com for up-to-date information.
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