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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, September 14, IQSQrPage 3
Controversia/ documentary
PBS
■.. -By .:: -
SHELDON KIRSHNER
Like the Arab^Israeli conflict, the Palestinian uprising in the territories is a complex event, prone to simplification, poritifica-tion, distortion and outright propaganda.
Last week, viewers who tuned in to the Public Broadcast System's Intifada: The Palestinians and . Israel discovered that this is not mere rhetoric.
Intifada, vjhich ran for 216 hours, consisted of several segments — Jp Franklin-Trout's 90-minute film. Days of Rage: The Young Palestinians, two "wrap around'' videos on Israel's response to the revolt, and a panel discussion featuring two ex-American diplomats, a U.S. Jewish communal leader, a journalist and an Arab American.
The net result was, as expected, further confu-sion. The Arab-Israeli dispute, being multi-layered and subject to wildly differing interpretations, does not lend itself to the iisual explanations. It's an intellectual and emotional minefield. There are no easy : answers, even though spiokespersons oil both sides of the divide sometimes leaive the glib impression that this is not really the case.
This was a controversial program. Jewish groups in the U\S., calling Days of unvarnished propaganda, had urged the prestigious Public Broadcasting System (PBS) to drop it. And the New Republic published an article charging that Frank-lin-Troiit had received fiipds from the Arab Arnerican Cultural Foundation in exchange for international distribution rights.
Obviously stung by the accusations, and wishing to be fair, PBS expanded the scope of the program, adding the videos on Israeli perceptions of the Palestinian insurrection as well as the final panel discussion, which produced more heat than light. And, in a disclaimer preceding the program, PBS said it had found ■'no basis" for cancellation, and asked viewers to be the ultimate judges.
The average viewer, after watching /«r//a<ia, may be no more enlightened, and viewers who claim some expertise on the topic probably will not have leam6d anything remarkably new.
Truth, such as it is, is a subjective, extremely elu^ sjve commodity in the Middle East. Jews and Arabs ciing^:to'4hein own particularistic versions of the truth, as one panelist correctly pointed out, and ihiT" truism .invariably clouds the issue. " ' ;
Ineeed, this proved to be one of the lessoris of Intifada.
Hodding Carter, a former U.is. assistant secretary "of state, was the fairly iin-flap>pable host of Intifada-He did his best to cool passions, and in this respect, he was more or less suc-
cessful.
The first clip, lasting about 10 minutes, explained Israel's response to the uprising and Arab hostility to its very existence. Israel's history was seen as a chronicle of survival, and Arab terrorism Was linked with the trauma of the Holocaust. There was a ^brief-explanation of Israel's precarious pre-1967 borders,, and a junior Israeli cabinet minister suggested that his government cannot return to the territorial status quo ante: It was noted that seven out of 10 Israelis believe that, for security reasons, the occupation of the territories must continue.
Days of Rage was billed as problematical, and it certainly was. This was advocacy journalism, pure and simple. Franklin-Trout's documentary was not balanced. It was pro-Palestinian. Let that be clear. I doubt whether she was interested in being "objective."
If her goal was to elicit sympathy forthePalestin-ians, she succeeded. In attempting to crush the revoh. which erupted in December of 1987, Israel has the advantage of manpower and firepower. In"
Palestinian youths, some who mask their faces to avoid being recognized, hurl rocks at Israeli troops and news photographers in Gaza. [RNS photo]
tferins of Israel's image abroad, the spectre of the mighty Israeli army trying to contain the uprising, and thereby deny ing the Palestinians their right to self-determination, doesn't play well.
Days of Rage gives free rein to Palestinians to vent their anger and outrage against Israel — which is perceived as a violator of human rights. Rock throwing by Palestinian youth is conveyed as a natural reaction to oppression. We're shown a house bulldozed
'ews resign in
LONDON (JPFS) -
Jewish leaders are urging the British-based international aid organization Ox-fam to withdraw an "anti-Israeli" policy paper that has led to nunierous resignations among the charity's Jewish officials, and volunteers.
. The policy paper, adopted by Oxfam a year ago but only made public in recent weeks, claims Israel is using "pseiido-legal means" to enlarge the territory under its control, and suggests that the increasing incidence of diabetes and heart disease among Palestinians in the territories niight be attributed to the pressure of life under occupation.
Eric Moonman, senior vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said that the implica-; tions of the lengthy policy document were unquestionably anti-Israeli. He branded as "incitement" elements of the paper which called for pro-Palestinian lobbying of the European Parliament and an increased focus on the plight of the Palestinians in funire Oxfam publicity and educational campaigns.
'Publicity surrounding the policy paper has already Jed' to the closure of Oxfam's fund-raising shop in London's St. John's Wood
district, the shop was primarily staffed by Jewish volunteers, who have now withdi^wn their services.
Moonman took particular exception to the fact that the paper had been kept confidential for the past year, during which period, he said, volunteers had been giving their time .— and donors their money — unaware of Oxfam's stance. .
An OHfam spokeswoman claimed Monday, however, that the chari-i ty had been "in the proc^" of explaining its position on the Palestinians to its 30,000 staff when the matter became public, and insisted that Oxfam did not regard its policy as anti-Israel.
The charity, however, was committed to "educating the public conceniing the nature, cause and effects of poverty, distress and suffering," and its' work with the Palestinians had demonstrated that the "Israeli occupation is one ; of the major impediments to the Palestinians' development."
Oxfam's overseas grants in the last financial year totalled some $47 million, of. which $960,000 was spent in the West Bank and Gaza, on agriculture, health, pre-school education and legal aid. '
by the army; we're introduced to Palestinian youths who've been shot and beaten, and to intellec-fuals who have languished in detention camps without charges having been laid against them.
In short, the Palestinians are portrayed as victims; the Israelis, as ruthless occupiers.
Days of Rage fails to voice the fears that animate Israel. Israel may be - strong, but it suffers from ■a real, ingrained sense of insecurity.
The Israelis and the Palestinians in Days of
Rage are not truly representative: Mainstream Israelis are not interviewed. Those on the fringes of the left and the right are given exclusive air time. Daniella Weiss, the Gush Emunim zealot, arrogantly suggests that there is no future for Arabs in Israel unless they embrace Zionism. Meron Behvenisti, a historian and demographer, raises the . ugly thought that Israel, in holding on to the territories, is creating a "master race democracy."
The only Israeli who defends Israel is an Israeli
diplomat in Washington, and he is ineffective.
The Palestinians here appear fairly reasonable. Except for a Palestinian who likens Yitzhak Shamir to a Nazi, they exude sweet reasonableness: A Palestinian academic says it's time "to forgive and forget" and get on with the job of rapprochement. A Palestiri-ian woman observes, somewhat patronisingly: '...If (the Jews) want a Jewish state, let them have it. We'll have our own secular state...';' Another Palestinian woman claims: "We try to teach our children not to hate."
It's suggested that the Palestinians are ready to make peace with Israel within the framework of a two-state solution. But where are the secular radicals and the Islamic fundamentalists in the Palestinian community who reject peace? They're conspicuous by their absence.
Frahklin-Trout's grasp of history is either shaky or cynical. She skims over the reasons for the 1948 war, the inability of the Arabs to compromise, and she neglects to mention Jordan's crass annexation of the West Bank in 1950 — which was recognized by only Britain and Pakistan.
In the second video on
Israel, the weapons of the uprising — ranging from Molotov cocktails to knives — are displayed. An incident, in which a Palestinian killed an Israeli soldier by toppling a cement block from a roof, is recalled. The advocate-general of the Israeli army reminds viewers that soldiers who've violated orders have been reprimanded, imprisoned or demoted. We're told that abuses are easy to detect because of the open nature of Israel's .society.
These disclaimers help tilt the balance, but not sufHcently.
It's instructive, perhaps, that Franklin-Trout declined an invitation to appear in the panel discussion. She claims Days of Rage speaks for itself. The panelists make several points: Days of Rage is a "powerful statement" of Palestinian anger, which is true. Palestinian children who are killed or wounded are not necessarily innocents. No sense of Arab responsibility for the Arabr Israeli dispute is imparted.
In the end, we're left with a feeling of impotence. A lot of people have had their say, but. the battle in the territories goes on unabated. And as these words are written, more casualties are recorded.
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