‘Racist, Fascist Bullshit’– Marcel Ophuls Exposes Islamophobia In Israel
Another sign of the great change afoot in our political culture. The New York Times has a great piece by Robert Mackey on the legendary director Marcel Ophuls’s new film project about Israel, “Unpleasant Truths,” for which he is raising money. Mackey says Ophuls is skeptical of Zionism.
Unlike some of his contemporaries, that wartime experience [fleeing the Nazis in 1933 and 1941] left Mr. Ophuls wary of embracing the Zionist dream of a homeland for the Jews in the Middle East.
Actually it’s better than that. In the delicious 12-minute trailer the Times has posted to its site, Ophuls says of his father: “He thought the Jews’ destiny in the 20th century was to be cosmopolites. Against nationalism.” And asked if he is a Zionist, Ophuls winces. “Not at all.”
Then he interviews Michel Warschawski saying that the Israel lobby in France is “importing” a religious conflict from Israel to France (what Scott McConnell said about the special relationship as the “transmission belt” of bad ideas to the U.S.), and Ophuls points out the poisonous fruits of Zionism. Palestinians live in a “prison” in the West Bank, he says, “it’s apartheid.” Then we see rightwing demonstrators opposing marriage of Jews and Arabs and shouting “Death to Arabs!” In the New York Times! Ophuls is showing up Jodi Rudoren.
And notice how shocked and offended the great old man is by the Islamophobia expressed by a Frenchman at 3:40 of the trailer. The man says that French women are sleeping with Muslims, making their wombs a weapon for Arabs. Ophuls sighs afterward: “Racist, fascist, the worst there is, he rattled racist bullshit for 5 minutes.”
- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/12/bullshit-exposes-islamophobia#sthash.Er2cPcl3.dpuf